XBRL Implementation Research Articles

XBRL

Ranked as one of top ten technologies for accounting and auditing professionals, eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) is a freely available, open, and global standard language for exchanging business financial information digitally. XBRL holds the greatest promise for building a global standard that is pledged to enhance the accuracy, reliability, efficiency, accessibility and availability of electronic communication of business financial data. This paper sets out to provide a review of literature to lend insights into our understanding of XBRL adoption, implementation, and value realization assessment. A comprehensive review uncovers four sub-themes of research in XBRL adoption: perceived benefits of XBRL adoption; organizational readiness; external pressure; and XBRL adoption. Research challenges for future research are highlighted.

A comparative study of e-government XBRL implementations: The potential of improving information transparency and efficiency

This study examines the e-government implementation of eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) to increase accountability and transparency in business and financial information. The business and financial information gathered in XBRL format is machine-readable and interoperable, thereby improving the ease of public dissemination and analysis. This study focuses on identifying and examining the determinants of successful XBRL implementation and draws from several bodies of literature: e-government, institutionalism, collaborative public management, regulatory compliance, and management information systems to identify determinants of successful implementation. This study selects four diverse implementations: the Netherlands, Australia, the United States, and Singapore. Empirical analysis follows a comparative case study method. The findings of this exploratory study underscore the importance of program goals and strategic alignment in achieving information transparency and efficiency, the advantage of strategies correlating to institutional setting, the critical need to provide incentives for adoption, and the usefulness of incremental implementation. The managerial and theoretical implications of these findings as well as future research opportunities are explored.

The adoption of XBRL in South Africa: an empirical study

PurposeeXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) is an important new information and communication technology for the electronic communication of business and financial data. International research shows unacceptably low levels of awareness and adoption of XBRL. This paper aims to investigate the level of awareness of XBRL in South Africa among chartered accountants. Furthermore, it aims to consider the factors influencing adoption of XBRL and the impact of the economic circumstances on the decision to adopt XBRL.Design/methodology/approachThe research was conducted with data collected through a structured, self‐administered web‐based survey sent to 11,458 chartered accountants. Chartered accountants will be primarily responsible for the implementation of XBRL at organisations.FindingsThe findings are largely in line with international studies, indicating a low level of awareness and slow adoption of the new technology. The major reasons cited for not adopting XBRL are that it is not yet mandatory in South Africa to do so and in the view of the respondents there is not any benefit in adopting XBRL. The results indicated that the economic circumstances did not have any effect on the decision to implement XBRL, be it either to implement or not to implement XBRL.Originality/valueIt is concluded that the business case for XBRL, internationally and in South Africa, should be made stronger for awareness and adoption rates to improve. The adoption of XBRL is, by implication, important and relevant to everyone with an interest in information management.

A Study of Accountant Required Skills to Have Efficient Participation in the Implementation of XBRL

The role of the accountants in a business environment has been evolving over the years. Accountants need to have the implementation and maintenance skills of XBRL (extensible business reporting language) which is revolutionizing business reporting around the world, in the organization. The present study encompasses two aspects. First, it addresses the role of the accountant during the implementation and maintenance phase. Second, it finds the characteristics and skills of accountants that can help them in a successful implementation and maintenance of XBRL. In order to collect the data a questionnaire has been used. To analyze data two statistical methods, Regression and Pearson correlation have been used. The results of the study confirm that there is a significant relationship between the participation of accountants and successful implementation of XBRL.

XBRL Implementation: A Field Investigation to Identify Research Opportunities

ABSTRACTThe Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently mandated that publicly traded companies furnish their financial statements in XBRL format. However, researchers and practitioners question whether companies are adequately prepared to implement XBRL, and whether software tools and guidance exist to lead preparers through the process of creating XBRL-related documents.This paper describes how early mandate adopters implemented XBRL reporting. Four themes emerged from our analysis: management support and involvement, implementation approach, organizational readiness or expertise, and control over the XBRL reporting process. Our study contributes to a more complete understanding of how companies implement XBRL by providing a basis for accounting researchers to identify current implementation issues and future research opportunities. Furthermore, we provide educators with a characterization of how companies implement XBRL, thereby facilitating their classroom coverage of this important topic.Data Availability: Data used in this study are available from the authors upon request.

