Contents

• Introduction 2
• Development of XBRL 2
• Benefits of XBRL 5
• How XBRL works 6
• Australian Prudential Regulation Authority 7
• XBRL --- Quality of Information 7
• Further Research in XBRL 8
• Conclusion 9
• References 11

Description

The technological developments in the past century have made serious impacts on the way how businesses are run. The validation and accessing of financial data has been a voluminous job that consumes man power well as revenue. The accuracy and ethics of such manual reporting of financial data have been questioned for a long time. The last decade has seen great improvement in the way companies handle their business and financial data. One of the main reasons for this is the XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language). XBRL has revolutionized business reporting around the world. XBRL is one of the languages of the families of XML languages. XBRL is developed by an international non-profit consortium which comprises of 450 major companies, organizations, and government companies (XBRL, 2010).
This report is aimed at the understanding of XBRL. The report outlines the development of XBRL and the roles played by various individuals and organizations that have played a major role in the development of XBRL. The report also identifies an Australian company that uses XBRL and explains why the company uses it. The report comments on how XBRL improves the quality of the accounting information. The report is concluded by identifying various areas of research for further development of XBRL.