Since 2022, it is required to tag not only your Consolidated Financial Statements, but also the Notes that accompany them. This is usually referred to as block tagging or block note tagging. In this article we will go over how to carry out hypertagging, which is a way to block tag the notes through the use of hyperlinks.
What Is Block Tagging?
ESMA requires issuers of annual financial reports to mark-up the financial statements with individual XBRL tags, which means that each element needs to be mapped/tagged in accordance with the ESEF taxonomy. The notes section is a different matter, however, as you will need to apply mark-ups for whole sections of text.
How to Perform Hypertagging in the PDF
Hypertagging (block tagging) can be carried out in the PDF version of your annual financial report (visual aspect of the conversion). You can perform hypertagging with any software that allows you to edit PDF files, such as InDesign or Adobe Acrobat Pro.
For the purpose of this guide, we’re assuming that you will be editing the PDF file with Adobe Acrobat Pro. If you are using another software, the process may vary from what is described here, but the overall goal remains the same: you want to add hyperlinks to the sections of text you want to tag.
Open the PDF version of your annual report;
Navigate to the page you want to add a block tag to;
Go to the Edit menu in the top bar, then click on “Links” > “Add or edit a link”;
Select the text that you want to tag;
Enter the hyperlink previously selected from the ESEF Hypertag list. It starts out with the prefix pp:// followed by the text from the taxonomy. For instance; pp://disclosure of significant accounting policies. In case you do not have the Excel template updated to its latest version, you can find the full list of hypertags in the ESEF tagging template which you can download here;
Repeat the process for each section you want to block tag;
Log in to the ParsePort Platform ;
Upload the hypertagged PDF version of your annual report along with the Excel file containing the simplified tags and your financial statements.
Once the conversion is done, go to the Viewer tab and open the Presentation Linkbase. You will be able to see the list of elements under “Statement - Notes” and/or “Statement - Accounting Policies”
If you click on a specific element, the text section it was applied to will be highlighted.