The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has been enabling digital reporting in the UK since 2011 by publishing the annual XBRL taxonomy suite. Although not all companies might be aware of it, XBRL is used by every company that files accounts with HMRC.
Companies are also required to file statutory accounts with Companies House and most companies file digitally, meaning a large proportion of the data available is machine readable.
It makes investment and lending decisions quicker and easier if the data can be accessed efficiently. Potential customers can quickly check the financial credentials of a company before deciding whether to use them for anything, ranging from building work to banking.
Since 2025, the FRC has simplified this process by developing the UK iXBRL viewer – a free tool that anyone can access. The viewer enables access to a set of accounts, either from Companies House or the Financial Conduct Authority, to see the digital information that a company has reported.
Why the focus on digital reporting?
So why has the FRC focused so much on digital reporting over the last two years? To put it simply, reporting is increasingly becoming digital. Large, listed companies have had to file accounts digitally since 2021 and all companies will have to file digitally with Companies House in the future. This means that digitally accessible data will be available to investors, lenders and the general public for every registered company in the UK – nearly 5 million in total. Which is why, in 2024, the FRC established a dedicated team, The Digital Reporting and Taxonomies team (“DRT”), which focuses on digital reporting.
The success of digital reporting depends on the whole ecosystem working effectively, providing good quality data that can be used to address a myriad of different challenges.
The XBRL Journey – showing how companies prepare and implement XBRL, regulators collect and validate data, and investors and users access and interpret information, supported by FRC guidance and industry collaboration.
Digital education and outreach events
The FRC recently hosted a series of outreach events in Birmingham, Glasgow and London and is planning more for later this year. The events aim to unmask how digital reporting using XBRL works, how companies can produce good quality digital reporting and how anyone can access and use the data.
As part of the initiative, the FRC has also published a series of videos and other educational material which are available to anyone who wants to understand the process in more detail – whether it is a company preparing accounts or a user wanting to access and use the information. These resources will help to explain how digital reporting using XBRL works and how software products can simplify the production of good quality digital accounts.
Digital hackathons – solving challenges using data
The FRC and the Open Data Institute also recently ran two hackathons in Birmingham and London. These hackathons were collaborative initiatives designed to explore and maximise the utility of structured financial data across different sectors. The events brought together people who might not typically connect (data users, FinTechs, preparers, government policymakers, regulators and subject matter experts) to co-create practical solutions to challenges.
At the London Hackathon, participants discussed solutions around supporting SMEs, growth, data quality and the role of AI. One participant said, “if this is what we can achieve in one day, imagine what we could do in a week." More broadly, the session demonstrated how effective it can be to bring together different stakeholders and skillsets to solve problems, while also providing a valuable opportunity to explore technical topics in an informal and interactive way.
Driving up the quality of digital reporting
As part of its role in upholding standards of corporate reporting, the FRC is focusing on improving the quality of digital financial information. The FRC has been reviewing the quality of digital reporting of listed companies and writing to companies where issues have been identified. All of this has helped to improve awareness of what constitutes a high-quality digital report.
Additionally, the FRC has published guidance which includes tips on how to improve quality over the last few years. While much of the work might be outsourced, it is critical that companies are aware that they are responsible for their digital accounts and therefore, need to ensure that the information is correctly tagged before it is filed. The educational material alongside the helpful tips the FRC has published will help management to get a better understanding of how to do this and how to review digital reports.
Using the data
As the UK moves towards digital reporting being the norm, investors, lenders and other users of financial information will increasingly use digital information to make decisions. Many of the latest analysis tools pull digital information directly from these reports. Ensuring the quality of digital tagging is therefore going to become increasingly important in the future.
As a regulator, being able to access good quality digital accounts for analysis is an essential part of the FRC’s toolkit. It can help us identify companies that might be facing difficulties or where there might be issues with their reporting.
Last year, the FRC developed a toolkit that collated all available XBRL data published by companies. This enables the FRC to carry out analysis across the whole of the market. Although the toolkit is not available to the public, the FRC Codex Blueprint sets out a practical, reusable approach to building a modern, insight driven data platform. It is specifically designed to help regulators and public sector bodies confidently integrate, manage and report on XBRL data without incurring unsustainable costs or operational complexity.
What’s next
The FRC will continue to update the XBRL Taxonomies that enable digital reporting. The draft annual update to the Taxonomies will be out for consultation in June, with the final version being published in November in time for December year-end reporting.
The FRC will also continue to focus on improving the quality of digital reporting and provide further guidance to companies on their journey to digital reporting. And it will continue to promote the use of the data by investors, lenders, regulators and others.
The FRC’s Corporate Reporting Review team
The FRC’s Corporate Reporting Review team (CRR) is responsible for monitoring and, where necessary, improving the quality of corporate reporting in the UK. Its remit includes reviewing the annual reports and accounts of listed companies, large private companies and Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs). It operates under statutory powers derived from the Companies Act 2006 and other relevant law.
CRR conducts a risk-based programme of reviews of company reports and also undertakes thematic reviews on areas where there is scope for improvement and which are of particular interest to stakeholders. Areas of additional focus in the current review cycle include:
- Thematic reviews of the Construction and Housebuilding sector and targeted, standard-based reviews of reporting on Intangible Assets (IAS 38), Covenants (IAS 1) and Financial Instruments for non-financial institutions (IFRS 9).
- Reviews of companies’ structured digital reporting (iXBRL) in collaboration with specialist DRT colleagues. CRR is expanding its programme of reviews and will write to companies where it identifies opportunities to improve the quality of this reporting.
- Monitoring companies’ disclosures on uncertainties, including climate-related matters, having regard to additional guidance in the IASB’s recently published illustrative examples.
Find out more about CRR’s work in the Annual Review of Corporate Reporting.
