The document discusses the benefits of XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language), an open standard for exchanging business information. It argues that XBRL can increase transparency in financial markets by making reported data more reusable, searchable, and linkable. By standardizing how data is tagged and linked, XBRL allows for automated analysis and social sharing of analytical models and insights. Adopting XBRL brings greater transparency to both company disclosures and the analytical processes used to evaluate them.

2. “More transparency is one key to restoring trust, and executives have a
fiduciary responsibility to their stake holders to learn more about XBRL
and how this powerful open source royalty free information standard can
help bring transparency and trust back to markets.”
Liv Watson, a founding member of XBRL International Consortium
“There are many who rightly see the crisis as the consequence of failure
to put economic policies at the service of the common good. As Adam
Smith wrote over 250 years ago in his Theory of Moral Sentiments, univer-
sal values far beyond the profit motive – including humanity, justice, gen-
erosity and public spiritedness – must provide the framework for markets
to work effectively. Now, he might argue, is the perfect moment to ensure
that such core values are finally hardwired into public policy and interna-
tional relations. In a highly interconnected world beset with shared prob-
lems, we cannot afford to get this wrong. And if we get it right, then we
might finally have learned the lessons that Smith was trying to teach us.”
Kofi Annan, Former, UN Secretary-General
An abstract

3. Enhancing Capital Markets Transparency and Trust
By Liv Apneseth Watson, IRIS Business Services
XBRL a universal language of business information transforming the approach to dis-
closure
The idea that regulatory-required disclosure can reduce risks and foster transparence is not
something new to public policy. As early as the 1930s, reacting to the market meltdown of the
great depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt championed the approval of the United States
Securities and Exchange (SEC) Acts, which required companies that sold securities to the public
to reveal earnings, obligations, and other data to foster transparence to investors. Over time,
those disclosure requirements formed the basis for public confidence in the nation's securities
markets.
Back then before copy machines, fax machines, and computers had been invented. People trav-
eled to Washington, D.C., to public reference rooms to gather information they wanted to use for
analysis or other purpose and then called key stakeholders about the event from SEC provided
payphones. In those days, you had to have pocket full of quarters if you went digging into SEC
filings. Now, in the wake of yet another market meltdown, government, regulators, industry
groups and investors are once again taking a closer look at how disclosure works in practice.
The Internet and electronic communication has ensured that information is more freely
available than ever before and that the time it takes to deliver that information has sharply de-
creased. The key question is now: How reusable is that information? Even when you know ex-
actly what you are looking for and roughly where to find it, extracting information from financial
and business reports today generally involves a largely human error prone manual effort that is
often very frustrating and time-consuming. The biggest problem is that the format and media on
which financial and business reported disclosures are authored and shared varies widely be-
tween paper, html, pdf, and other human readable forms or proprietary electronic formats tied to
a specific software application. Each publishing format has its limitations. To resolve the prob-
lem of providing reusable access to timely, relevant, discoverable and accurate financial and
business information a market-driven open-standard consortium has evolved and developed an
information standard called XBRL short for eXtensible Business Reporting Language. This inter-
national consortium powerfully connects members representing the entire business reporting
supply chain (see Figure 1 below) in the development of a standards-based solution for financial
and business information that is universally open industry-driven, and internationally endorsed.

4. Figure 1: The Financial and Business Reporting Supply Chain
Source: XBRL International, Inc
XBRL International is comprised of local jurisdictions which focus on the progress devel-
opment and coordination of XBRL in their region and direct members in regions that juris-
dictions have yet to be formed. Members of XBRL International include approximately 600
leading companies, associations, government and other industry agencies involved in pro-
viding or using business information.
XBRL Components
There are two main components to XBRL: the XBRL Specification and the XBRL Taxono-
mies, including the underlying linkbases.
1 XBRL Specification
The XBRL technical Specification provides the fundamental definition of how
XBRL actually works. The Specification allows software vendors, programmers and
end users who adopt it as a specification to enhance the creation, exchange, and
comparison of financial reporting information. The documentation of the Specifica-
tion is published by XBRL International and is available at http://www.xbrl.org/
Specifications/.
2 XBRL Taxonomies
The key to understanding the benefits of XBRL lays in the notion of “taxonomies”
and it is probably time for all executives to add "XBRL Taxonomies" to their profes-
sional vocabulary.

