Bowne takes pioneering role in XBRL

In April, the Securities Exchange Commission commenced a voluntary pilot program to test the data tagging technology known as XBRL (Extensible Business Reporting Language). Someone had to be first up to the plate. As it happened, Bowne Financial Print, a division of Bowne & Co., was already evaluating XBRL-based solutions that would ease the tagging process aimed at improving the usefulness of business and financial data. And timing is everything.

Bowne selected Fujitsu’s Interstage XWand, an application development and runtime environment for building and deploying full-feature, industrial strength XBRL applications. It aids regulatory compliance efforts through greater transparency in financial reporting. XBRL facilitates the flow of information from financial statements, performance reports, accounting records, and other financial information between software programs. It also enhances the usability and transparency of financial information reported under existing accounting standards while simplifying disclosure via the Internet.

Bowne now boasts streamlined financial reporting processes and clear audit trails to the source of their financials. Moreover, by moving swiftly, it won bragging rights to be the first company to file earnings information through the SEC’s pilot program. The XBRL creation and filing process expands Bowne’s capability to provide clients key insights into the technology and the SEC’s program.