How XBRL Works

XBRL is a member of the family of languages based on XML, or Extensible Markup Language, which is a standard for the electronic exchange of data between businesses and on the internet.  Under XML, identifying tags are applied to items of data so that they can be processed efficiently by computer software.

XBRL is a powerful and flexible version of XML which has been defined specifically to meet the requirements of business and financial information.  It enables unique identifying tags to be applied to items of financial data, such as ‘net profit’.  However, these are more than simple identifiers.  They provide a range of information about the item, such as whether it is a monetary item, percentage or fraction.  XBRL allows labels in any language to be applied to items, as well as accounting references or other subsidiary information.

XBRL can show how items are related to one another.  It can thus represent how they are calculated.  It can also identify whether they fall into particular groupings for organisational or presentational purposes.  Most importantly, XBRL is easily extensible, so companies and other organisations can adapt it to meet a variety of special requirements.

The rich and powerful structure of XBRL allows very efficient handling of business data by computer software.  It supports all the standard tasks involved in compiling, storing and using business data.  Such information can be converted into XBRL by suitable mapping processes or generated in XBRL by software.  It can then be searched, selected, exchanged or analysed by computer, or published for ordinary viewing.

XBRL Taxonomies, also published via this site, are the dictionaries which the language uses. These are the categorisation schemes which define the specific tags for individual items of data (such as "net profit").  National jurisdictions have different accounting regulations, so each may have its own taxonomy for financial reporting.  Many different organisations, including regulators, specific industries or even companies, may also require taxonomies to cover their own business reporting needs.  A special taxonomy has also been designed to support collation of data and internal reporting within organisations.  This is the GL taxonomy. 

Ordinary users of XBRL may be largely or totally unaware of the technical infrastructure which underpins the language. However, software companies, such as accountancy software providers, need to take account of XBRL and its features when producing their products. 

Below is an example of XBRL and the data which it represents.
 

This is a small example of XBRL -- intended for reading by computers, not humans. 

What the XBRL example represents.  This is the same XBRL data in human readable form. 

For those new to XBRL, our XBRL Foundation Certification provides a base level of understanding. The Technical Support section provides more information on how XBRL works.