What is ESEF?
The European Single Electronic Format (ESEF) is a standardized electronic reporting format introduced by the European Commission to unify financial reporting and increase transparency.
Goals of ESEF
The main goal of ESEF is to facilitate the comparability and analysis of annual financial reports within the EU and the European Economic Area (EEA).
Format of ESEF
Annual financial reports must be created in XHTML format, and consolidated financial statements according to IFRS must be additionally marked up with the iXBRL technology.
Obligation to use ESEF
Since January 1, 2020, capital market-oriented companies have been required to create their annual financial reports in ESEF format.
Audit of ESEF
ESEF reports are subject to an audit by the auditor, who must issue an audit opinion.
Note: The ESEF reports do not need to be encrypted or digitally signed, but they must be created in a way that ensures their integrity and authenticity. The ESEF reports should also be easily accessible, searchable, and analyzable by both humans and machines.
ESEF reports are created in XHTML format, which is a stricter version of HTML that is designed to be easily readable by both humans and machines. Here's an example of what an ESEF report might look like in XHTML:
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:esef="http://www.esma.europa.eu/esef">
<head>
<title>Annual Financial Report</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="application/xhtml+xml; charset=UTF-8"/>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Annual Financial Report</h1>
<p>This is the annual financial report for XYZ Corporation.</p>
<table esef:role="http://www.esma.europa.eu/esef/financial-statements">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Item</th>
<th>Value</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Revenue</td>
<td>1000000</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Net Income</td>
<td>200000</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</body>
</html>
In this example, the XHTML document includes a table with two columns: "Item" and "Value". The table is marked up with the esef:role attribute, which specifies that this table contains financial statements.
iXBRL (Inline XBRL) is a format for embedding XBRL data directly within an XHTML document. It allows the XBRL data to be displayed in a human-readable format, while also making it machine-readable. In the context of ESEF, iXBRL is used to mark up the financial statements in the XHTML document, so that they can be easily extracted and analyzed by machines.
Example of how iXBRL might be used in the previous XHTML example:
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:esef="http://www.esma.europa.eu/esef" xmlns:xbrli="http://www.xbrl.org/2003/instance">
<head>
<title>Annual Financial Report</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="application/xhtml+xml; charset=UTF-8"/>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Annual Financial Report</h1>
<p>This is the annual financial report for XYZ Corporation.</p>
<table esef:role="http://www.esma.europa.eu/esef/financial-statements">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Item</th>
<th>Value</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Revenue</td>
<td>
<xbrli:monetaryItemtype contextRef="current">1000000</xbrli:monetaryItemtype>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Net Income</td>
<td>
<xbrli:monetaryItemtype contextRef="current">200000</xbrli:monetaryItemtype>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</body>
</html>
In this example, the xbrli:monetaryItemtype element is used to mark up the financial data in the table. The contextRef attribute specifies the context in which the data should be interpreted. This allows the financial data to be easily extracted and analyzed by machines, while still being displayed in a human-readable format.
ESEF: Das einheitliche elektronische Berichtsformat in der EU
ESEF – alle aktuellen Infos im Überblick | Deloitte Deutschland
European Single Electronic Format - Wirtschaftsprüferkammer
https://www.bing.com/search?q=esef+%C3%9Cberblick
ESEF - Das müssen Sie über die neue Berichtspflicht wissen | EQS Group
News: European Single Electronic Format (ESEF) - Erkenntnisse, Herausforderungen und Ausblick
This use case demonstrates the development of a web-based dashboard designed to automatically extract, filter, and visualize corporate filings from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) website. The dashboard utilizes web scraping techniques to collect real-time data on company filings, including key details such as filing types, dates, and document links.
Users can interact with the data via a user-friendly interface that includes a filterable table and an interactive chart. The dashboard allows users to:
View up-to-date filing details, including links to the SEC documents.
Filter filings by type (e.g., 10-K, 8-K) to quickly identify relevant reports.
Visualize trends in filings over time with dynamic charting features.
This solution is particularly valuable for financial analysts, compliance teams, and investors who require timely access to corporate disclosures to support decision-making and regulatory compliance. It is implemented entirely within an HTML page using JavaScript, jQuery, and Chart.js, making it easily embeddable into platforms like Google Sites for broader accessibility.
Assuming we want to extract some simplified data from the SEC webpage and display it in a dashboard on a Google Site. This example will focus on extracting filings data from a company (CIK 0001000184) and visualizing the filing types and dates.
For simplicity, I’ve limited the scope of the data, but you can expand on it as needed.
Please review!
For further implementation please refer to Gehostete Bibliotheken | Hosted Libraries | Google for Developers
Thanks again ;)
The European Single Electronic Format (ESEF) and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are related through their roles in financial reporting, although they serve different jurisdictions and have distinct reporting requirements.
ESEF is a digital reporting format introduced by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). It mandates that publicly listed companies in the European Union (EU) prepare their annual financial reports in a standardized electronic format using inline XBRL (iXBRL). This requirement ensures transparency, comparability, and accessibility of financial information across EU member states.
The SEC, on the other hand, is the U.S. regulatory body responsible for overseeing financial reporting and disclosures for companies listed in the U.S. stock markets. The SEC has its own electronic reporting format called EDGAR, which also uses XBRL for submitting financial data.
The key connection between ESEF and the SEC lies in the global trend toward digital financial reporting using XBRL. Both regulators are adopting machine-readable formats to improve the analysis, comparison, and auditing of financial data. For companies operating in both the U.S. and EU, understanding and complying with both ESEF (for the EU) and SEC's XBRL reporting (for the U.S.) is essential for meeting the respective financial reporting standards in each jurisdiction.
This trend aligns with global efforts to standardize financial disclosures and facilitate cross-border investments by making financial information more transparent and comparable across different regions.