XBRL releases new version of its GL taxonomy

 

12 July 2005

 

 

XBRL International has released a new version of its GL taxonomy – the taxonomy which allows the efficient handling of financial and business information contained within an organisation. 

 

The new version, XBRL GL 2005, is based on the latest XBRL 2.1 Specification and represents a significant step forward in the capabilities of XBRL in handling financial and business information.  The taxonomy enables the representation of financial and other data found in charts of accounts, journal entries and historical transactions.

 

After careful development and review by the XBRL GL Working Group, the taxonomy has been granted Acknowledged status by the XBRL International Domain Working Group.  This confirms its compliance with the latest XBRL Spec.  It is being released as a public working draft.

 

The taxonomy’s public exposure period ends 10 October 2005.  Once changes based on any feedback are made, the XBRL GL Working group will seek Approved status for the taxonomy from XBRL International.  This status means that the taxonomy is not only compliant with the Specification but meets various technical standards on efficient taxonomy design and has been successfully through a public trial period.

 

Together with the new GL taxonomy, the GL working group published the GL Taxonomy Framework Technical Architecture (GLTFTA) document as a public working draft.  This sets out standards for journal-focussed taxonomies which will assist in the comprehension, usage and performance of such taxonomies. 

 

The taxonomy and GLTFTA are available on the XBRL International website at http://www.xbrl.org/GLFiles/. 

 

The GL taxonomy is intended to provide a standardised format for representing the data fields found in accounting and operation systems and transactional reports that will allow organizations to tag journal entries, accounting master files, and historical status reports in XBRL.  The modular set consists of the COR (Core), the BUS (Advanced Business Concepts), MUC (Multi-Currency), USK (concepts for "saxonic" accounting in the US, UK, and elsewhere) and TAF (Tax Audit File) modules.

 

This modular taxonomy consists of a series of modules that extend the basic identifiers for entries, agents, and resources to meet the needs of specific jurisdictions and industries.  It enables data from the general ledger and transaction journals of an organisation to be transported efficiently into XBRL financial reports.

 

Circulation of the taxonomy is unrestricted.  Users and reviewers are invited to submit their questions and comments to the chair of the XBRL GL Working Group, Diane Mueller, at xbrlgl@xbrl.org.  Members of XBRL are invited to submit their contributions direct to the XBRL GL Working Group and also participate fully in the group.  Comments should be submitted before 10 October 2005 for them to be considered before the taxonomy is to be revised as necessary, validated again and submitted for Approval.

 

 

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