- What is the incentive for privately owned construction companies to format the WIP in XBRL?
We expect that XBRL formatting ultimately will be integrated into standard financial packages used by contractors so that it will simply be part of their standard process. The availability of computer-readable WIP data will increase the responsiveness of the sureties, which is beneficial to the contractors providing them. The faster the surety can analyze the WIP and adjust the backlog, the more responsive they can be to the contractors for surety credit. In addition, computer-readable data enables better, faster benchmarking. Some vendors of financial statement data can show benchmarking between similar construction companies. Contractors will be better able to benchmark the performance of their own process compared to other companies.
- How will data consumers manage extensions to the WIP Taxonomy as well as the GAAP Taxonomy when processing income statement, balance sheet and other types of financial data?
The WIP Taxonomy has been created to include all concepts needed to report the WIP, and if concepts are missing, please submit your suggestions your suggestions to info@xbrl.us and they will be considered for inclusion during the next review of the taxonomy. If however, a contractor has a special reporting situation that cannot be accomodated by the taxonomy, an “extension” which is essentially a company-created concept, can be created. When an extension is created, all the necessary attributes describing that item such as label and definition are created to go with it so that a user of the data knows what the reported value means. The user can then incorporate that new concept and corresponding data into their financial tools.
- There has been a trend in the surety industry to “do without” WIPs on a regular basis. How might this change to data standards for the WIP report affect this trend?
By automating the process for both the data generator and data user, it should make the producing the reports easier. That should lower the barriers to their use.
- Is there a requirement to produce a completed contracts schedule in the submission, if not, how will the schedule(s) be reconciled with the Cost & Revenue “Facts” in the financials?
Completed contracts schedules are critical to sureties and other creditors. Concepts to represent completed contracts are included in the WIP Taxonomy.
- Are construction accounting companies involved to produce a WIP XBRL file(s) directly from their software?
It’s important that companies producing accounting software be engaged and working with the taxonomy. The pilot working group is actively reaching out to vendors.
- The case study on how contractors create a standardized WIP report features a tool by the Altova software provider. Are we advocating the use of the Altova tool?
The Altova Excel Add-in for WIP is one method that can be used by contractors to prepare XBRL-formatted WIP reports. We are actively working to engage other software providers that have construction report writing tools to add XBRL-formatting capability. Eventually, we expect that there will be multiple methods for contractors to use to create XBRL-formatted WIP reports and the process will be seamlessly integrated into contractor’s existing processes.
- Are sureties requiring contractors to provide XBRL-formatted WIP reports?
No. This is strictly voluntary but will be beneficial to sureties and contractors alike.
- Could the surety or the bonding agent do the XBRL formatting themselves on behalf of the contractor?
Yes.
- Are there plans to expand this program to other financials that the contractor provides, beyond the WIP report?
Yes, ultimately, we would like to automate all data collected from contractors to improve the efficiency of the process.
- How can standards work with a WIP that is in PDF format?
The contractor would need to send the WIP to the surety in XBRL format in addition to the PDF version.
Still have questions? Email info@xbrl.us.
