XBRL (eXtensible Bussiness Reporting Language)

An Introduction to XBRL

XBRL is a language for the electronic communication of business and financial data which is revolutionising business reporting around the world.  It provides major benefits in the preparation, analysis and communication of business information.  It offers cost savings, greater efficiency and improved accuracy and reliability to all those involved in supplying or using financial data. XBRL stands for eXtensible Business Reporting Language.  It is one of a family of "XML" languages which is becoming a standard means of communicating information between businesses and on the internet. XBRL is being developed by an international non-profit consortium of approximately 450 major companies, organisations and government agencies.  It is an open standard, free of licence fees.  It is already being put to practical use in a number of countries and implementations of XBRL are growing rapidly around the world. This site provides information about the nature, uses and benefits of XBRL.  It explains how individuals and companies can join the effort to move forward and make use of the language. A Simple Explanation The idea behind XBRL, eXtensible Business Reporting Language, is simple.  Instead of treating financial information as a block of text - as in a standard internet page or a printed document - it provides an identifying tag for each individual item of data.  This is computer readable. For example, company net profit has its own unique tag. The introduction of XBRL tags enables automated processing of business information by computer software, cutting out laborious and costly processes of manual re-entry and comparison.  Computers can treat XBRL data "intelligently": they can recognise the information in a XBRL document, select it, analyse it, store it, exchange it with other computers and present it automatically in a variety of ways for users.  XBRL greatly increases the speed of handling of financial data, reduces the chance of error and permits automatic checking of information. Companies can use XBRL to save costs and streamline their processes for collecting and reporting financial information.  Consumers of financial data, including investors, analysts, financial institutions and regulators, can receive, find, compare and analyse data much more rapidly and efficiently if it is in XBRL format. XBRL can handle data in different languages and accounting standards.  It can flexibly be adapted to meet different requirements and uses.  Data can be transformed into XBRL by suitable mapping tools or it can be generated in XBRL by appropriate software. The How XBRL Works page gives further explanation of XBRL,  while Benefits and Uses sets out how different types of organisation can gain from the standard.   UBmatrix offers the industry’s leading enterprise software platform for liberating information trapped within an organization’s computer applications and documents. Our software, offering the power of XBRL, makes the structure and underlying meaning of information portable within your organization and for exchange over the Internet. Organizations rely on UBmatrix solutions to exchange business data. The result: improved efficiency, data quality, and transparency.

XBRL Taxonomies Taxonomies, as explained in How XBRL Works, are the dictionaries used by XBRL.  They define the specific tags for individual items of data (such as "net profit").  Different taxonomies will be required for different financial reporting purposes.  National jurisdictions may need their own financial reporting taxonomies to reflect their local accounting regulations.  Many different organisations, including regulators, specific industries or even companies, may require taxonomies to cover their own business reporting needs. Taxonomies which have been officially recognised by XBRL International are listed in this section.  Financial Reporting Taxonomies are provided here.  A special taxonomy has also been designed to support collation of data and internal reporting within organisations.  This is the GL taxonomy. XBRL International has two levels of recognition of taxonomies.  Approved Taxonomies have to comply with the official XBRL guidelines for that type of taxonomy, as well as with the XBRL Specification.  Acknowledged Taxonomies just have to comply with the XBRL Specification.  For more information on the recognition process see Taxonomy Recognition.  Some important taxonomies sponsored by jurisdictions are under development and are not yet in the acknowledged category.  See Under Development for contacts.  For guidance on the design and use of taxonomies, see Taxonomy Guidance in the Technical Support section.     http://www.xbrl.org/Home/ http://www.ubmatrix.com/home/default.asp  (for XBRL Software)