5. XBRL taxonomies are basically dictionaries of business terms and links to their corre-
sponding linkbases. Not only does the information become instantly searchable and re-
trievable, but it can also be immediately loaded into spreadsheets and any number of soft-
ware applications for analysis.
“[T]he data is trapped in an iceberg of paper in these current systems, and if we could just
tag that data it would be instantly available. That iceberg would melt, that data would be
freely available, and it would be accurate, it would be complete, it would be timely, it
would be relevant, and it would be comparable.”
Alfred Berkeley, former President Nasdaq, CEO Pipeline Trading, New York
Figure 2, shows a sample of an original data item with tagged and linked explanatory
labels that enhance the user's understanding of a data element.
Label Linkbase: This is a list of common business reporting term that is used in general
purpose financial and business reporting statements.
• Presentation Linkbase: This allows the user to click on a link and see the informa-
tion in different views and different languages.
• Reference Linkbase: This allows for data items to be linked directly to items in au-
thoritative literature such as US GAAP standards or other authoritative literature.
• Formula Linkbase: This allows one to set triggers that could give early warning
signals for accounts that are in trouble with one click of the mouse. A common way
to communicate and exchange these formulas among stakeholder
• Context Linkbase: This gives the XBRL tagged item more information about the
data item, such as it is a budget number in US dollars for fiscal year 2008.
• Calculation Linkbase: This explains from what calculation the number derives, for
example ensuring that Cash equals Currency plus deposits.

6. • Other Linkbases: This allows the author’s of financial and business reporting data
to add or link additional attributes to a data item. Companies can provide additional
data definitions, authoritative literature references and more thereby dramatically
increasing the probability that the user of the financial data will be able to under-
stand management’s intent and enhance comparability.
Building Trust with Enhanced Interactive Disclosure
One thing investors and regulatory agencies should be able to count on is that audited
financial statements reported to public repositories at least add up, but a recent study
undertaken by IRIS Business Services shows that this is not necessary the case. In this
study by using XBRL it was discovered that 209 listed Indian companies had discrepancies
in their reports and that the numbers did not add up.
This was discovered by converting over 1,400 listed Indian companies’ primary financial
statement into XBRL using the benefits of the calculation linkbase as part of the XBRL
International specification that explains from what calculation the number derives. It does
not really matter that most of discrepancies were not material. The very fact that there are
discrepancies is a serious enough matter.
The errors were discovered in the course of creating India’s first-ever corporate
fundamentals database in XBRL. The project used the taxonomy approved recently by the
Institute of Chartered Accountants as a first step toward full-fledged adoption of XBRL in
India. It might be unfair to simply blame the auditors, as it is the responsibility of company
managements to get it right, but the fact that this information has gone undiscovered for
years should raise the questions, how accurate is the information reported by companies to
the marketplace.
This “Trust Meltdown Report” comes at the time when the Indian capital marketplace is
already being questioned about its regulatory oversight. Just recently a leading Indian
outsourcing company Satyam Computer Services publicly announced that it had
significantly inflated its earnings and assets for years, consequently throwing the whole
local capital market into turmoil. Many observers are now asking whether similar prob-
lems might lie buried elsewhere.
The challenges associated with accurate, timely financial reporting are apparent from the
number of other accounting scandals uncovered during the past few years. These scandals
have been widely reported and the estimated cost has grown into the billions of dollars
(Economist, 2003). Restatements of financial results by public companies soared in 2005
as auditors were forced to drill deeper into corporate accounts, in part because of a
sharper focus on requirements laid out by the US Sarbanes – Oxley Act (Reilly, 2006).
This brings the attention to that a non-technological solution can go only so far. This is
why the underlying design of the XBRL technology specification might be the magic wand
to bring accurate and timely results because it integrates technologies with the basic
accounting framework. Using underlying linkbases, XBRL allows every item defined in a

