IFRS and XBRL: How to improve Business Reporting through Technology and Object Tracking

PART THREE

XBRL – Using Technology to Implement Standards

TIPS FOR READERS

The advance of the digital age has spawned an outstanding technological standard that partners perfectly with IFRS. Specifically, XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) is a free software tool that provides the means by which financial information can be collected, collated, transmitted and analysed with remarkable rapidity and accuracy.

As a direct consequence of proven efficiencies and significant cost savings, numerous corporations and governments have implemented XBRL for internal and external purposes, such as in relation to inter-business transactions and compliance reporting.

Essentially, XBRL facilitates the organisation of financial information, as per IFRS, so as to make it easier for all concerned in any business reporting process. Even so, it is noteworthy that non-financial standards exist, and are growing in number, which has prompted the XBRL community to build non-financial components.

Overall, and aside from business reporting preparation and distribution, XBRL has become an integral part of a massive service industry that accesses, reads, analyses, compares, rearranges and creates assorted financial reports for a wide and growing market that is hungry for reliable information.

Summary

The first section introduces XBRL, discusses the benefits of this standard and identifies major users of XBRL worldwide. It also provides an introduction to XML, which is the technical basis of XBRL. ...