1. Electronic Business Data Reporting at Statistics Canada XBRL-US Conference July 19, 2005

2. Statistics Canada’s Mandate Collect, compile, analyze and publish statistics on Canadian society and economy Traditionally through paper questionnaires, telephone interviews Some electronic data interchange with public institutions More demand / interest in online reporting by businesses and households

3. Business Reporting In business reporting supply chain, Statistics Canada (STC) is financial data publisher and data aggregator Why collect business financials? Publish on performance of Canadian businesses Publish on performance of Canadian businesses Publish on investment and capital stock Publish on investment and capital stock Compile and publish national accounts Compile and publish national accounts

4. Business E-Reporting Secure electronic data reporting (EDR) since the mid-1990s, with first web-based survey in 2002 Number of business surveys with EDR option growing Average of 30% take-up

5. XBRL Pilot Pilot conducted with XBRL-CA consortium member Successfully produced, transmitted, consumed XBRL instance document Difficult to establish cost-benefit for small to medium companies Respondents not currently ready to routinely produce XBRL instance documents

6. Adoption Pilot Projects Objective: Experiment and evaluate various e-reporting processes for business surveys Criteria: Single-window reporting (SWR) Single-window reporting (SWR) Reduced response burden Reduced response burden Same or better quality information Same or better quality information Reduced processing costs Reduced processing costs Data security: a must Data security: a must

7. Vision for Financial Data Reporting at STC Single-window reporting EDR for large firms Tax-based EDR for small / medium firms Chart of Accounts (COA) National Accounts Explicit conversion rules

8. Possible Variants Push or pull approaches Push: Equivalent to sending out and filling questionnaire Push: Equivalent to sending out and filling questionnaire Pull: Process where STC defines what data the company’s systems have that we need Pull: Process where STC defines what data the company’s systems have that we needTaxonomies

9. Options (Cont’d) Mapping from company systems: From company’s General Ledger From company’s General Ledger From company’s Primary Financial Statements From company’s Primary Financial Statements They map and store They map and store We map and store We map and store

10. Single-Window Reporting Experimenting with two large complex Canadian companies Profiling their accounting structure Profiling their accounting structure Mapping their General Ledger to STC COA Mapping their General Ledger to STC COA Using the pull approach Using the pull approach Not XBRL-based Not XBRL-based

11. Single-Window Reporting (Cont’d) Findings to date: Lack of awareness of XBRL and its capabilities Lack of awareness of XBRL and its capabilities Companies very receptive to SWR Companies very receptive to SWR SWR is improving data quality, completeness and coherence SWR is improving data quality, completeness and coherence SWR contributes to more timely reporting SWR contributes to more timely reporting Strategy required to collect non-financial data Strategy required to collect non-financial data

12. Next Steps Recruit more participants, testing different approaches, including XBRL when respondents ready Assess cost-effectiveness of various approaches

13. Electronic Business Data Reporting at Statistics Canada daniel.scott@statcan.ca