XBRL for Financial Reporting: Evidence on Italian GAAP versus IFRS

The systematic adoption of the eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) for financial reporting represents a great challenge. Worldwide, a large number of regulators are making an effort to promote the adoption of this standard to simplify and enhance the communication of financial information. This requires the definition of well‐structured taxonomies that can standardize and accommodate the content of financial reports prepared by firms. This study aims to analyze the regulator‐led adoption of XBRL for financial reporting. It examines the XBRL taxonomies used by Italian firms to reflect their financial reporting under rule‐based Italian GAAP and principles‐based International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). We compare the alignment of the Italian GAAP taxonomy and the IFRS taxonomy with Italian companies' financial statements and find two different levels of fit. The results offer useful insights for regulators and policy makers in prescribing or establishing appropriate taxonomies. We illustrate the potential impacts of the different taxonomies on the quality of financial reporting in terms of comparability and potential loss of information.     

IFRS Taxonomy and financial reporting practices: The case of Italian listed companies

XBRL taxonomies have a crucial role in digital financial reporting. On the one hand, they provide a unique set of computer-readable tags to allow the interchange of interactive information. On the other hand, a systematic, agreed-upon convention for naming each taxonomy tag is needed. In this context, the IFRS Foundation is playing a relevant role in developing well-structured taxonomies, which could simultaneously favor both the interoperability and the homogenization of the firms' financial information at the global level. Due to its importance, XBRL is being applied in many countries, but according to different implementation schemas.In this study, we attempt to verify if the IFRS Taxonomy released by the IFRS Foundation adequately reflects the reporting practices of the Italian listed companies for which XBRL is not yet required. The results reveal a general discrepancy between the financial items disclosed by the companies and the taxonomy tags. Specifically, we noticed that the financial statements items are more disaggregated than the taxonomy tags and that this depends on the sector and the size of the companies. Unless the XBRL implementation system explicitly allows companies to use and disclose taxonomy extensions, a loss of detailed information occurs if the taxonomy is applied.     

分类标准FRTA校验的分析研究

财务报告分类标准架构(F inanc ial Reporting Taxonomy Arch itecture,FRTA)规范是XBRL国际组织2005年发布的技术规范,它规定了分类标准的建模规则。本文针对国际财务报告准则基金会(IFRSF)的分类标准IFRS 20100630版,以及中国财政部的企业会计准则通用分类标准CAS 20100930版,进行了与FRTA规范合规性的校验分析,从而提出FRTA规范应该随着XBRL技术规范的不断更新进行内容上的修订与改进,同时XBRL处理工具的校验机制也应该针对XBRL技术规范的更新进行修改与维护。     

XBRL财务报告分类标准评价——基于财务报告分类与公司偏好的报告实务的匹配性研究

XBRL是网络财务报告向高级阶段发展的技术基础,可以改进信息的编报和使用。然而,XBRL财务报告生成和应用的一个关键问题是采用的财务报告分类与公司偏好的报告实务间能否很好的匹配,匹配性差将导致信息损失。本文仅针对财务报表附注项目,将12个行业117个上市公司2005年年报中披露的项目与上交所制定的《中国上市公司信息披露分类》标准中定义的相应标记匹配,发现二者间存在着较大的差异,并且行业间的差异不显著。我们认为XBRL网络财务报告目前还不适宜全面应用,当务之急是进一步修改完善分类标准。     

XBRL分类标准认证的理论基础和方法学体系研究

随着建立全球统一的高质量会计准则的发展势态和XBRL分类标准广泛而深入的研究与应用,XBRL分类标准的认证正越来越受到重视。目前国内外理论界和实务界,都是从操作层面上来研究和实施XBRL分类标准的认证。而对于XBRL分类标准认证的理论基础和方法学体系研究较少。本文则以第三方非营利组织理论、本体论、软件体系架构理论和软件成熟度模型理论作为理论基础,结合XBRL分类标准认证的内容,尝试建立了XBRL分类标准认证的方法学体系,并对方法学体系的构成要素和要素之间的关系进行了详细阐述。     

XBRL to enhance external financial reporting: Should we implement or not? Case Company X

The growing use of eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) represents a fundamental change for financial information flows. In a number of countries XBRL has already been put to practical use, for instance through implementation within the financial processes of non-listed companies. This fictional case is designed to help identify the benefits of XBRL. In addition, it helps to create knowledge about the different strategies of XBRL implementation and to apply this knowledge when making investment decisions on accounting information processes.     