Accountants Awareness And Perceptions About Assurance On XBRL Financial Statements

The purpose of this study is to gather information about accountants and auditors level of knowledge of XBRL and their perceptions about the importance of providing assurance and the level of assurance needed. An online survey questionnaire was used to gather data from CPAs at all levels of experience and was open from December 2009 through February 2010. The survey gathered information about the participants level of knowledge and awareness about XBRL, and their perceptions about the importance, relevance, and need for assurance on XBRL financial information. The results suggest that accountants and auditors believe that assurance on XBRL financial statements is important and will improve the accuracy and reliability of the XBRL tagged financial statements. Participants were also asked to rank the importance of assurance criteria on XBRL financial statements such as assurance on the accuracy, completeness, existence, proper taxonomies, proper extensions, valid extensions and validity and well-formedness. The results show that participants ranked assurance on the accuracy and completeness assertions as being most important and assurance on validity and well-formedness being the least important. The findings have important implications for the audit profession, as the implementation of XBRL has the potential to not only expand the role of the auditor to include auditing their clients application of XBRL tags, but might also influence the cost and time involved to conduct audit services.

IFRS Taxonomy and financial reporting practices: The case of Italian listed companies

XBRL taxonomies have a crucial role in digital financial reporting. On the one hand, they provide a unique set of computer-readable tags to allow the interchange of interactive information. On the other hand, a systematic, agreed-upon convention for naming each taxonomy tag is needed. In this context, the IFRS Foundation is playing a relevant role in developing well-structured taxonomies, which could simultaneously favor both the interoperability and the homogenization of the firms' financial information at the global level. Due to its importance, XBRL is being applied in many countries, but according to different implementation schemas.In this study, we attempt to verify if the IFRS Taxonomy released by the IFRS Foundation adequately reflects the reporting practices of the Italian listed companies for which XBRL is not yet required. The results reveal a general discrepancy between the financial items disclosed by the companies and the taxonomy tags. Specifically, we noticed that the financial statements items are more disaggregated than the taxonomy tags and that this depends on the sector and the size of the companies. Unless the XBRL implementation system explicitly allows companies to use and disclose taxonomy extensions, a loss of detailed information occurs if the taxonomy is applied.

The Improvement of Governance Decision Making Using XBRL

eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) has the potential to influence users’ processing of financial information and their judgments and decisions. XBRL is an eXtensible Markup Language (XML)-based language, developed specifically for financial reporting. XBRL, as a search-facilitating technology, contributes to direct searches and simultaneous presentation of related financial statement, and facilitates processing footnote information which could help financial statements’ users. XBRL is more than a distribution mechanism for data or facilitating technology. XBRL has the potential to significantly improve corporate governance. Putting that potential into practice requires an XBRL taxonomy model that is data based instead of document based. This paper hypothesizes that in the presence of search-facilitating technology, users’ judgments of financial statement reliability will be influenced by the choice of recognition versus disclosure of stock option compensation than in the absence of search-facilitating technology. When the stock option accounting varies between two firms, the search technology helps in both acquiring and integrating relevant information. The paper suggests the implementation of XBRL improves transparency of financial information and managers’ choices for reporting that information.

Implementation of XBRL as International Standard of Organizing Fiscal Reporting in Ukraine

Expediency of implementation of XBRL as background of technological support of IFRS and Basel-2 technologies in credit and financial sphere of Ukraine as modern tool for support of fiscal reporting and growth in confidence of population to banking system.

Interactive financial reporting using XBRL: An overview of the global markets and Europe

This paper focuses on the implementation of eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) for International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in the European Union. It provides evidence for the benefits that rise from the implementation of XBRL for the companies, the investors and the regulators. It also gives a summary of XBRL technology, the components of a taxonomy and the implementation process for IFRS for listed firms. Finally, it attempts to asses XBRL in relation with corporate governance and accounting disclosure using theoretical background and relevant literature.

XBRL the tool for automated semantic readability of electronic financial statements

The paper deals with general questions of business data communication, particularly focusing on the Extended Business Reporting Language (XBRL) open data format. The XBRL concept and taxonomy is analysed to a greater extent, as well as the two circumstances supporting the concept and preventing it from a larger international use. Moreover, the structure and activities of the nonprofit association XBRL International is described, together with a report on an XBRL implementation process carried out in the USA, the EU and the Czech Republic. Finally, a brief list of possible XBRL implementation impacts on financial reporting issues is discussed, and mainly online reporting and continuous auditing is surveyed.

Vykazování podnikových dat v elektronické podobě - XBRL

Přispěvek se věnuje obecně problemu komunikace podnikových dat, zejmena pak možnostem využiti otevřeneho formatu XBRL. Popsany jsou hlavni dopady implementace XBRL na ucetni výkaznictvi, jako je online reporting a kontinualni auditing. Zavěrem je zminěna funkce neziskove organizace XBRL International a informace o procesu implementace XBRL Komisi pro cenne papiry USA.