Experts in iXBRL

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There's been a lot of queries into Arkk lately about Notes on Statutory Accounts and whether they will make it into the iXBRL.  HMRC don't label the Notes fields by number in their mandatory requirements list, but there's a certainly plenty of space for them.  In fact many of our clients are going to use the Notes fields as a general depot for info that has no obvious tag.  What this does mean of course is that the accounts you submit in iXBRL CAN look like the hard copies you submit today.

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iXBRL is a new format for submitting corporation tax online, including tax computations and accounts to HMRC.

HMRC officially stated that from 1 April 2011, all companies and organisations must submit their Company Tax Return online for any accounting period ending after 31 March 2010.

If you have to prepare accounts under the Companies Act 2006, you must submit your accounts and computations in a set format - Inline eXtensible Business Reporting Language (iXBRL).

So this means that each document within your company accounts and tax computations now needs to be “tagged” with an XBRL tag, and submitted with your company tax return.

As this is a new way of submitting, HMRC have given a 2 year “soft landing” approach, where you only need to tag from a list of around 1500 elements, called the minimum tagging list.

However, in 2013 when HMRC mandate the “full tagging” of accounts, you will have to choose correctly from the full list of over 5000 tags for UK GAAP companies.

What iXBRL options are available?

Here at Arkk Solutions, we are HMRC recognised iXBRL Managed Tagging Service providers and iXBRL Conversion Software Application providers.

We offer iXBRL OutSource Tagging at Arkk Solutions, which involves outsourcing your financial statements to our experienced team. This is a popular choice during the HMRC’s “soft landing”, particularly for companies that do not wish to purchase specialist software or find additional resource to carry out the task internally during the lead up to 2013.

The iXBRL OutSource Tagging service allows you to submit your non iXBRL accounts or computation documents to us in Word or Excel.  We will convert them into iXBRL for you, and review them before returning them to you as iXBRL tagged documents ready for submission. Watch our video, explaining our cost-effective iXBRL Outsource Tagging service here.

We also offer our iXBRL adapter for Microsoft Office, which is a conversion software application. If your company prepare and present their company tax documents in Microsoft Word or Microsoft Office, then there is no need to change your processes. At Arkk Solutions, we offer a simple “add in” adapter which can be installed straight onto a desktop machine. The adapter then allows you to apply an appropriate XBRL tag to each data item. You will then be provided with an iXBRL version of your accounts that can be incorporated into a company tax return for submission. You can watch a demo of our iXBRL adapter for Microsoft Office here.

Our services are straightforward and easy to use, and we offer experienced customer support, to ensure you are comfortable with how you use our iXBRL tools.

Undecided on whether to outsource iXBRL tagging, or to prepare them yourself?

Some businesses may be averse to outsourcing iXBRL, as they might want their accounts teams to practice preparing before the HMRC mandate in 2013. However, this means training for them team, finding the right resource and the worry of not preparing the account files correctly.

Arkk Solutions offer an iXBRL Blended Solution which means you can outsource your iXBRL to us in the first year. We will provide you with all of the files once they are tagged so that you can keep the templates, and regain control the following year by bringing iXBRL tagging back in-house. This means you can re-use your Year 1 files for future years, a service which no other company provides. This provides a solid return on investment for your business, as instead of starting from scratch the following year, your accounts team will have a good grasp on the format HMRC require.  Find out more about the iXBRL Blended Solutions here.

If you have any questions about our services and software, please do not hesitate to contact us on 0207 0601983 or through our online form.

You can also contact us through social media; on Twitter or Facebook.

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HM Revenue & Customs has come under fire in the past week, after a group of MP’s claimed their basis services were flawed.

The Treasury Select Committee last week released a report accusing HMRC of “endemic delays”, pointing out overstretched staff and unanswered calls from the public.

They also stated that an increasing focus on online communication and tax submission may alienate those with unreliable internet connections.

The report, which was commissioned to investigate allegations of poor performance, stated: “HMRC's delivery of services to the general public has fallen to unacceptable levels in several areas.

"There is considerable dissatisfaction among the public and tax professionals with the service provided by the department."

Mike Clasper, the chairman of HMRC, apologised at the end of last week, for poor performance and huge delays. Complaints specifically detailed the fact that customers could not get through for over the phone advice, and letters were left unanswered.

Mr Clasper admitted: "We are not happy with our performance in 2010." He told BBC Radio Five live that the service they provided to taxpayers in 2010 wasn’t good enough.