网络财务报告：XBRL标准的理论基础研究

XBRL研发中由于没有一个现成的概念框架予以指导和规范,导致的问题是建立的信息标准缺乏必要的理论支持,XBRL报告的内部组织也缺乏必要的层次和结构,信息之间的关系得不到合理解释。目前无论是国际还是国内,从会计角度研究XBRL基本理论都处于起步和探索阶段,本文将会计理论、数据库理论相结合。尝试建立了以财务信息元素为结构的XBRL理论体系,并对该理论体系的逻辑关系和层次结构进行了论证。该理论无论在国际还是国内都是首次提出并加以论证的,我们认为它不仅仅可以作为财务报告系统信息标准开发的理论基础,也适用于作为簿记系统、交易和事项系统信息标准开发的理论基础。     

Institutionalising XBRL for financial reporting: resorting to regulation

By integrating and streamlining financial information within and among various organisations, eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) has been developed with a view to enhancing the efficiency, accuracy, and transparency of corporate accounting information. Taking an inter-organisational focus, this paper investigates the process of how XBRL was institutionalised. It explains and offers insights on how institutional arrangements emerge and become relevant as heterogeneous organisations consider adopting accounting innovations while evidence concerning their benefits is unavailable. The original and overall contribution of this study is that it improves current understanding of coal-face actors' perceptions, behaviours, and strategies as they interact in the organisational field and become engaged in developing accounting innovations to produce the macro-level observations documented in existing institutional theory studies.     

CAP Forum on E‐Business: Assurance Reporting for XML‐Based Information Services: XARL (Extensible Assurance Reporting Language)*

Extensible business reporting language (XBRL) is an XML‐based method for financial reporting. XBRL was developed to provide users with an efficient and effective means of preparing and exchanging financial information over the Internet. However, like other unprotected data coded in XML, XBRL (document) files (henceforth “documents") are vulnerable to threats against their integrity. Anyone can easily create and manipulate an XBRL document without authorization. In addition, business and financial information in XBRL can be misinterpreted, or used without the organization's consent or knowledge. Extensible assurance reporting language (XARL) was developed by Boritz and No (2003) to enable assurance providers to report on the integrity of XBRL documents distributed over the Internet. Providing assurance on XBRL documents using XARL could help users and companies reduce the uncertainty about the integrity of those documents and provide users with trustworthy information that they could place warranted reliance upon. A limitation of the initial conception of XARL was its tight linkage with the XBRL document and the comparatively primitive approach to codifying the XARL taxonomy. In this paper, we have reconceptualized the idea of XARL as a stand‐alone service for providing assurance on potentially any XML‐based information being shared over the Internet. While our illustrative application in this paper continues to be XBRL‐coded financial information, the code that underlies this version of XARL is a significant revision of our earlier implementation of XARL, is compatible with the latest version of XBRL, and moves XARL into the Web services arena.     

Big data and algorithmic trading against periodic and tangible asset reporting: The need for U-XBRL

The gradual but marked decline in the correspondence between aggregated accounting numbers and market valuations, such as stock returns, is a well-documented phenomenon in the research literature (Lev and Zarowin, 1999). Rapid advances in technology have paved the way for the collection of unprecedented volumes of data. Currently, the slow speed of information dissemination, laggard accounting systems, and a focus on high levels of aggregation are perhaps the largest contributors to waning relevance of financial reporting. The fight for trading superiority is leading users to seek relevant data elsewhere and may contribute to these observed effects. This paper proposes an accounting system known as User XBRL (U-XBRL) designed to overcome these issues. This system collects, analyzes, and displays information in such a way that caters to the speed, detail, and customization demands of modern-day stakeholders (Krahel and Titera, 2015). U-XBRL amalgamates all types of data pertinent to a business, including both internal company data and exogenous source data. Each piece of data is assigned to a firm resource according to the resource-based view. Then, U-XBRL standardizes the information according to data standards and feeds it to a central repository. This repository is primarily organized through XBRL tags and is governed secondarily by other standards and taxonomies. A number of applications can be used individually to select data from the repository for analysis. Using U-XBRL the recognition, monitoring, and assurance of resources are streamlined.     