7. financial statement to carry multiple attributes, including the interrelationship with other
elements. This simple, yet powerful concept of linkbases allows every accounting element
to be validated before being submitted to a regulator. Clearly the way financial and
business reporting data is prepared, communicated and analyzed today is fundamentally
changing.
XBRL is not about the technology. It is about communicating your financial and business
reporting information, accurately, effectively and in real time, to the electronic market-
place. Give the capital markets better financial information that is easier to consume, is
more reliable, and is delivered faster, and the capital market will respond favorably with
more exposure and lower costs of capital.
REFERENCES
Economist . ( 2003 ) Still counting the cost .October 2003 .
Reilly , D . ( 2006 ) Sarbanes – Oxley changes take root . Wall Street Journal , 3 March 2006 .
Social Analytics - The Benefits of Standardization of related context, presentation,
formulas, and relationships
Standardizing business information, its context and presentation concepts are foundational
to automating the exchange of relevant disclosures between companies and their
stakeholder constituents. As outlined above, XBRL also enables the standardization of
related formulas which can be combined into complex calculations and even analytical
models. The standardization of the critical information concepts (context, presentation,
formulas, and relationships) enables third party users to more effectively access, analyze,
manipulate, share and collaborate.
Current analysis processes are adversely impacted by physical location of the information
within spreadsheets. A formula that represents a simple analytical concept, say ‘Return on
Assets’, would be articulated based upon the physical location of the relevant data (e.g.
(B2/F2) where B2 is the cell location of Net Income and F2 is the cell location for Total
Assets).This physical orientation of information hinders development, sharing, reuse and
management of formulas (macros) across spreadsheets, applications and analysts. The
current physical orientation of information within spreadsheets also limits the analyst’s
ability to cost effectively share and/or collaborate with other analysts.
XBRL enables analysts to build formulas (macros), based upon the standardized
vocabularies. The XBRL enabled ‘Return on Assets’ formula will look more like a logical
sentence (eg ‘netincome/totalassets’). In an XBRL enabled spreadsheet, the software
provides a view of the company information and executes the analytical formula based
upon the logically defined information of ‘netincome’ and ‘totalassets’. As a result, ana-
lysts have an enhanced analytical processing environment in which they can construct for-
mulas based upon public taxonomies from both the public-sector companies and even
those unique taxonomy extensions developed by the individual analyst.
As with the barcode, standardized information structures enable greater levels of
automation within business processes. Some analysts are already using XBRL to reduce

8. costs and improve effectiveness of their internal analytical processes, either through
intermediary offerings or internally developed applications and products. Other analysts
are applying semantically based artificial intelligence agents to make subjective
assessments on narrative disclosures that are structured in the XBRL format.
Just as html enabled the social networking collaboration via sites like Facebook,
Wikipedia, and MySpace; XBRL is enabling social analytics via EDGAR-Online's
I-Metrics platform, Morgan Stanley's Modelware, IRIS Business Service iFile compliance
platform, and PricewaterhouseCoopers Interactive Data Platform. These XBRL enabled
analytical platforms provide analysts with a library of highly reusable analytical models
and formulas and a collaborative method of sharing new ideas and insights with other
analysts within their organizations and/or groups.
The enhancement of capital market transparency is not only relevant for company
disclosures; it is also relevant for the formulas and models used to analyze the company
disclosures. Social analytics is a new level of market transparency that promotes better
communication between companies and their investors and collaboration between
investors. These new capabilities work to enhance the analytical capabilities of both
companies and their stakeholders and thereby foster trust in company disclosures.
The bottom line is, if a company is not on radar screen of the investors, chances are that
the prices would fall and cost of capital rise. If a stock exchange’s data system is not easy
accessible to investors, they may drop off the radar screens of the investors. Today’s focus
on improving business reporting and bolstering confidence in financial capital markets
demands technology that enables rapid and accurate reporting and analysis of corporate
financial information. Any capital markets that want to fulfill its mission of protect inves-
tors, maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitate capital formation should
adopt XBRL as part of their filing requirements to boost investor’s confidence.
The list of benefits could go on. For now, suffice it to say that executives have an economic
fiduciary responsibility to learn more about XBRL and how this powerful information
standard can be used to improve efficiency of data sharing of financial and business
reporting information.
Side Bar Brief description of Sample XBRL projects worldwide
(in alphabetical order)
Belgium
Since January 2008, XBRL has been mandatory for all filings of annual accounts to the
National Bank of Belgium and the project has been extended to the annual accounts of the
not-for profit sector. The CBSO (Central Balance Sheet Office - CBSO) receives currently
more than 90% of all the annual accounts filed in XBRL format.
Canada
The Canadian Securities Administrators Voluntary XBRL filing program is now in effect,
XBRL Canada is working on a taxonomy that conforms to IFRS.

