ESEF

As of 1 January 2020, the European Single Electronic Format (ESEF) has been introduced in the European Union. This is the format in which issuers whose securities are admitted to trading on a regulated market in an EU Member State or a European Economic Area country must prepare their annual financial reports going forward.

What changes with the introduction of ESEF?

Annual reports:

Companies - regardless of whether their registered office is located in the EU or in a third country - whose securities (including both shares and bonds) are admitted to trading on an EU regulated market must prepare all annual reports for financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2020 in Extensible Hypertext Markup Language (xHTML) format. This is a human-readable format that can be opened with any standard web browser.

Consolidated annual reports:

Companies whose securities are admitted to trading on a regulated market in any Member State and that are required to prepare consolidated financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) must mark up their consolidated financial statements using eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), which is a machine-readable language:

• For financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2020, the primary financial statements must be tagged in detail in the consolidated annual reports - namely, the statement of financial position, statement of profit or loss and other comprehensive income, statement of changes in equity, cash flow statement, as well as entity information;
• For financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2022, the notes must also be tagged using block tagging based on standard taxonomy elements. If the issuer wishes, the notes may be tagged in more detail. 

How can we help you?

Assurance engagements:

We perform assurance engagements to conclude whether financial statements prepared in ESEF format comply, in all material respects, with ESEF requirements.

Consulting:

We can advise you on ESEF requirements and recommend the steps your company should take to implement a new financial reporting process, including new software, processes, and controls.

IT solution selection:

We can assist you in selecting the most suitable IT solution currently available on the market to ensure fast and high-quality preparation of annual reports in the new format.

Tagging of consolidated financial statements:

We offer outsourced financial tagging services, meaning you can provide us with your company’s consolidated financial statements, and we will tag the relevant sections in accordance with the ESEF taxonomy. As a result, you will receive a completed iXBRL consolidated financial report that complies with ESEF requirements.