The Israeli XBRL Adoption Experience

eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) is a language for the electronic communication of business and financial data which is revolutionizing business reporting around the world. It is a tool to bridge potential language barriers and unify financial reporting. This has appeal to foreign investors, among others, who can rely on information in XBRL‐tagged financial reports to make investment decisions without having to translate financial statements from local language. In 2008, Israel required most public companies to adopt International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for financial reporting and to use XBRL‐tagged reporting format, as part of an aggressive effort to make its capital markets more transparent and attractive for foreign investors. In this paper, we study all Israeli public companies and analyze the accuracy and reliability of their XBRL‐tagged financial statements that are available on MAGNA, the Israel Securities Authority's electronic system. We describe the process by which the XBRL‐based data were collected and reported. We document, categorize, and analyze deficiencies in the XBRL‐tagged filings, and inconsistencies between them and the Hebrew‐based annual reports. We observe pervasive data entry errors resulting in inaccurate XBRL‐generated financial reports, which went undetected for over one year. Further, first year XBRL reporting (in conjunction with IFRS adoption) did not increase foreign investment in the Israeli capital markets. This analysis allows us to better understand the benefits and challenges of the adoption of XBRL.     

Introducing XBRL through a financial statement analysis project

In this project, we introduce business and accounting students to the application of eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) through the use of interactive data. Students study the basic concepts and potential benefits of interactive data and XBRL. Students learn to extract the financial reports of two companies in the same industry. Then, using traditional financial analysis techniques (ratio analysis) students can compare the performance of these companies. Thus, the project accomplishes two important objectives: it introduces students to the benefits and features of XBRL-tagged financial reporting and interactive data, and it shows how this medium can be used to facilitate the analysis of financial statements. The project uses free, publicly available interactive data tools to accomplish these objectives.This project is appropriate for any level of financial accounting course in which students use public company financial statements to generate financial ratios and conduct analysis on them. We aim the project at MBA-type introductory accounting courses. In addition, we show how it can easily be expanded to be applied to higher level financial statement analysis courses, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The project provides some background into how XBRL-tagged financial reporting is generated, while the main focus is on application of interactive data and not the technology itself. Since XBRL is now mandated by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for most reporting entities, it is critical for today’s business students to be familiar with this method of communicating financial information.     

The production and use of semantically rich accounting reports on the Internet: XML and XBRL

Most major corporations in the U.S. (and a growing number of companies around the world) are reporting some level of financial information on their Web sites. However, it is not clear that the stakeholders are fully satisfied with this Web-based data. The time and effort allocated to the mechanics of Web retrieval are actually increasing because of the difficulty of finding pages and specific data within the enormity of the public Web (over 1 billion pages) or of many corporate intranets. One way to deal with this vast information source would be to automate the Web search mechanics by developing and using intelligent software agents. However, developing these agents in the current Web environment is very problematic. Three factors are preconditions for effective utilization of the Web. First, appropriate metadata representation of financial reporting information on the Web is required that could improve the accuracy of searches (the resource discovery problem). Second, accounting data points within Web pages should be able to be reliably parsed (the attribute recognition problem). Third, standard mechanisms are required that will encourage or require corporations to report in a consistent fashion. The reality of the Web is that it falls far short of a reliable communication medium for accounting and financial information on all three of these factors. The eXtensible Markup Language (XML) provides a method to tag financial information to greatly improve the automation of information location and retrieval, and provides technical solutions to the resource discovery and attribute recognition problems. However, if every company were free to develop its own labels for its XML tags, then the searching for financial information would be only marginally improved. The recent development by a consortium lead by the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) of the so-called “eXtensible Business Reporting Language” (XBRL) is an initiative to develop an XML-based Web-based business reporting specification. The widespread adoption of XBRL would mean that both humans and intelligent software agents could operate on financial information disseminated on the Web with a high degree of accuracy and reliability. XBRL provides rich research opportunities, including new taxonomies, database accounting, financial statement assurance, intelligent agents, human/computer interfaces, standard development process, adoption incentives, global adoption, and formal ontologies.     

XBRL环境下财务报告鉴证框架的建构——基于XBRL财务报告元素的角度

基于XBRL财务报告元素的角度,构建了由总体鉴证目标(XBRL财务报告真实恰当地反映了企业的经济事实或者纸质报告)、具体鉴证目标(XBRL财务报告的合规性和可靠性)和管理层认定组成的XBRL环境下财务报告的鉴证框架,并对XBRL财务报告进行了鉴证,发现在XBRL财务呈报中出现了违反基本元素标记的完整性和元素数据的金额准确性等的错报。在XBRL财务报告的推进过程中需要贯彻实施通用分类标准,加快制定行业扩展分类标准,并加强对XBRL财务报告质量的人工校验以及完善编制流程的内部控制等。     

