From January to April, regulatory reporting teams (SEC & ESEF) are at a breaking point. In the final stretch of an SEC 10-K or ESEF Annual Financial Report (AFR), your team’s focus should be on the narrative, the notes, and the audit. However, the mandatory burden of iXBRL tagging often creates a 40-to120-hour bottleneck exactly when your bandwidth is at zero.
The industry is reaching a tipping point. As regulatory complexity increases and the talent pool for specialized professionals shrinks, 37% of public companies now outsource their XBRL tagging completely to a vendor. These leaders have realized that XBRL tagging, while essential, diverts time and attention from the strategic reporting that influences investor confidence and valuation.
While structured data and compliance hinge on accurate tagging, this “highly standardized” task is the perfect candidate for delegation. However, choosing between DIY software and managed services depends on your specific operational math. You must weigh your team’s remaining bandwidth against the rising stakes of a technical error.
DIY Software: Control Has a Cost
Many teams choose DIY software for visibility and direct control over tagging. Every entity, note, and figure sits in your hands. However, in the 2026 regulatory environment, that control also brings responsibility. Under peak-season pressure, risks such as sign flips, rounding inconsistencies, and fatigue-driven errors increase, and the regulator’s automated validation engines surface them instantly.
The Reality of DIY Tagging:
- Time-intensive: Every draft revision triggers updates across multiple tags and tables. Hours accumulate.
- Human error risk: Pressure during peak season increases mistakes that regulators notice.
- Compliance upkeep: Taxonomies change every year. Teams must stay trained, often on skills they use only a few times annually.
- Bottlenecks: Tagging is back-loaded. Last-minute corrections magnify stress.
Who Can Benefit from DIY Software
DIY XBRL software works best for organizations with dedicated in-house XBRL expertise, stable reporting teams, and enough bandwidth to manage tagging well before filing deadlines. It suits filers with lower complexity and the capacity to keep up with annual taxonomy changes without adding pressure during peak reporting periods.
Managed Services: Your “Extra Hand” for Peak Season
Managed services act as an external extension of your finance team. It takes on the tagging, technical validation, and regulatory mapping while your team governs the process.
What Managed Services Execute:
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What Your Team Governs:
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Why It Works:
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Who Can Benefit from Managed Services
Managed services are the right fit for organizations facing tight filing deadlines, limited internal bandwidth, or increasing regulatory complexity. They work best for teams that want to reduce peak-season pressure, lower compliance risk, and keep senior finance professionals focused on narrative, audit readiness, and stakeholder review rather than technical tagging work.
How to Choose for 2026
4 Questions to Ask Yourself:
- Capacity: “If a key team member walked out tomorrow, would our filing stay on track, or is our XBRL knowledge trapped in a single person?”
- Risk: “Are we confident enough to stake our regulatory reputation on our ‘manual’ accuracy?”
- Value: “Is my senior manager’s time better spent on technical iXBRL mapping or on strategic audit defense and MD&A clarity?”
- Agility: “When the auditors demand a last-minute change 24 hours before the deadline, can our current process re-tag and re-validate the entire document in minutes, or will it take hours?”
In conclusion, if bandwidth is limited, regulatory risk is high, and deadlines are tight, managed services are the clear choice. If your team has ample capacity (which is unlikely in this peak filing period) and technical skill, DIY may be feasible.
The IRIS CARBON® Difference: Governance Without the Grunt Work
IRIS CARBON® combines the control of DIY software with the relief of a managed service. You outsource the technical execution of XBRL/iXBRL tagging while retaining full visibility and governance over your reports at every stage.
How It Works in Practice
- No Deployment Disruption: We work as a remote extension of your team. You don’t “implement” IRIS CARBON® during peak season; you simply offload to us.
- The Arelle® Standard: We use the same validation engine used by the SEC and ESMA. If it passes our validation, it passes theirs.
- Total Transparency: Your filings are tagged by experienced XBRL specialists working on a centralized platform. You see every tag, every comment, and every change in real-time. You stay in control of the final sign-off without the manual labor of getting there.
This approach removes the administrative burden without introducing operational risk. There is no disruption to your reporting workflow and no loss of ownership over your disclosures. You stay in control of the numbers, the narrative, and the final sign-off.
