XBRL: New Paradigm for Interactive Disclosures Reporting

• In Event: Reception with ELS and Research Interaction Forum Posters
  In Poster Session: Research Interaction Forum

Abstract

In the year 2009, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) mandated compulsory XBRL filing of annual financial statements for the largest listed operating companies. Over the following two years, a phase in process was implemented that required all publicly traded companies to provide financial information with XBRL tags.
XBRL stands for Extensible Business Reporting Language. It is based on XML- extensible markup language. XBRL tags provide metadata (data about data). The tags allow users to electronically identify specific pieces of information to use in evaluating financial information. With XBRL, much analysis of financial information can be automated so that analysts do not need to physically identify and transcribe data that they use to evaluate a company’s financial information. XBRL can be used both internally and externally to more efficiently analyze financial data.
The purpose of this paper is to discuss why XBRL was needed, a brief history of its development, and some issues that arose before and after its implementation in the United States. We will also discuss the future outlook for XBRL.

Authors

• Susan Rhame, University of Dallas

• Cheryl Langford Prachyl, University of Dallas

• Shahi Maheshchandra Anand Singh, University of Dallas