9. Chile
Starting 2009 those companies which are the most actively traded on the Securities
Market will be required to file their annual financial statement according to the
international standards. The SVS XBRL Team has extended the IFRS taxonomy according
its requirements and the companies would be filing their returns based on this taxonomy.
The SVS XBRL project is one of the first XBRL projects in South America
China
The China Securities Regulatory Commission has been looking forward towards adoption
of XBRL for information disclosure of listed companies since 2002 and has been joined by
the Shanghai Stock Exchange for the implementation of XBRL as a reporting standard. As
of April 30, 2009, all the 864 companies listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) have
submitted their XBRL instances simultaneously during the disclosure of the periodical
reports of 2008 for the first time, and included the aforesaid XBRL instances as part of the
mandatory disclosure.
Denmark
The Danish Commerce and Companies Agency (DCCD) has been receiving annual ac-
counts from companies in XBRL since 2005. A complete XBRL solution for the Danish
class B annual reports has been running since the beginning of 2008. The XBRL Taxonomy
in Denmark has been developed by the DCCA in co-operation with both industry and
experts.
Germany
Around 425,000 corporations are filing their annual statements with the German
Bundesanzeiger in XBRL format since 2007 using the latest German GAAP taxonomy i.e.
HGB Taxonomy. The third version of C&I taxonomy is updated and GAAP Taxonomy for
financial institutions was finalized and included into the package.
India
The Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has mandated the top 100 companies listed
on the two major exchanges viz. the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock
Exchange, to file their disclosures through XBRL-based Corpfiling. In addition to the
mandated 100 companies, over 500 companies are filing voluntarily their financial in
XBRL.
The Reserve Bank of India, India’s central bank, has launched XBRL based reporting
solution for capital adequacy returns. All the scheduled commercial banks which fall un-
der the purview of Basel II use this platform. Returns for fortnightly liquidity position and
the annual financial statements are in pipeline
The Institute of Chartered Accounts of India has developed taxonomy for India based on
Indian GAAP. The taxonomy for Commercial and Industrial sector is completed and ready
for acknowledgement from XII. The taxonomies for Banking and Non-Banking companies
are under development

