XBRL is a data-rich dialect of XML (Extensible Markup Language), the universally preferred language for transmitting information via the Internet. It was developed specifically to communicate information between businesses and other users of financial information, such as analysts, investors and regulators. XBRL provides a common electronic format for business reporting. It does not change what is being reported. It only changes how it is reported.
A typical business report on an Internet page is a closed and self-contained document. Although it can be viewed and transmitted using the Internet, its format and content is fixed; neither the format nor the content can be changed unless you change the Internet page. To extract the information from such a report for computerised analysis requires exporting or re-keying the data into a format that can be consumed by computer software.
A business report that has been prepared using XBRL (known as an instance document) is different because the information contain in the document is not closed and does not have a predefined, fixed format. Information that has been tagged using XBRL is 'interactive' because it it can be recognised, processed, stored, exchanged and analysed automatically by computers using software.
About XBRL tags
In XBRL, information is not treated as a static block of text or set of numbers. Instead, information is broken-down into unique items of data (eg total liabilities = 100). These data items are then assigned tags which make them computer-readable. For example, the tag <Liabilities>100</Liabilities> enables a computer to understand that the item is liabilities, and it has a value of 100.
Computers can treat information that has been tagged using XBRL 'intelligently'; they can recognise, process, store, exchange and analyse it automatically using software. Because XBRL tags are formed in a universally-accepted way, they can be consumed and processed by any computer that has XBRL software.
XBRL tags are defined and organised using categorisation schemes called taxonomies. For a company reporting in IFRS, the IFRS Foundation publishes tags for each IFRS disclosure, which are contained in the IFRS Taxonomy.
For more information on taxonomies and the IFRS Taxonomy, please click here.