XBRL, eXtensible Business Reporting Language, is a language for the electronic communication of business and financial data that requires all individual disclosure items within business reports to be assigned unique, electronically readable tags. These tags are mapped to taxonomies that have been and are being developed by market constituents (such as regulators, accounting standard setters, and others) and are publicly available. Taxonomies are, in essence, dictionaries that contain the terms used in financial statements and other business reports and their corresponding XBRL tags. The staff of the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board recently issued a question and answer (Q&A) document to raise awareness about how XBRL-tagged data is prepared and how it may affect financial reporting.
The Q&A addresses questions such as:
- What is XBRL?
- What is an XBRL taxonomy and how is a taxonomy developed and used?
- How do entities generate XBRL tagged-data?
- How may XBRL affect financial reporting?
- What level of involvement do auditors of the financial statements have with XBRL-tagged data?
- What types of engagements might practitioners be asked to perform with regard to XBRL?
- Where can I find more information about XBRL?
Resources
XBRL: the Emerging Landscape
Other sources of information about XBRL and related matters include:
XBRL International’s Web site
AICPA’s portal for information about XBRL
SEC’s portal for information about XBRL |
