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For any company hesitating to adopt XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) because of the potential costs, learning curve, and resource requirements, we recommend reading the firsthand account of John Stantial, UTC’s Director of Financial Reporting. Stantial put his reputation on the line when he publicly announced his intentions to save over 20% on reporting time and costs by switching to the XBRL standard. Documenting UTC’s experience in preparing its first 10-Qs and subsequent reports, Stantial has exposed the true ROI of XBRL.

The UTC trial began late in 2005.  Since then, UTC has used XBRL for all its earnings releases, a complete form 10-Q and Part II of its 10-K form. UTC quickly discovered Stantial reports 200 hours of labor have been eliminated from the quarterly reporting process, while the overall process controls are strengthened. UTCs past and current processes are illustrated in Stantial’s report published in the AICPA’s online Journal of Accountancy. UTC’s trial demonstrated that “XBRL can be implemented for a reasonable price and without significant knowledge of the underlying technology.”