10. Ireland
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) Ireland has started a pilot to assess use of XBRL in
one of its quarterly industry surveys. The pilot involved the creation of XBRL documents of
one of the CSO forms - the Quarterly Accounts Inquiry to Industry. The survey covers
enterprises with 20 or more persons engaged in the Mining, Manufacturing and Energy
sectors and reports on changes in stocks, acquisitions and sales of capital assets during a
quarter. Seven respondent companies participated in the pilot and successfully submitted
data electronically using the XBRL solution.
Japan
Japan also is one the early adopters of XBRL and had started voluntary XBRL reporting
program for financial services institutions gradually expending the range of reports since
2005. The Financial Services Agency (FSA) has implemented a new system which requires
around 5,000 listed companies and 3,000 mutual funds to submit their financial
information in the XBRL format.
Korea
As of 2007, all publicly held companies file financial statements using XBRL on the
electronic filing system of the Korea Financial supervisory Commission. The system allows
viewers to see and analyze a company’s financial statements in English.
Macedonia
Mr. Fatmir Besimi, head of the Ministry of Economy in Macedonia has initiated a study
headed up by a local firm RE-AKTIV DOO for a nationwide implementation of the XBRL
standard and is expected to go live in 2010 with a goal to reduce compliance cost of com-
panies as well as attract foreign investment.
Netherlands
Since 2005, one of the largest XBRL projects was started by Netherland government with
the aim of decreasing the regulatory reporting burden on the entities by 25%. The
taxonomy project covers three major reporting areas – taxation, annual accounts and
economic statistics. Since Jan 2007, all the Dutch corporations were able to submit their
data in XBRL format.
Singapore
The Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority of Singapore is mandating the filing
of statutory reports in XBRL. Since November 2007, Singapore-incorporated companies
are required to file their Annual Returns including financial information XBRL format.
Baring certain types of exempted companies, all listed and non-listed companies will be
filing in XBRL
South Africa
The Johannesburg Stock Exchange developed as a pilot, an XBRL based filing platform.
JSE commissioned Deloitte SA & IRIS Business Services (IRIS) for building the platform.
Seven companies, and the JSE, along with XBRL SA came together to sponsor this project.
This pilot is also the earliest adaptation of IFRS 2008 taxonomy.

11. Spain
The Spanish Stock Exchange has begun to use XBRL for receiving and distributing public
financial reports from more than 3,000 listed companies. The Bank of Spain, central bank,
is receiving regulatory data in XBRL from more than 400 banks covering more than 90 %
of the Spanish financial sector. The Bank of Spain has also developed a Financial Informa-
tion Exchange System to support XBRL reporting by credit institutions.
United Kingdom
Companies House has already received more than 200,000 accounts from small compa-
nies in XBRL using an extension to the UK GAAP taxonomy. United Kingdom HRMC
Draft Regulations to require online XBRL Corporation Tax filings have now been issued
and are open for comment until 31 July 2009. Companies will be required to file online the
Corporation Tax returns and payments from 2011 in XBRL format. The rules apply to
period ending on April 1, 2010 and later.
United States
The Securities Exchange Commission has played a vital role in accelerating adoption of
XBRL in the US. Voluntary filing program for XBRLised returns has been initiated by the
exchange in early years and is moving towards mandatory filing in a phased manner. In
December 2008, SEC has made it mandatory for companies above USD $ 5 Billion as
global float, to file their returns from June 2009 quarter onwards in XBRL format and
around 500 companies are expected to file XBRLised returns and over the next couple of
years all companies will be phased in for a 100 percent compliance. The SEC is also man-
dating that all mutual funds start reporting in XBRL in 2010.
The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council in US has achieved major success
with the use XBRL for regulatory bank reporting. The FFIEC implemented XBRL-based
solution in 2005 for the filing of call reports which was used by more than 8000 financial
institutions. The results were phenomenal and showed an increase from 66% to 95% in
data cleanliness, from 70% to 100% in accuracy, from weeks to hours in timeliness, and a
15% rise in the productivity of analysts.
State Nevada State entered into a pilot with IRIS Business Services to use XBRL for debt
collection. The agencies would be using spreadsheets to send their data to the state and
XBRL would be running beneath. IRIS together with Nevada State Controller Kim Wallin
have published a white paper on State Business Portal which talks about the need to
streamline the transactions and inter-agency interactions and the role of XBRL in building
such integrated information exchange platforms.

12. For more information, please contact
Mr. P. Anand
IRIS Business Services (Asia) Pte. Ltd. Singapore
Email : anand.p@irisbusiness.com
Ms. Liv Watson
IRIS Business Services Pvt. Ltd.
E mail : liv.watson@irisbusiness.com
Ms. Deepta Rangarajan
IRIS Business Services Pvt. Ltd.
Email : deepta.rangarajan@irisbusiness.com