With respect to consolidated financial statements, if consolidation is not applicable for previous year, then consolidated financial statements of current year is to be attached in pdf format only. In this case only standalone financial statement is to be attached in XBRL mode.

Similarly, if consolidation is applicable only for previous year and not for current year, then consolidated financial statements of previous year to be attached in pdf format and standalone financial statement is to be attached in XBRL mode. In such case, select 'NO' in the field 'Whether consolidated balance sheet is also being filed' and provide the consolidated financials in pdf format as an 'optional attachment'.

Form 23AC and 23ACA shall continue to be there for filing by companies to which XBRL filing is not applicable; and for filing of earlier year’s documents. New e-forms 23AC and 23ACA have been notified for filing of financial statements for accounting year commencing before and after 01.04.2011 (i.e., application of new Schedule VI of the Companies Act, 1956). The e-forms 23AC-XBRL and 23ACA-XBRL notified on 05.10.2011 would be used for filing of XBRL documents by eligible companies.

A detailed Filing Manual has been prepared to that explains various steps needed for successful filing of XBRL document by a company. Filing Manual for relevant year is available on the MCA XBRL portal.

With respect to SRN of Form-23B (for appointment of auditor), where the information by auditor to RoC is not required to be filed, Z99999999 may be entered in XBRL document. Please note that use of this default ‘Z99999999’ should be supported by providing on adequate footnote.

In the given case, a dummy PAN ‘AAAAA9999A’ maybe used. Please note that use of this default ‘AAAAA9999A’ should be supported by providing on adequate footnote.

Yes, voluntary XBRL filing by companies is encouraged, and such a company need not file the Financial Statements in PDF Format.

No, the MCA XBRL Validation Tool is only one level of verifying the correctness & completeness of XBRL document filed by a company. Before certification or verification of the XBRL document on e-form by company and professional, it is important to ensure that disclosures provided in the XBRL documents are same as the financial statements adopted in the AGM of the company in all material aspects. In other words, a mere successful validation of an XBRL document through MCA Validation Tool does not imply that compliance under section 220 of the Companies Act, 1956 has been achieved.

The MCA XBRL Validation Tool also provides for a printable ‘human-readable’ pdf version of the XBRL document prepared by you. You shall ensure that disclosures in this pdf file are as per the adopted and published financial statement of the company in all material aspects. You may however note that due to XBRL taxonomy, HTML guidelines, etc, the display/presentation of these disclosures may not exactly match with those in published financial statements of the company. Such variations in human-readable’ pdf version of the XBRL document and published financial statements of the company are unavoidable, and thus permitted.

Although XBRL improves the quality of financial reporting by companies, an XBRL document may still be successfully ‘validated’ by the MCA Validation Tool even if the disclosures contained in it are not as per adopted financial statement of the company, and/or inappropriate usage of taxonomy elements, footnotes, text-block tagging, etc. It may be noted that the Ministry has identified few cases of ‘poor’ quality XBRL filings and measures are being contemplated against responsible companies/professionals. The quality of XBRL filings for FY 2011-12 would also be minutely watched by the Ministry and thus companies/professionals are advised to ensure that their XBRL filings presents a true and fair view of state of affairs of the company.

Few examples of ‘poor’ quality of XBRL filings by companies are mentioned here