NASBP members and their clients participating in the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Surety Bond Guarantee Program (SBG) can experience a tremendous time-savings now that the SBA system will ingest Work-in-Process (WIP) reports placed in XBRL, a standardized data format.

“This move to data standards will automate what has been a laborious process, and it will free up small contractors and their bond agents to focus on expanding their business,” said Peter Gibbs, Director of the Office of Surety Guarantees of the SBA.

Contractors with SBA guarantees and bond producers acting on behalf of their contractor clients are required to provide WIP reports, which contain detailed information about every project a contractor is working on. Inputting revenue, cost, and profit data for a WIP report and financials can be an hours-long process. However, now with the SBG Program’s new capability, which was confirmed in April during a recent pilot program, Program participants, who upload WIP reports prepared in XBRL format, will gain time-savings by submitting standardized data.

Michelle Savage, Vice President of Communication of XBRL US, said, “For years, the NASBP has been a strong supporter of standardization to automate and improve efficiencies in the surety data collection process.” “This pilot with the SBA is a big step towards eliminating unnecessary manual data entry, helping both contractors and bond agents alike,” she added.

Several tools currently are available to convert spreadsheets and other forms of WIP reports into XBRL format from these companies, Altova and Crowe LLP. In addition, XBRL US has created an add-in to Microsoft Excel that converts a WIP in spreadsheet form into an XBRL-formatted WIP file.

Campbell Pryde, CEO of XBRL US, said XBRL encourages software providers that work with contractors, accounting firms, and bond producers to adapt their tools to produce XBRL-formatted WIP reports. “Automating this time-consuming process will increase productivity for everyone involved,” Pryde said.

The data standards created to represent the WIP report are contained in the XBRL US WIP Taxonomy, which is a digital collection of terms. The WIP Taxonomy was created by the XBRL US Surety Working Group and its sponsoring organizations, including AIG, Altova, Crowe LLP, The Hartford, Liberty Mutual Surety, Marcum LLP, NASBP, Travelers, and Zurich Insurance. Participating organizations, serving as observers and advisors, include the Surety & Fidelity Association of America and the Financial Accounting Standards Board.

“We’re excited about the prospect of leveraging technology and standardization to improve the process for both bond agents and small contractors,” said Gibbs.