Latest XBRL Technologies

Before the XBRL international working groups commenced discussion on (lie requirements for a Rendering specification, adopters’ implemented temporary solutions to address this issue. Some adopters utilized XSLT style sheets, whereas other implemented proprietary solutions to present XBRL documents in a standardized and user-friendly formal. The prime reason for addressing the Rendering issue originated from the requirement of user-friendly presentation of data to regulatory filers and other participants in various information value chains, however soon the rendering issue included other aspects including assurance of the quality of the data reported. Users indicated the requirement of visual verification of XBRL data in a credible, faithful and valid manner. The recent publication of the Inline XBRL (iXBRL) specification constitutes the first step to address this issue.

The Inline XBRL specification allows XBRL instance documents tags to be embedded in an HTML page. The design of the XML and XBRL standards were for appropriate structure of metadata. Conversely, the focus of HTML is on presentation of the data in a user-friendly, readable Formal. The XML community has a specific translation language (XSLT) to provide a flexible mechanism for the transformation of XML data into the HTML formal. Since HTML follows the XML design (currently the W3C Consortium recommends use of XHTML, an XML equivalent of HTML) the XBRL Rendering Working Group identified a potential combination of both standards as desired at operational level. In other words, HTML documents became a skeleton for presentation of the XBRL data. Inline XBRL document contains three types of tags:

• HTML Markup tags;
• Inline XBRL tags;
• Other tags as defined by the specification.

Inline XBRL makes use of several elements:

• ix:denominator,
• ix:exclude,
• ix:footnoteLink,
• ix:fraction,
• ix:header,
• ix:hidden,
• ix:nonFraction,
• ix:non numeric,
• ix:numerator,
• ix:references,
• ix:resources,
• ix:tuple.

The above elements control the content of the XBRL instance document in a manner that allows for their appropriate rendering in the HTML format. The Inline XBRL elements address various rendering approaches that allow:

• Rendering of non-fraction and fraction items;
• Indicating the nominator and denominator of fraction items;
• Rendering of footnotes, headers, references and resources;
• Hiding of certain XBRL items;
• Rendering of complex repetitive structures, notably tuples.

For further reference and detailed description about the nature of the above elements, we encourage readers to read the Inline XBRL specification. The notion of Inline XBRL focuses on embedding Inline XBRL tags in HTML documents. However, there is another activity within the Rendering Working Group that focuses on rendering XBRL instance document with information provided in special rendering link bases. This approach will give taxonomy developers the ability to define standard ways of rendering of taxonomies.

New technologies in XBRL arise from user requirements to address certain areas of business reporting standard not described, or causing issues, by the XBRL specification. The Formulas specification, which at the dale of writing was in the most stable Candidate Recommendation release presents an important platform supporting the transformation of data. The versioning specification provides support for maintenance of XBRL taxonomies and therefore fosters their adoption. The rendering mechanism allows for standardized presentation of XBRL data to users, which should aid assuring high data quality mid help users verify the data provided in instance documents.

Naturally, software vendors will require certain time to be able to implement the new specifications. Several software companies claimed advanced stage of development of respective solutions or even draft public releases. However, the key test of the efficiency of new technologies will come when projects worldwide will make use of their features.

Author Bio:

KDK Software is a Software Developer in Taxation Domain that is provides XBRL Software, XBRL Conversion Service, Income tax software, e–TDS Software, VAT and e-ROC.