XBRL

1. XBRL The Extensible Business Reporting Language

2. Overview • What is XBRL? • XBRL characteristics • XBRL history • XBRL users • XBRL component relationships • Basic XBRL concepts • XBRL components • XBRL challenges • Questions

3. What is XBRL? • XBRL stands for eXtensible Business Reporting Language • It is an XML application used for electronically communicating business and financial data • A more complete definition could be: • XBRL is an open, platform-independent, international standard for the timely, accurate, efficient, and cost-effective electronic storage, manipulation, repurposing, and communication of financial and business reporting data

4. XBRL Characteristics • Open • A nonproprietary system • Definitions within XBRL standards are freely available • Platform independent • International

5. XBRL History • In 1998, Charlie Hoffman had the idea of XBRL as a way of totally transforming business reporting • Charlie enlisted the support of the AICPA to spearhead the development of XBRL with the goal of providing a standard, XML-based language for digitizing business reports in accordance with the rules of accounting in every country around the world • XBRL International is a global consortium with over 250 leading organizations concerned with the exchange and timeliness of financial and business reporting data • The consortium produced a framework of specifications and taxonomies to provide a standard, XML-based language for digitizing business reports • XBRL US (the US jurisdiction of XBRL International) operated under the AICPA volunteer committee structure from 1999-2006 until it became a separate, not-for-profit organization in September 2006

6. XBRL Users • Companies • Regulators and Government • Stock Exchanges • Investment Analysts • Banks, Loans and Credit • Financial Data Companies • Accountants • Software Companies

7. Web Document Processing Technology Document Validation Source Document Processor Result Document Style Sheet

8. XBRL Component Relationships TAXONOMY LINKBASES PRESENTATION REFERENCE INSTANCE DOCUMENT SCHEMA Element DTS LABEL CALCULATION DEFINITION FOOTNOTE TAXONOMY EXTENSION From http:/www.iasb.org/xbrl/about_xbrl/fundamentals_xbrl.html

9. Basic XBRL Concepts • In XBRL, financial data is tagged so that it can be easily understood and processed by computers • For example <Asset>1000</Asset> • Tags such as Asset will also typically have a few appropriate attributes to fully describe the element’s nature and use • To relate the information above to the previous diagram we could say that: • Values between tags (for example <Asset>1000</Asset> are found in instance documents • Information on what an Asset is and how a computer should treat it is provided in schema files • Relationships are described in linkbases which are segregated into different categories depending on what is described and how it is done

10. XBRL Components • Taxonomy • Schema • Elements • Linkbases • Presentation • Calculation • Definition • Reference • Label • Taxonomy Extension • DTS • Instance Document • Footnote

11. Taxonomy • In XBRL, a taxonomy consists of the core part which is a schema (or multiple schemas) and linkbases • The schema contains definitions of elements • Linkbases provide relationships between the elements

12. Schema • An XBRL schema stores information about taxonomy elements (their names, ids, and other characteristics) • Schemas are created using XML schema technology and are stored in files with the extension .xsd • Together with linkbases it creates an XBRL taxonomy • Because the same element could be defined in many schemas, namespaces are used

13. Namespaces • Instead of using the whole long URI address we can assign it a prefix • For example • ifrs-gp=“http://xbrl.iasb.org/int/fr/ifrs-gp/” • creates the ifrs-gp prefix • can then use the tag <ifrs-gp:Assets>

14. Elements • An element is a business concept (such as Assets, Liabilities, Income, etc.) presented to the computer in a way that it can know its main characteristics • For example, Assets could have a number of attributes including name, id, periodType, balance, abstract, substitutionGroup, and type • See example

15. Elements and Attributes • The most important attributes, from a business perspective, would be name, periodType, balance, and type • Name is a unique name for an element (and it is case sensitive) • periodType can be instant (value on a particular date) or duration (monetary flow) • balance distinguishes between items that normally have a debit or credit balance • type indicates whether an item’s information is in monetary units, numbers, percents, strings, or other (the most common types are monetaryItemType, stringItemType, and decimalItemType

16. Tuples • There are concepts in business reporting that are expressed in XBRL using elements whose definitions and constructions vary significantly from typical elements and attributes • Tuples are designed to express, for instance, tables with unknown numbers of rows and columns • The substitutionGroup value is set to tuple • A tuple may include other elements as well as attributes for minOccurs and maxOccurs • See example