高校基于XBRL技术会计信息化人才培养的必要性

由于XBRL技术的特性，自20世纪90年代以来，世界各国纷纷将XBRL技术应用到财务报告领域，实现了财务报告数据的标准化。2009年4月，我国财政部确立了以XBRL技术为先导的会计信息化目标，2010年10月，我国又发布了XBRL技术规范国家标准和基于会计准则的XBRL通用分类标准。但是在我国很少有高校将XBRL技术引入到会计信息化教学中，XBRL技术人才储备严重不足，这在一定程度上延滞了我国以XBRL技术为主导的会计信息化目标的实现。本文将对高校XBRL技术会计信息化人才培养必要性进行探讨。     

基于事项凭证的会计报表生成流程探析

在转轨经济时代，会计报表依然承载着记录会计信息的历史使命，而信息使用者则愈加关注会计信息的具体内容，事项信息的地位逐渐提升，使得会计报表的生成流程有待改进。本文基于传统会计核算流程的缺陷之处，并结合目前XBRL财务报告体系中的启示，对基于事项凭证的会计报表生成流程进行了探讨，为事项信息的充分运用提供合适的平台。     

浅析我国会计信息化进程中XBRL应用问题

随着现代网络和信息技术的发展,中国提出了国家信息化发展战略,其中会计信息化也是整个国家信息化战略的重要组成部分。可扩展商业报告语言（eXtensidle Business Reporting Language,简称XBRL）自1998年诞生至今,在全球范围内的会计信息化领域引起了一场革命。为了推动我国的会计信息化建设,就必须分析我国XBRL应用过程存在的问题,进而探讨相应的对策,以保证其在会计信息化工作中的应用优势。     

XBRL and open data for global financial ecosystems: A linked data approach

Information professionals performing business activity related investigative analysis must routinely associate data from a diverse range of Web based general-interest business and financial information sources. XBRL has become an integral part of the financial data landscape. At the same time, Open Data initiatives have contributed relevant financial, economic, and business data to the pool of publicly available information on the Web but the use of XBRL in combination with Open Data remains at an early state of realisation. In this paper we argue that Linked Data technology, created for Web scale information integration, can accommodate XBRL data and make it easier to combine it with open datasets. This can provide the foundations for a global data ecosystem of interlinked and interoperable financial and business information with the potential to leverage XBRL beyond its current regulatory and disclosure role. We outline the uses of Linked Data technologies to facilitate XBRL consumption in conjunction with non-XBRL Open Data, report on current activities and highlight remaining challenges in terms of information consolidation faced by both XBRL and Web technologies.     

Does it add up? Early evidence on the data quality of XBRL filings to the SEC

In 2009, the Securities and Exchange Commission rolled out the first stage of a multi-year program to transition its EDGAR disclosure repository to the XBRL format. The quality of the XBRL data in the repository is vital for the success of the Commission’s interactive data program. A key aspect of the data quality of these filings is the correctness of the mathematical relationships implied by the taxonomy and implemented in the instance document. One quarter of the filings by the initial 400 large corporations in the first round of submissions had errors, with differences reported monetary facts and the sum of other monetary facts that were bound together in a computation relationship. The primary cause of these errors was inappropriate treatment in the instance documents of underlying debit/credit assumptions in the taxonomy. The results of the research have a number of implications for filers, the SEC, XBRL US, software vendors and the global XBRL community.     

Soft Computing Techniques for Querying XBRL Data

Availability of business data is an important aspect of effective financial activities. An easy access to financial information has immense influence on actions and decisions regarding investing, trade and operations of companies and firms. The proposed standard – eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) – provides a means to create a uniform framework for representing corporate and financial information. XBRL defines an easily interpretable, machine-readable and XML-based data format. Its flexibility allows for representing business data using different languages, as well as following different regulation standards. One of important benefits of XBRL is application of XML-based tools and systems that enable easy preparation, processing and validation of corporate data. It is also possible to use XML-based storage and query systems. In this paper we propose and describe a concept of soft queries. They provide the users with a human-friendly interface for interacting with XBRL data. These queries are equipped with linguistic terms (such as large, medium, small) and linguistic qualifiers (all, mostly). Such queries are able to provide the users with results similar to the results obtained when they analyse data themselves. Linguistic terms and qualifiers are represented as fuzzy sets. Fuzzy-based operations and aggregation operators allow for mimicking a human-like processing of data. The proposed approach is illustrated with queries executed on an XBRL document. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.