Introducing XBRL

XBRL is the financial and operational business reporting offshoot of eXtensible Markup Language (XML), which is a freely licensable, open technology standard (or vocabulary) used to exchange business information electronically. XML is the universally preferred data description language used to describe the storage, manipulation and exchange of data via the internet.

The basis for XBRL is a “tagging” process where each value, item, descriptor, etc., in the exchanged information can be given a unique set of tags to describe it. Using these tags, computer programs can read the data without human intervention. Tags are commonly used to exchange information, such as an account balance. XBRL leverages groups of tags in the form of a taxonomy, or classification system, to describe data for a particular audience.

XBRL is being positioned as the vocabulary of business and financial reporting. It is a way to “bar code” business information contained in general ledgers, income and cash flow statements, balance sheets, as well as text information included within the footnotes and other requirements of business reporting.

XBRL is:

• An open technology standard for reporting and analyzing business and financial information
• Software agnostic, or independent
• Accounting framework neutral

XBRL is not:

• A standardized chart of accounts
• A way to require the reporting of specific information
• A transaction level activity (although it can summarize general ledger transactions)
• Automatically compliant with International Financial Reporting Standards – it only tags the existing financial data prepared under existing AS

Key takeaways

• XBRL involves machine-readable tagged data (meta-data, or data about data) and is fast becoming the digital standard for communicating business and financial information.
• Computers can treat XBRL data “intelligently” — applications can recognize the information in an XBRL document, select it, analyze it, store it and exchange it with other applications, and present it automatically in a variety of ways for users.
• A useful analogy is to think of XBRL as “bar coding” — where applications 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.

XBRL is the financial and operational business reporting offshoot of eXtensible Markup Language (XML), which is a freely licensable, open technology standard (or vocabulary) used to exchange business information electronically. XML is the universally preferred data description language used to describe the storage, manipulation and exchange of data via the internet. The basis for XBRL is a “tagging” process where each value, item, descriptor, etc., in the exchanged information can be given a unique set of tags to describe it. Using these tags, computer programs can read the data without human intervention. Tags are commonly used to exchange information, such as an account balance. XBRL leverages groups of tags in the form of a taxonomy, or classification system, to describe data for a particular audience. XBRL is being positioned as the vocabulary of business and financial reporting. It is a way to “bar code” business information contained in general ledgers, income and cash flow statements, balance sheets, as well as text information included within the footnotes and other requirements of business reporting. XBRL is: An open technology standard for reporting and analyzing business and financial information Software agnostic, or independent Accounting framework neutral XBRL is not: A standardized chart of accounts A way to require the reporting of specific information A transaction level activity (although it can summarize general ledger transactions) Automatically compliant with International Financial Reporting Standards – it only tags the existing financial data prepared under existing AS Key takeaways XBRL involves machine-readable tagged data (meta-data, or data about data) and is fast becoming the digital standard for communicating business and financial information. Computers can treat XBRL data “intelligently” — applications can recognize the information in an XBRL document, select it, analyze it, store it and exchange it with other applications, and present it automatically in a variety of ways for users. A useful analogy is to think of XBRL as “bar coding” — where applications 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.