Let us understand XBRL documents through an example: In the above image, “Fixed assets” is reported in monetary value as 30, 35, 33 and 98 for Segment A, B, C and Group respectively.

“Fixed assets” is a concept and will be made part of dictionary with attributes such as it would have a “debit” balance, it would be reported with “monetary” value, it would be with period “instant” (“as on” since it is an Asset). Concept such as “Segment A”, Segment B”, Segment C” and “Group” with its attributes would also be made part of dictionary.

Inter-relationship of concept “Fixed assets”, with concept namely “Segment A”, Segment B”, Segment C” and “Group” would be developed with “definition” (dimension) relationship.

Both dictionary and concept inter-relationship would be developed in XBRL Taxonomy. Now this XBRL taxonomy would be used by the user (reporting entity) with a specific tool and after inputting basic information, the aforesaid dimension relationship would be presented to the user in a reportable format.

The user would report monetary values such as 30, 35, 33 and 98 for Segment A, B, C and Group respectively against the concept “Fixed asset”. These monetary values (facts) along with their concepts and other information (name of reporting entity, period of reporting and likewise) would be stored in XBRL instance document.

XBRL

XBRL stands for “eXtensible Business Reporting Language”. It is also known as ‘Interactive Data’ and it is the global standard for electronic communication of business and financial data.

XBRL is being developed and promoted by XBRL International Inc (XII) a non-profit consortium (of companies, organisations and government agencies). XBRL is a non-proprietary global standard and freely available. XBRL is based on XML (eXentsible Markup Language) and XML is designed to carry data. XBRL data includes the context within it enabling the software to interpret and process it.

XBRL is a LANGUAGE namely computer understandable language wherein computers can treat XBRL data “intelligently”. The machine can recognize the information provided in an XBRL document (taxonomy and instance) and can select, analyze, store and can also exchange it with other applications, to present it automatically in a variety of ways to users.

XBRL language is related to BUSINESS REPORTING covering both “financial” information (balance sheet, profit/loss, cash flow statement and likewise) and “non-financial” information (climate change, votes garnered in an election and likewise).

XBRL equips us with Uniquely Defined Concepts and it is a kind of electronic dictionary of reporting concepts thereby bringing standardization and comparability.

XBRL is also eXTENSIBLE allowing customization of financial concepts namely extension of existing taxonomy by addition of concepts that are NOT in the base taxonomy.

To sum up, XBRL is the Bar Code of Business Reporting Language. As the bar code printed on a product carries details of the product wherever it goes any XBRL tagged data carries with it all the information required to understand and use it most effectively.

iXBRL

iXBRL stands for “In-line eXtensible Business Reporting Language”.

iXBRL allows presentation of information in a computer readable format which is both human readable and machine-readable. This is achieved by presenting the data (e.g. financial statements) in a normal document format but with XBRL "tags" embedded in HTML documents.

XBRL is only machine readable while iXBRL is both human and machine readable (so users can SEE what is INTENDED to display). If the focus of XBRL is on automated machine readability of data then iXBRL focuses on rendering of such data. XBRL for rendering of data either uses presentation relationship or table relationship while iXBRL uses HTML standard.

Essentially, both XBRL and iXBRL standards exist with the same objective – seamless exchange of financial data but iXBRL goes a step further, to enable the rendering such data in a visually appealing format. XBRL uses XML while iXBRL uses both XML and HTML as encoding standard

XBRL is a global standard duly accepted and adopted the world over thus reducing inconsistencies in terminologies and data formatting. XBRL is BETTER allowing accessibility, accuracy and easy analysis including no need for re-keying. XBRL is FASTER for it allows validation, processing and dissemination of real time data.

XBRL is CHEAPER for its royalty free software. XBRL is EXTENSIBLE and FLEXIBLE for it can be adapted to a wide variety of different requirements benefiting all participants in the financial information supply chain (preparers, transmitters or users of business data).

XBRL is an OPEN standard and hence platform independent, this allows the data to be exchanged and transferred with ease. XBRL allows the presentation and exchange of data in many different LANGUAGES.

To sum up: XBRL results in data INTEGRITY and data STANDARDISATION

Taxonomy is a dictionary of concepts along with its attributes and defines relationship amongst the concepts.

Other relationship (table relationship, enumeration relationship and likewise) are being evolved and will be integral part of XBRL specifications in ensuing time.

View CIPC Taxonomy