XBRL Reporting

XBRL stands for eXtensible Business Reporting Language. Instead of a document that only a person can read, the filer tags each number, such as revenue or total assets, against a published list of definitions called a taxonomy. Regulators and market authorities can then load thousands of filings and compare them automatically. Inline XBRL, or iXBRL, embeds the tags inside a normal readable web page, so one file serves both people and machines. Taxonomies exist for accounting standards, bank supervisory returns and, increasingly, sustainability reports. Tagging errors, such as using the wrong element or sign, can make correct figures read as wrong, so filers run validation rules before submission. Analysts, supervisors and tax authorities use the data directly. Validation rules built into filing software catch most tag errors, but only a reviewer who knows the taxonomy spots a figure tagged as the wrong thing.

A listed utility prepares its annual report in a web format with inline tags. Before filing, its reporting team runs the regulator's validation checks and finds that a loan balance was tagged as an asset. They fix the tag and submit, avoiding a rejected filing and wrong figures in the regulator's database.