Business Reporting Standardisation using XBRL

Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) is a XML specification that is being used (and continuously developed) by a non-profit consortium of roughly 450 major companies around the world for exchange of business reporting data. The reporting data can include, but is not limited to financial statements, financial information, general ledger transactions, regulatory filings (such as annual and quarterly reports). Non financial information that may have relevance to the context of financial data being described can also be included.

The clear value proposition of using XBRL is articulated on XBRL.org - "Companies can use XBRL to save costs and streamline their processes for collecting and reporting financial information. Consumers of financial data, including investors, analysts, financial institutions and regulators, can receive, find, compare and analyse data much more rapidly and efficiently if it is in XBRL format."

There is a strong drive in Australia to adopt XBRL schemas and taxonomies as standard means for business financial entity reporting.

The current version of the standard is available for review at http://www.xbrl.org/Specification/XBRL-RECOMMENDATION-2003-12-31+Corrected-Errata-2008-07-02.htm.