Meet the future of financial information. It's called Extensible Business Reporting Language or XBRL. Haven't heard of it? You will, just as you heard of HTML long ago. Though early adopters will be public companies and financial firms, nearly every business -- global giants to local accountants -- will use or benefit from this new business Internet language as acceptance widens. Consumers such as individual investors will benefit, too.
In short, XBRL is a new standard for distributing business data across the Internet. It makes financial info -- company earnings, for example -- faster and easier to find, compare and analyze. XBRL (a free and open web-based technology) is being developed by a global non-profit group of companies and organizations. The race is already on in many European and Asian nations to adopt XBRL, including China, Japan, Singapore, Korea and Germany.
The idea is simple (well, kind of). Instead of treating financial info as a block of text (as in a standard web page or printed document), XBRL provides a computer-readable ID tag for each individual data item. XBRL-tagged data is smart. Computers can recognize, select, store and exchange it with other computers. Searches for data that once took hours can be done in milliseconds.
XBRL benefits and uses cross multiple industries. Just a few examples include accounting, software/IT and credit management:
1) With XBRL, accountants can obtain reliable data more rapidly on company financial performance; greatly reduce effort and costs of gathering and analyzing data; simplify and automate more financial tasks and make more use of software to improve efficiency.
2) Loan and credit management businesses and departments will be able to obtain financial information faster and more reliably with automated reporting enabled by XBRL. Decision-making will be much faster.
3) And you can expect a rash of software introductions and updates as IT firms and software publishers employ the new XBRL standards.
Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done
Be first on your block to understand how XBRL can benefit your business
XBRL is coming, so the sooner you learn about it, the quicker you can discover how to use it to your advantage.
I recommend: XBRL International is a must-see site that explains the worldwide effort to standardize a method for communicating financial information across the Internet. Until now, a hodgepodge of incompatible systems and software has left the business Internet little better off than in the days of the printing press.
XBRL changes everything. Pay special attention to
business benefits and uses,
how XBRL works and a helpful
FAQ section.
Ernst & Young has a good section on its site explaining the benefits of XBRL.
Take the fast track to XBRL products and services
Companies, organizations and government agencies that are members of the XBRL International consortium offer a wide range of XBRL solutions.
I recommend: Visit the
XBRL Products & Services site for an A-to-Z list of solutions for helping put XBRL into action, from
Business Wire and
CaseWare, to
Microsoft,
PricewaterhouseCoopers and
SAP.
Check the latest news on XBRL
As XBRL standards move toward widespread adoption, things are constantly changing.
I recommend: The
XBRL news page highlights the latest major XBRL news and updates. You can also see
technical news,
regional news and
international XBRL news. You can also sign up for an
RSS feed on breaking XBRL news.
Discover business uses, benefits and implementation strategies
Major firms involved in XBRL development have produced papers and presentations that you can download, read and even re-use for free.
I recommend: Visit the
Benefits Across Business site for links to papers and presentations such as
Corporate Communications in the 21st Century from PricewaterhouseCoopers;
Understanding XBRL and its benefits, from Software AG and the
Business case for XBRL from UBMatrix. Also check out
How XBRL Can Tell Your Story from Merrill Corp.
Join an XBRL discussion group
Discussion groups can help plug you into general, non-technical XBRL topic discussions.
I recommend: Visit
XBRL discussion group HQ for information.
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