For those wondering what's new in the world of interactive data, here's a roundup of the latest news and information.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has posted some information that should be of interest to anyone involved in the preparation of their company's interactive data submissions in compliance with the Commission's rule.

The staff in the SEC's Division of Risk, Strategy, and Financial Innovation has posted observations from its review of interactive data financial statement filings submitted from June through August of 2010. The review includes the first group of mandated detailed tagged submissions and the initial filings from the companies in the second phase-in group.

The SEC's XBRL phase-in started in June 2009. By June 2011, all public companies have to report financial statement information to the SEC using interactive data. So far, nearly 1,500 companies have submitted XBRL exhibits to the Commission. About 25 percent have submitted filings that included detailed tagging, which is required during the second year of compliance.

The report details the most common issues with the filings identified by the staff. Among them: incorrectly entering negative values; extending an element where an existing U.S. GAAP Taxonomy element is appropriate; extending because of relatively minor additions to or deletions from the U.S. GAAP taxonomy standard definition and extending because of the context of an element, to name a few.

Paul Penler, an executive director at Ernst & Young, offered one takeaway from the first round of filings that include detail tagged notes: "XBRL creation is complicated and requires planning and significant review processes in order for companies to comply with the SEC regulations, regardless of whether they create the XBRL themselves or use a third party."

Penler's remarks came during a Nov. 9 XBRL U.S. National Conference in Philadelphia. He warned filers that complying with the SEC's XBRL rule gets more complicated, not less, after the initial submission.

"XBRL is one of those few regulations where the importance of getting it right and the complexities increase over time," he said. On average, Penler noted that detail tagging requires four to five time more tags than the first-year requirements.

The rule's limited liability provisions expire two years after a company's initial XBRL submission, so their liability for that information increases. Companies that hire third parties to create their XBRL filings may also face longer turnaround times for their detail tagged submissions, Penler noted.

The bottom line, said Penler is that, "As time progresses, companies need to beef up their review processes and put more resources in place."

Meanwhile, XBRL U.S. unveiled an initiative to drive XBRL implementation in the United States. The program takes a two-pronged approach to expanding adoption by "supporting current implementations by focusing on the consistency and quality of XBRL data produced and broadening the XBRL footprint by expanding the number of individuals and organizations involved," said XBRL U.S. President and CEO Campbell Pryde.

To increase the focus on data quality, XBRL U.S. has formed a 16-member Best Practice Committee to provide guidance on the use of the U.S. GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy. The committee has already established guidance on specific topics, including concepts used for shares issued and outstanding, accrual items in cash flow statements and the use of units and segment tables. Earlier this year, XBRL U.S. launched the XBRL Consistency Suite, a benchmarking and data checking toolset. Pryde also noted that the group has welcomed several new members recently, including Oracle, Citi, Federal Filings LLC, Edgar Agents LLC, and XSP.

A pilot is underway to standardize the disclosure of U.S. corporate actions, such as mergers, dividends, and similar transactions, by tagging them using XBRL. The effort is being led by XBRL U.S. Labs, the research arm of XBRL U.S., the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, and SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication). So far, three companies, Citi, GlobeTax, and XSP, have signed on to participate. The pilot will focus on tests on dividend announcements issued by American Depositary Receipts received and processed by Citi. Alan Smith, chief operating officer for Citi Securities and Fund Services, noted that about 100 specific income events will be piloted during the first quarter.

The Corporate Actions Taxonomy, which is based on the ISO 20022 industry standard, is currently out for public review.