StealthGas Inc. Saves 12 Accountant Days Yearly, Validates XBRL-Compliant Financial Filing Data in One Day
 
 

StealthGas Inc. Saves 12 Accountant Days Yearly, Validates XBRL-Compliant Financial Filing Data in One Day

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International shipping transportation company StealthGas specializes in the transportation of petroleum and petrochemical gas products in liquefied form. The company owns 35 liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) carriers, of which 33 are in operation and two are scheduled to begin deliveries by 2012. The fleet’s total carrying capacity is 168,097 cubic meters. StealthGas ranks number one worldwide in owned vessels for the 3,000-to-8,000-cubic-meter LPG carrier range. The company also owns three MR. product tankers (capable of carrying 80,000 to 120,000 tons of refined products and general cargo), and one Aframax tanker (with capacity for 80,000 to 120,000 tons of major bulk or crude oil cargo).

Operating as a leader in the highly-regulated energy shipping business, StealthGas is committed to ensuring regulatory compliance at every level. As such, the company wanted to ensure proactive compliance with impending regulations by the U.S. securities and exchange commission (SEC) that would require all companies listed with the New York stock exchange (NYSE) and NASDAQ to submit eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL)-tagged filings starting with fiscal year 2011.
 
StealthGas evaluated multiple solutions and selected Oracle Hyperion Disclosure Management and Oracle Hyperion Financial Management to enable in-house development and submission of SEC, XBRL-tagged filings. Using the Oracle solution, the company created an entire XBRL filing in one working day and gained improved financial insight.

 
 

 
 

Challenges

A word from StealthGas Inc.

  • “Oracle Hyperion Disclosure Management streamlines XBRL filing, improves submissions accuracy, and enhances user productivity. Its out-of-the-box functionality enabled us to start saving costs and time from day one.” – Nina Pyndiah, Internal Auditor, StealthGas Inc.

  • Comply with mandatory U.S. SEC requirements that companies listed with NYSE and NASDAQ submit XBRL-tagged filings beginning in fiscal year 2011
  • Avoid the expense and potential risk of outsourcing the XBRL filings to a third-party, a process that would still involve StealthGas in XBRL-tag selection and approval, with the company remaining ultimately responsible for the accuracy of its submissions
  • Minimize time and overhead required in implementing the software needed for XBRL compliance and to train accountants and internal auditors in processes and systems—allowing the company to focus on growing its core LPG shipping business
  • Invest in an automated XBRL solution to reduce the manual intervention needed for financial reporting and to streamline internal and external auditing
  • Capitalize on XBRL’s consistent, transparent formatting of financial data, improving corporate visibility to move beyond compliance and provide usable, accurate data for executive board reports, business analysts, shareholders, and investors
  • Support efforts to ensure compliance in all aspects of the highly regulated LPG transportation sector

Solutions

Oracle Product and Services

  • Implemented Oracle Hyperion Disclosure Management and Oracle Hyperion Financial Management for in-house development and in time for submission of XBRL-tagged filings to the SEC for fiscal 2011
  • Chose Oracle Hyperion over a competing solution for Oracle’s more comprehensive functionality; intuitive look and feel; and simpler, user-friendly processes that enable nontechnical financial users to become competent after a few hours of training
  • Used Oracle Hyperion Financial Management and Oracle Hyperion Disclosure Management to extract and consolidate data for tagging from StealthGas’s third-party enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, and other corporate sources, into predefined XBRL documents
  • Streamlined mapping XBRL tags to financial reports, simplified creating taxonomies, and automated validation of XBRL calculations, which enabled an entire XBRL filing to be created in one working day
  • Capitalized on the simplicity of Oracle Hyperion Disclosure Management’s best-in-class processes to minimize external expertise required during the first XBRL filing and gain the skills to become totally self-sufficient for subsequent SEC submissions
  • Gained the ability to reuse XBRL-generated intelligence to improve internal financial reporting, provide accurate data for executive board meetings and shareholder summaries, and enhance management intelligence—all critical for continued growth in the LPG shipping sector
  • Reduced the entire reporting burden and supported the shipping company’s high-level commitment to ensuring regulatory compliance
  • Set to leverage accountancy time savings and cost benefits of completing XBRL filings in-house, and improved intelligence for decision-making to achieve a 100% return on investment from Oracle Hyperion Disclosure Management within two years

Why Oracle

StealthGas carried out an in-depth analysis of Oracle’s and a leading competitor’s solution for preparing XBRL-tagged filings. Oracle was chosen for its comprehensive functionality and solution strength, as well as its competitive price and the XBRL expertise of Oracle’s presales team.

“Oracle Hyperion Disclosure Management was far ahead of the competition in terms of functionality and ease of use. Our accountants with no technical knowledge adopted it very quickly and with minimal training. Choosing the competitor’s solution would have required us to employ a trainer for six months,” said Nina Pyndiah, Internal Auditor, StealthGas Inc.