Regardless of a company's experience in using XBRL to file financial statements, there's a little something for everyone in a new taxonomy feedback system launched by the Financial Accounting Standards Board.

For more mature XBRL users who are keeping up with changes to the GAAP Taxonomy, the new “Taxonomy Online Review and Comment System” allows for a more continual review and comment process as the taxonomy is updated.  FASB said the new system will make it easier for XBRL users and other stakeholders to keep track of how the taxonomy is changing to reflect changes in accounting standards and general improvements to the taxonomy architecture so they can more easily provide feedback. Before the online review system, users had a single moment-in-time snapshot of the latest taxonomy updates and took up to 60 days to review and comment on the entire document.

For companies that are just getting up to speed on the digital, interactive XBRL financial reporting process and using the taxonomy to select the appropriate tags for the filing process, the new online comment and review system also offers some new search and navigation functions. The new functionality is meant to help entities find tags that best meet their filing requirements as efficiently as possible.

The largest public companies are entering their third cycle of submitting their financial statements to the Securities and Exchange Commission in XBRL. The smallest public companies, however, are facing the XBRL filing requirement for the first time this summer. Tag selection has proven tricky for early adopters, and the SEC has called on companies to make more careful tag selections to reduce the need for customized tags that muddle comparability.

The system “provides users greater visibility into proposed taxonomy changes and allows users to comment on the taxonomy in real time, making it more dynamic for both users and the FASB XBRL team,” said Louis Matherne, chief of taxonomy development for FASB, in a statement. He encourages all XBRL users, regardless of their experience with the taxonomy, to take advantage of the new features designed to improve functionality and navigation.