XBRL and Business

Benefits and Uses for Business

All types of organisations can use XBRL to save costs and improve efficiency in handling business and financial information.  Because XBRL is extensible and flexible, it can be adapted to a wide variety of different requirements.  All participants in the financial information supply chain can benefit, whether they are preparers, transmitters or users of business data.

 

Data Collection and Reporting

By using XBRL, companies and other producers of financial data and business reports can automate the processes of data collection.  For example, data from different company divisions with different accounting systems can be assembled quickly, cheaply and efficiently if the sources of information have been upgraded to using XBRL.  Once data is gathered in XBRL, different types of reports using varying subsets of the data can be produced with minimum effort.  A company finance division, for example, could quickly and reliably generate internal management reports, financial statements for publication, tax and other regulatory filings, as well as credit reports for lenders.  Not only can data handling be automated, removing time-consuming, error-prone processes, but the data can be checked by software for accuracy.

Small businesses can benefit alongside large ones by standardising and simplifying their assembly and filing of information to the authorities.


Data Consumption and Analysis

Users of data which is received electronically in XBRL can automate its handling, cutting out time-consuming and costly collation and re-entry of information.  Software can also immediately validate the data, highlighting errors and gaps which can immediately be addressed.  It can also help in analysing, selecting, and processing the data for re-use.  Human effort can switch to higher, more value-added aspects of analysis, review, reporting and decision-making.  In this way, investment analysts can save effort, greatly simplify the selection and comparison of data, and deepen their company analysis.  Lenders can save costs and speed up their dealings with borrowers.  Regulators and government departments can assemble, validate and review data much more efficiently and usefully than they have hitherto been able to do.

 

XBRL Use by Specific Industry Sectors

  • Companies
  • Regulators and Government
  • Stock Exchanges
  • Investment Analysts
  • Banks, Loans and Credit
  • Financial Data Companies
  • Accountants
  • Software Companies


 

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