THE Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (Acra) and Australian accounting firm WHK Horwath are teaming up to offer an online financial analysis tool that will draw data from thousands of financial statements in Acra's database.

The Open Analytics program will allow anyone to view and analyse - for a fee that has yet to be determined - over 81,000 financial statements filed by Singapore companies with Acra in the new eXtensible Business Reporting Language or XBRL format.

At present, Acra produces company reports and financial statements for a statutory fee of $25 per company but the new tool will allow users to access data across entire industries in an easy-to-use format.

The online tool was demonstrated to some 500 accounting and industry professionals at a business reporting seminar on Wednesday organised by the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Singapore. It will be launched by the end of the year, according to Acra.

Open Analytics - demonstrated to BT yesterday - allows users to compare and analyse thousands of companies across different industries. For instance, they can compare return on equity of companies in the hotel space, as well as other metrics such as revenue, profit margin, liquidity ratios and interest coverage, in a series of graphical interfaces.

The software will be useful to businessmen and company directors who can use it to benchmark their company's performance to industry norms, said Andre van Zyl, a partner at WHK Horwath. Analysts could also use it to keep track of industry trends, while bankers may find it useful to gauge a company's liquidity levels and ability to generate cash, Mr van Zyl said.

XBRL is an internationally accepted standard for the electronic communication of business and financial data on the Internet and between computers, and was adopted in Singapore in November 2007.

This article was first published in The Business Times.