Principles for transforming to Standard Business Reporting: Lessons learned from the Netherlands

Stricter laws and regulations demand that companies provide business information more timely and accurately to various government agencies. However, this trend increases the administrative burden for companies and the regulatory burden for government agencies. Standard Business Reporting (SBR) is a program that aims to reduce these burdens. Led by government agencies, stakeholders in this program are working towards a national data taxonomy, a single reporting gateway and a secure electronic infrastructure. Anticipated benefits include reduced time and costs for assembling, analyzing and providing business data to government agencies. However, stakeholders face several hurdles that need to be addressed before such benefits can be reaped. Typical hurdles in this transformation include conflicting public and private interests, legal constraints and high security demands. This policy paper presents seven transformation principles gained from the launch of SBR in the Netherlands. The principles are meant to guide stakeholders in proactively dealing with some of the transformation issues that may manifest when launching SBR. While the current scope of SBR is focused on financial reporting, the possibilities for its future application are broader, opening new avenues for digital government research.