For many Singapore SMEs, financial statements are familiar territory — balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow reports prepared in PDF or spreadsheet form. XBRL filing, however, often feels like a completely different and more complicated requirement.
In reality, XBRL doesn’t replace traditional financial statements. It changes how the same information is presented and submitted.
Understanding the difference helps SMEs approach compliance with more clarity and far less stress.
Traditional financial statements are human-readable reports, typically prepared in PDF, Word, or Excel formats. They are designed for business owners, investors, and stakeholders to review and understand a company’s financial performance.
These usually include:
They focus on clarity for readers, not on machine processing.
XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) is a structured, machine-readable format required by ACRA for filing financial statements together with Annual Returns.
Instead of simply uploading a document, companies must tag each financial line item using predefined labels from ACRA’s XBRL taxonomy. This allows regulators to automatically read, compare, and analyze financial data across companies.
XBRL uses the same financial information as traditional statements — just structured differently.
The differences lie mainly in format, purpose, and preparation process.
Importantly, errors in XBRL don’t usually mean the numbers are wrong — they often mean the structure or tagging is incorrect.
XBRL challenges usually stem from the data behind the statements, not the format itself.
Common issues include:
When underlying financial records aren’t well-structured, converting them into XBRL becomes time-consuming and error-prone.
The smoother the bookkeeping, the smaller the gap between traditional statements and XBRL filing.
AI-powered bookkeeping platforms like ccMonet help SMEs:
With clean, structured records, XBRL becomes a technical step — not a painful reconstruction.
XBRL filing doesn’t replace traditional financial statements — it complements them. Both rely on the same underlying data, and both benefit from accurate, consistent bookkeeping.
For SMEs, the smartest approach isn’t choosing one over the other, but ensuring financial data is prepared in a way that supports both effortlessly.
When your records are always ready, compliance becomes routine — and financial reporting becomes far more useful.
👉 See how AI-powered bookkeeping helps Singapore SMEs prepare both traditional statements and XBRL filings with confidence at ccMonet
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