Are your annual reports ESEF-ready?
Discover how to prepare annual reports for ESEF compliance, from mandatory tags and structures to tips for smooth implementation of this European standard.
Introduction
In 2013, Europe decided that, starting January 1, 2020, all companies that issue securities must make their annual financial reports available in the ESEF format (European Single Electronic Format), a variant of XHTML. ESEF makes annual reports more accessible and simplifies analysis and comparison with other reports by computer programs.
Before this standard was introduced, there was no uniform, structured way of publishing and exchanging financial information about companies. This resulted in a significant loss of transparency and required a great deal of time-consuming work to transfer data from one system to another. ESEF resolves all ambiguities in this regard, prevents errors, ensures efficiency and time savings, and provides a transparent picture of each company. This is no small matter for governments and investors in a globalized economy.
It is important to note that simply submitting the document in XHTML format is not sufficient. In order to comply with European legislation, it is important that all financial information contained in the ESEF document is provided with the correct specific ‘label’ or ‘tag’. A list of available tags has been incorporated into an inline XBRL standard (eXtensible Business Reporting Language). This taxonomy is provided and maintained by ESMA (European Securities and Markets Authority). It is therefore strictly prohibited to create or use your own tags. By assigning these universal tags, our document becomes intelligent and any system can automatically read and process these documents. This allows, for example, any system to quickly and automatically determine a company’s balance sheet.
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