Study on Rational Application of eXtensible Business Reporting Language

Abstract

Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) has developed rapidly since its birth as one of accounting information processing standards and the latest technology. The governmental departments (including finance, taxation, business and other institutions), listed companies, famous software companies, academic institutions and other professions are paying more and more attention to the research in the finance information field by using XBRL. Related projects, academic conferences and discussion have been initiated to study its application and benefit. This has, in turn, lead to a new research applications upsurge in the field of accounting information management. However, the phenomenon that the advantages of XBRL were magnified is also apparent. In order to spread and apply XBRL, it is vital to objectively understand its advantages and limitations of XBRL, to constantly explore its applicable areas, and to have a good working knowledge of how it can be further developed. Being a business reporting language with many advantages, XBRL is not 100% perfect. There is still a huge distance between XBRL and the ideal network business reporting language. Based on system analysis on the research of XBRL in China and the research data samples selected from the Listed Companies in China Shanghai Stock Exchange from 2005 to 2006, the test demonstrated that the present enterprise does not obtain the superior earnings from the XBRL application, thus those enterprises cannot become the prime promoter of XBRL application. Currently, the shortcomings and performance bottlenecks in XBRL application are: Firstly, XBRL can only solve the problem in data performance format, but cannot fix the problem for the main reason for the existence of a multi-report form system and in the disclosure of information. Secondly, as there are many different systems and bodies of Taxonomy, the use of XBRL to compare and analyze accounting information in cross-regional or cross-country is not meaningful. Even in the same country, a number of organizations based on different Taxonomy will face the same problem when comparing financial and accounting information. Finally, there are inherent flaws of XBRL, such as large data storage capacity demand, inefficient implementation and excessive reliance on network security. It is bound to put enormous additional construction IT costs to companies, and may lead to ‘IT investment black hole’. Based on the research above, this paper proposes some methods and direction to solve or alleviate the problems this study found and questioned. In the research developing process of XBRL, if the problem questioned in this paper can obtain effective solutions, we can believe that this technology will bring significant changes to the accounting profession. XBRL will become the promotional power of convergence of international accounting standards. Finally, not only will it make the enterprises’ accounting information reporting mechanized, standardized and transparent, but it will also reduce the risk of fraud in accounting to a certain extent.