How XBRL works

How XBRL works

Instead of treating financial information as a block of text, XBRL provides a computer-readable tag to identify each individual item of data. Through the attachment of identifying tags to individual pieces of data, a business reporting document becomes “intelligent” data, allowing the exchange of business reporting data by encoding the information in a meaningful way. Computer applications can use the XBRL data to recognize the information in an XBRL document, select it, analyze it, store it, exchange it with other computers and present it in a variety of ways for users.

XBRL tags are defined and maintained in taxonomies which contain meta-data (data about data). Taxonomies are the basis for tagging financial and business information in XBRL. A taxonomy is an electronic classification system of tags defining thousands of business reporting concepts (including text) and their relationships.

The taxonomy provides organization and details for each concept, including the labels, definitions, accounting balance (i.e., debit or credit), presentation and summation information. A taxonomy for India based on the existing, non-converged Accounting Standards and existing Schedule VI to the Companies Act has already been developed by the MCA and we understand that it will be made available shortly.

An instance document is the end result of how a preparer creates XBRL data. It contains report information typically compiled from internal ERP or financial reporting systems that have been “marked up” or tagged in XBRL. Figures 1 and 2 below show the inter-relationships between the various elements of XBRL.

Companies will use the India taxonomy based on non-converged Accounting Standards and existing Schedule VI.

XBRL is extensible (i.e., can be extended) since a preparer can create, define and describe new tags unique to its particular circumstances, while otherwise maintaining the comparability of other information tagged using the standard taxonomy. XBRL was designed to be flexible and is intended to support aspects of electronic financial reporting across countries and industries.

Tagging financial data in XBRL is similar to the use of bar codes. The bar code was created to electronically identify different products. Similar to a bar code, applications that utilize XBRL data can automatically identify each piece of data and specific information about it, such as value, type, currency, date, source and its relationships with other data.

How XBRL works Instead of treating financial information as a block of text, XBRL provides a computer-readable tag to identify each individual item of data. Through the attachment of identifying tags to individual pieces of data, a business reporting document becomes “intelligent” data, allowing the exchange of business reporting data by encoding the information in a meaningful way. Computer applications can use the XBRL data to recognize the information in an XBRL document, select it, analyze it, store it, exchange it with other computers and present it in a variety of ways for users. XBRL tags are defined and maintained in taxonomies which contain meta-data (data about data). Taxonomies are the basis for tagging financial and business information in XBRL. A taxonomy is an electronic classification system of tags defining thousands of business reporting concepts (including text) and their relationships. The taxonomy provides organization and details for each concept, including the labels, definitions, accounting balance (i.e., debit or credit), presentation and summation information. A taxonomy for India based on the existing, non-converged Accounting Standards and existing Schedule VI to the Companies Act has already been developed by the MCA and we understand that it will be made available shortly. An instance document is the end result of how a preparer creates XBRL data. It contains report information typically compiled from internal ERP or financial reporting systems that have been “marked up” or tagged in XBRL. Figures 1 and 2 below show the inter-relationships between the various elements of XBRL. Companies will use the India taxonomy based on non-converged Accounting Standards and existing Schedule VI. XBRL is extensible (i.e., can be extended) since a preparer can create, define and describe new tags unique to its particular circumstances, while otherwise maintaining the comparability of other information tagged using the standard taxonomy. XBRL was designed to be flexible and is intended to support aspects of electronic financial reporting across countries and industries. Tagging financial data in XBRL is similar to the use of bar codes. The bar code was created to electronically identify different products. Similar to a bar code, applications that utilize XBRL data can automatically identify each piece of data and specific information about it, such as value, type, currency, date, source and its relationships with other data.