What is XBRL Dr Paul Booth Technical & Development Manager, IT Faculty ?

ICAEW the techie bit Not Look under the bonnet?

ICAEW Start with the familiar: HTML ‘The book Systema Naturae was one of the major works of the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carolus Linnaeus.’ Systema Naturae

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What about XML? Like HTML but a bit cleverer A browser knows (from a Stylesheet) how to display it Other programs can process it too It’s all about tagging Mr John Smith 23 Acacia Avenue Birmingham

ICAEW Tagging What does each tag mean? Is it or ? Will the code MIA send your bag to Miami International (USA) or Mian Yang (China)? So, every tagging language needs a dictionary

ICAEW All sorts of tagging languages ebXML: ‘ebXML enables enterprises of any size, in any global region, to conduct business using the Internet’ CML: ‘CML (Chemical Markup Language) is an approach to managing molecular information …’ ThML: … and there’s even one for Theology! Tagging makes it easier to share data between users without manual re-keying …and for computers to extract and process data

ICAEW … and now XBRL eXtensible Business Reporting Language Freely licensed standard, originated in accountancy profession It is XML – and cleverer still As well as tagging data items oit can show relationships o… and how they have been calculated oUses a taxonomy

ICAEW What’s a taxonomy?

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Taxonomies An XBRL taxonomy is the same sort of thing: a ‘dictionary’ and logical categorisation scheme for financial reporting concepts. Examples: ‘net profit’, ‘assets’, ‘equity’ In XBRL, taxonomies relate back to financial reporting standards Different taxonomy needed for different reporting standards – in UK, UK GAAP or IFRS

ICAEW Transparent reporting, checking Each ‘fact’ (eg ‘Share premium = £293,900’) can be related back to the taxonomy. Items that are supposed to add up can be checked Definitions and context (eg currency, period, units) are there. Called up share capital 500 Share premium293,900 Profit and loss account (258,892) SHAREHOLDER’S FUNDS 35,508

ICAEW … and then there’s iXBRL Humans read the HTML Computers read the XBRL tags Inline XBRL HTML and XBRL in the same document

ICAEW Just a bit more background … XBRL already in use around the world SEC in the USA one of most significant In the UK, Companies House XBRL filing has been running for past four years.

ICAEW Companies House Currently the simplest companies – dormant and abbreviated accounts By end November 2009, 738,515 accounts e-filed at Companies House, of which 537,760 web filings and 200,755 using software Later this year, Companies House moves to iXBRL Eventually, a single filing for both HMRC and Companies House purposes.

ICAEW Companies House

ICAEW Companies House and HMRC Companies House 2006: voluntary XBRL for small/simple companies Summer 2010: voluntary iXBRL for unaudited full accounts Summer 2011: voluntary iXBRL extended to all accounts HMRC November 2009: voluntary iXBRL April 2011: mandatory iXBRL

ICAEW Why HMRC? Analyse returns more efficiently Target ‘problem cases’ – eg suspected fraud, under-payment more effectively Make processes less labour-intensive, therefore cheaper Enable better analysis of effects of possible changes in legislation/tax rates