XBRL: Facilitador da Divulgação do Relato Financeiro

Abstract

The cultural, economic and politics aspects have influenced the worldwide accounting practices, creating different rules in different countries. With globalization, comparability is increasingly one of the main characteristics required by users of financial reporting, particularly by the financial markets which have assumed particular prominence in the global economy. In order to achieve the much desired comparability, the European Union started the process of harmonization accounting, publishing Regulation (EC) no 1606/2002, which requires listed companies in their financial markets to adopt International Accounting Standards in the consolidated accounts. With this process were created the conditions for a normalisation in the format of disclosure of financial reporting. The development of new information and communication technologies offer came the emergence of languages that can, with advantage, be adapted to the preparation and dissemination of financial reporting. The language XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language), has advantages that help improve the relevance, reliability and comparability of financial information. However, past a decade after the start of its development, XBRL is not yet the standard language in financial reporting. Therefore, it is crucial to examine the gap mentioned for the XBRL language in the European Union and its representativeness in relation to other formats used in the disclosure of financial reporting.