e-Annual Report

In Estonia entrepreneurs can submit annual reports in XBRL format via the e-reporting environment of the e-Business Registry Company Registration Portal. The created uniform e-reporting environment makes the entry and submission of data significantly more convenient for companies, as there is one specific place, form and way for submitting all required data. The new environment enables the companies not only to submit their annual reports, but also to prepare them in full format. The e-reporting environment provides set forms and based on these, companies can prepare their basic annual reports and add other necessary documents. Entrepreneurs can digitally sign their reports with an ID card, have them audited by the auditor and submit them electronically to the Commercial Register directly. The processing of business data became significantly quicker and easier, as the data can be processed immediately and are accessible to all interested parties both in the private and public sectors.

Benefits

The overall goal of the e-reporting project is to facilitate the administration of the reporting obligation as a whole. The key principle of submitting data should be that a reporting entity submits the figures required by the state once in the agreed format and in one place and the data thus submitted can be used both by the private and public sectors in line with their established rights.

• Such system of data submitting enables the system of automatic checking to be created that will notify reporting entities of possible errors upon entering the data and would thus support the improvement of the quality of data. In addition, this would help decrease the number of warnings and fines issued every year to reporting entities for their reporting faults;

• The submitted data are better comparable and the business analyses made based on them are more accurate;

• Submitted data are promptly accessible as the data to be submitted can be processed electronically at once. There is no need for time-consuming data processing in order to transform them to electronic format;

• As there is no need to enter data manually from paper documents or files and the substantive checking of reports can be automated, there is less need for human resources.

History

As of January 2010, entrepreneurs in Estonia can submit annual reports in XBRL format via the e-reporting environment of the e-Commercial Registry Company Registration Portal. This project was implemented at the national level and was among the largest in 2010 in terms of its scope and volume, by involving more than 120,000 companies. XBRL format is being increasingly recognised as the global standard for transferring business information, which ensures better availability of data.

The whole project meets the objectives of the Digital Single Market subtheme of the European Digital Agenda, as the portal also accepts the e-IDs of Portugal, Belgium, Finland and Lithuania and thus allows the entrepreneurs of foreign countries to make business-related operations in the Commercial Register without coming to Estonia. By accepting the e-IDs of foreign countries, we have increased the number of potential portal users to 20 million.

The development of e-reporting was funded from the means of the European Regional Development Fund.

Technologies

XBRL format used for submitting annual reports is a widely used reporting language across the world and among the candidates for the W3C XML standard. Estonia has succeeded in implementing and utilising the XBRL solution quickly and in full. At the same time no allowances have been made in terms of the WCAG requirements. The reporting feature of the e-Commercial Registry Company Registration Portal corresponds to the AAA level.

References

E-Annual Report has been very well accepted by Estonian entepreneurs. More than 90% of Estonian entrepreneurs use it and some of them claim that it has improved their work speed, quality and security. E-Annual Report project is a Estonian nominee for World Summit Awards 2011 and has been recognised as a Estonian Ministry of Justice project of the year 2010.

For you

RIK provides consultation regarding the best practice of development and administration of the IT-solutions of the respective sector. RIK is experienced public sector developer/manager /administrator of IT-systems. Valuable partner for analysis and design and consultant for development and implementation.

Contacts

Centre of Registers and Information Systems (RIK) is a state agency working under the Ministry of Justice. For additional information or proposals of cooperation please contact us rik.services@just.ee or see our website www.rik.ee.