17. Linkbase • Linkbases (often referred to as layers) are the components of a taxonomy that provide information about relationships between elements and link them with specified external resources • So, typically, as well as defining XBRL elements, the creation of the XBRL taxonomy also involves performing the following actions • Labeling elements in specified languages in order to make it readable by humans • Referencing elements to the external resources that justify their existence and that contain an explanation, definition, or example • Defining relations between the elements according to different criteria

18. Linkbases (cont.) • The XBRL diagram shown earlier presents how linkbases relate to the schema • Linkbases use two XML technologies • XLink (XML Linking Languages) which allow for the creation of hyperlinks in XML documents • XPointer (XML Pointing Languages) that helps to localize specific parts of XML and XBRL documents • See example • Linkbases provide descriptions of connections between elements by localizing them and defining the types of relationships (utilizing the arcrole attribute)

19. Linkbases (cont.) • The XBRL diagram shown earlier presents how linkbases relate to the schema • Linkbases use two XML technologies • XLink (XML Linking Languages) which allow for the creation of hyperlinks in XML documents • XPointer (XML Pointing Languages) that helps to localize specific parts of XML and XBRL documents • See example • Linkbases provide descriptions of connections between elements by localizing them and defining the types of relationships (utilizing the arcrole attribute)

20. Presentation Linkbase • The presentation linkbase stores information about relationships between elements in order to properly organize the taxonomy content • These groupings can be performed in many ways • For example, a Balance Sheet contains Assets, Equity, and Liabilities • Assets consist of Current Assets and Non-current Assets, etc. • The presentation linkbase helps organize these elements using parent-child relations (a hierarchical structure)

21. Calculation Linkbase • The idea of the calculation linkbase is to improve the quality of an XBRL report • It contains definitions of basic validation rules which apply to all instance documents in a particular taxonomy • For example, the lower level element values should sum up to the value of the upper level concept • See example • Two major rules concerning calculation relations in XBRL: • Cannot carry out operations on elements that have different values for periodType • Elements with different balance attributes (debit/credit) can not be added, they must be subtracted

22. Definition Linkbase • The definition linkbase provides taxonomy creators with the opportunity to define different kinds of relations between elements • There are four standard types of relationships • General-special • Essence-alias • Requires-element • Similar-tuples

23. Reference Linkbase • A taxonomy is often provided with a reference linkbase that presents relationships between elements and external regulations or standards • This helps instance creators and users to understand the intended meaning of each element • See example

24. Label Linkbase • XBRL aims to become a world-wide standard for electronic business reporting • This requires taxonomies to present business data in many different languages • Therefore it is important to be able to create an element that is assigned with labels for different languages • XBRL uses the XML attribute lang • See example

25. Taxonomy Extension • Companies are required to include in their business reports additional concepts • Extending the taxonomy may involve performing the following operations: • Adding an element that was not described in the base taxonomy but is required • Modifying the relationship between elements in terms of their order, addition, or deletion • Several rules apply for extensions, but the most important is that the extension should not physically modify the content of any of the files of the base taxonomy

26. DTS • DTS stands for Discoverable Taxonomy Set • It contains one or more taxonomies (with a number of schemas together with linkbases related to them) • This term was developed as taxonomies became more complicated and more closely related to each other • For example, the IFRS-GP taxonomy consists of 47 files (including three schemas)

27. Instance Document • An XBRL instance document is a business report in an electronic format created according to the rules of XBRL • See example

28. Footnote • Footnotes appear on instance documents and provide additional information for some of the elements • See example • The element footnote contains the text of a footnote and the footnoteLink connects the element with this reference

29. XBRL Challenges • XBRL is a language, not a process • XBRL, as a standard, has a finite life span • Underlying technology isn’t perfect • Information technology is in flux • Change takes time • Capital requirements may be significant • Legacy systems will likely remain

30. Questions? • Who benefits from the use of XBRL? And how do each of these groups benefit? • What is the process needed to implement XBRL in an organization? What costs are incurred in this conversion? • What are some of the current XBRL standards (taxonomies) that are under development? How are they unique from other taxonomies? • How could various financial industries use XBRL? • What software tools are available for helping organizations convert to XBRL? • What is the current status of XBRL implementations in the local business community?