On February 3, the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) announced a voluntary program for registrants to furnish filings in eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL). This program begins with the 2004 calendar year-end reporting season. Microsoft is the first company to submit its quarterly report for period ending December 31, 2004, in XBRL in anticipation of this program.
The SEC’s program focuses on assessing XBRL technology, including both the ability of registrants to tag their financial information using XBRL and the benefits of using tagged data for analysis. In March 2002 Microsoft became the first technology company to report its financial results in XBRL and has been a strong supporter of this open standard from its inception.
PressPass caught up with Scott Di Valerio, Corporate Vice President and Corporate Controller of Microsoft, to talk about XBRL, its importance and Microsoft’s involvement in supporting the standard.
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