Hitachi America, Ltd., XBRL Business Unit, which develops and delivers eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) solutions for corporate and government customers, today announced to introduce “XBRL for Dummies” Book. It is only 84 pages long, but packs in the information that financial professionals need to understand XBRL and its role in upcoming SEC mandates for financial reporting.

Other XBRL books

Companies such as PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC and WACOAL and government agencies like the FDIC are adopting XBRL; however, general understanding of XBRL is far less common. In fact, a study last year by Grant Thornton LLP revealed that nearly one-half of senior finance executives are not aware of XBRL and nine in 10 believed that the accounting profession had not adequately communicated the benefits of XBRL for internal and external financial reporting.

“XBRL for Dummies” has been designed to bring financial executives up-to-speed quickly and easily. This book provides insights to this approach to entering, processing, and labeling financial information that offers many remarkable advantages, including:

- Dramatic reductions in data re-entry – a time-consuming, costly process prone to human error

- More efficient and accurate information search

- Automated real-time creation of financial reports, greatly reducing the time gap between period-end and release dates

- Easier and faster exchange of information both within the organization and with external parties, like banks, auditors, business partners and suppliers

- Reduction in time needed for data manipulation, allowing data analysis to happen more quickly

- “Enter once, format many” means you type in your data once and it’s available to others as printed reports, EDGAR filings, PDF files, and other formats.

The list of those who will benefit from reading “XBRL for Dummies” is long and broad:

- Government agencies, both in the US and overseas, including securities commissions like the SEC, tax departments, and statistical agencies.

- Financial professionals, including securities analysts, credit analysts, controllers, M&A specialists, and researchers.

- Anyone involved in the financial reporting chain inside both small and large companies.

- The general public, including small investors and credit applicants.

“While XBRL is now being adopted primarily for financial reporting, powerful forces such as globalization, transparency, and competition are accelerating the trend towards its everyday use in overall company activities, such as manufacturing, procurement, sales, and human resources,” said Wilson So, general manager of Hitachi America, Ltd. XBRL Business Unit.

Copies of the book are only available online by visiting https://store.nationalmailing.com/xbrl/default.php?order

Each copy is free of charge; however, there is a charge for postage and handling.