"In 2011 we've been working very very hard to improve things. We're handling the calls immediately much more frequently than we did in 2010, and as far as individual customers are concerned you know the post levels have dropped in half.

We would like to know what do you think of HMRC’s services - have you ever had a particularly bad experience?

Also, do you think there is enough advice and help out there for taxpayers, or should HMRC be releasing more details? You can let us know on Twitter or leave a message on our Facebook Wall.

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Interesting article on Accountancy Age today about the looming iXBRL deadline, "iXBRL likened to Y2K".  Whilst the headline is slightly reactionary, and maybe reflects on the quoted parties own concerns about having a product in the market today, there are similarities between March 31 2011 and January 1st 2000.   Normally IT projects and their risks are mitigated by extensive testing.  I have no technical worries about xbrl or indeed ixbrl, the former is used globally and the latter is easily tested by having your own ixbrl to xbrl "sausage machine" as we have affectionately named ours!  The bigger risk is in the resourcing.  Already, with 18 months to go we are hearing that the availability of the HMRC's SDS team will be stretched thinner as deadline day approaches.  Reports as recent as last week suggest that they can't even verify that the correct tags are being used such is the demand on their time.  These are very helpful people, but I'd be interested to hear how many of them given the iXBRL deadline have been granted leave to take their Summer holidays this year.  Early adoption is the only real answer.  Thorough testing, ironing out problems, getting ready to file NOW - that's the Arkk Solutions approach.  Sure the deadline means a great deal, but the early adopters will be the ones who can relax.  If you could have reassurance that a solution worked 12 months before the mandatory deadline, wouldn't you want that?  Read the full article at
http://www.accountancyage.com/accountancyage/news/2256157/ixbrl-likened-y2k

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We are pleased to announce that we will be running a series of 2 day practical course in iXBRL beginning next month.  The course which gives participants the chance to tag Word and Excel documents in a classroom setting can help get you ready to work with iXBRL when it is mandated by HMRC next year.  For more details drop an email to supreet.bains@arkksolutions.com  The first class held at our Throgmorton Street offices in the City on Aug 24/25th is nearly fully booked (2 places left at time of writing), with another course planned for early September. 

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Great day today at the HMRC's iXBRL exhibition at Stamford Bridge.  Over 20 vendors including us showed off their iXBRL solutions, and some showed off some iXBRL concepts ;-).  Really encouraging that our iXBRL Adapter for Word and Excel is the only product in the market that "Adds In" to Microsoft Office.  Other conversion softwares export the Word or Excel docs into a web based application before tagging which reduces the reusability of the document for other uses.  Like to give a mention to Ben at MashIQ, the only vendor there not pushing a tagging solution, and by his own admission that probably explained the lack of traffic to his pitch.  We on the other hand think that he's captured a vision of what happens next after the April 2011 deadline and look forward to seeing his products that allow iXBRL to be sliced and diced and reported on, in more detail. Evereyone seemed to agree that the event was a success (estimated 500-600 people through the door?) and looking forward to the future events coming up in Birmingham and Glasgow later this year.  Well done HMRC, that was certainly the best attended and most ineractive show of it's type I've been to.  

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We'd love to hear from you if you are an IT professional with a background in financial systems.  We need you to work with our clients on their iXBRL projects.  Drop us a line on through the Contacts page.

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HMRC have granted recognition to Arkk Solutions after the iXBRL Adapter for Microsoft Office product successfully produced consistent HMRC valid output.  Recognition for the Adapter comes hot on the heels of HMRC recognition for our cloud based iXBRL web service.

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Our partner, Sapphire Systems today held the first of 3 sessions to talk to their SAP Business One users about the iXBRL for SAP B1 solution which is powered by the Arkk iXBRL engine.  A brief show of hands at the start of the session was revealing.  Only 1 member of the audience of 50 had heard of iXBRL and there was concerned faces that the deadline seemed to be so close.  Sapphire are hosting events for their  SAP B1 and their Sun Systems users in the next few weeks.  Full details can be found at http://www.sapphiresystems.com/training_events/customer.htm

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After gaining HMRC Recognition for the filing of Accounts in iXBRL, TaxCalc wasted no time turning on the live service last Friday.  The queue to send the first live transactions through resembled the first day of the January Sales as users bought credits to be the first to submit Accounts in the new format 10 months before the compliance deadline.  The cloud based service permits accountants to buy a pre tagged template starting at £5 which once connected to the Arkk web service instantly delivers an iXBRL document.  For more info check out www.taxcalc.com/ixbrl

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