20. the singapore experience ms juthika ramanathan
1. THE SINGAPORE EXPERIENCE
CRF 2012
Delhi 16 Feb 2012
Ms Juthika Ramanathan
Chief Executive of ACRA
To provide a responsive and trusted regulatory environment for
businesses and public accountants
2. Agenda
Overview of Financial Reporting Process
Objectives of Going XBRL
Overcoming Challenges
Future Plans
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3. Overview – Financial Reporting Process
Legal Obligations
Imposed by Singapore Companies Act
All companies are required to prepare financial statements in
accordance with prescribed Accounting Standards
Directors are responsible for the financial statements
All companies (other than solvent exempt private companies*) are
required to file financial statements with ACRA
All filed financial statements are available for public information /
inspection
* An exempt private company is a company with no corporate shareholder and not more than 20
shareholders
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4. Overview – Financial Reporting Process
Directors Financial
Statements Auditor
Preparer
Ensures compliance
with Accounting
Standards and gives a true
and fair view Shareholders
Responsible for filing
with ACRA Tabled at AGM
Prepared and filed in XBRL
3rd Party
Promotes information Consumers
flow
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5. Objectives of Going XBRL
Manual data extraction Duplicative financial
by information retailers reporting regulatory
Challenges requirements
Accurate?
Cost efficient? Same piece of data but
Timely? termed differently
Different forms of
submission and reporting
timelines
Facilitate the eventual
Efficiently collect and establishment of a one-
promulgate value-added XBRL
stop filing by business to
corporate information the Government
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6. Why XBRL for ACRA?
Adopting XBRL is aligned with ACRA’s overall strategic direction of
enabling:
a pro-enterprise financial reporting environment for businesses in
Singapore; and
a value enhancing financial information flow to the international
business community.
Strategic goals to be achieved with XBRL adoption:
XBRL will benefit the business community - Improving access to
data of Singapore companies
Unlocking new value from financial information filed with ACRA
Facilitating harmonised regulatory business reporting
Strengthening our regulatory vigilance - A trusted business hub
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8. Transformation to XBRL
Pro-enterprise design to minimise impact of XBRL implementation
on companies
“Mandatory” requirement, with “soft” approach for buy-in and
engagement of key stakeholders
Small taxonomy
Choice of two filing options
Full XBRL: Full set of financial statements in XBRL
Partial XBRL: Minimum of statement of comprehensive
income and statement of financial position in XBRL
Provide free XBRL preparation tool: FS Manager
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11. Benefits of Going XBRL
Streamline existing inefficiencies in the entire spectrum of financial
information supply chain
Enable information resellers who serve the business community
more time to focus on higher-value added activities
Ability to provide users with value added financial data in an almost
instantaneous and interactive manner
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12. Benefits of Going XBRL
Open Analytics Singapore Financials Direct
Public-private collaboration: XBRL-enabled analytical tools to provide
value-enhancing information at the fingertips of information users
Individual company’s information
Calculation power for statistics of companies’ financial performance:
Financial ratio analysis
Industry trend analysis
Cumulative years trends analysis
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13. Ongoing / Future Plans
Unlock potential of greater B2B, G2B
and G2G data use
Streamline financial filing process to
provide a seamless filing experience
for the business community
WOG effort for B2G: Making it easier
for business to report to the
Government
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