Clouse Analytics is a financial services consulting firm that assists its clients with financial analyses surrounding proposed business ventures. John Y. Clouse is the firm’s founder and project director. As such, he is responsible for preparing most of each client firm’s financial analyses and reports, as well as presenting the results to each client’s management. Due to the varying numbers of managers who may make up a client’s top management, Clouse always prepares at least a dozen report copies so that there are plenty to distribute to all persons in attendance at the presentation.

Data for financial analyses is obtained directly from the accounting and production databases of the firm’s clients. Direct queries are prepared by Clouse’s staff accountants, and the resulting presentation reports are prepared by the staff and reviewed by Clouse. This is a time-consuming process, and many of Clouse’s clients have demanded more current information. This problem recently led Clouse to investigate the possibility of developing a software package that could produce the financial analyses and reports automatically.

As Clouse considers the significant investment that would be required to program a new system, he is concerned about the loss of control that may be inherent in an automated system. For instance, he worries about the accuracy and completeness of analyses and reports prepared automatically.

Required:

Perform an online research of XBRL at www.xbrl.org and determine whether or not XBRL would be appropriate for Clouse’s business. Would XBRL be more effective and reliable? Why, or why not? Your response should focus on the existence of any enhancements or concerns that are likely to result in terms of the timeliness of information, internal controls, and security.