XBRL introduced locally

Extensible business reporting language (XBRL), an electronic standard for publishing business financial information, was unveiled at the JSE today.

Among claimed benefits of using the software is efficient communication of financial information to the market. Graham Terry, VP of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA), and acting chairman of the local XBRL steering committee, says it provides increased transparency.

The Netherlands government believes as much as 30 million euros will be saved in the private sector through the software, claims Terry. "The reality is that using this standard will, very soon, not be an option."

Terry cites the reduced cost of distributing information, both internally and externally, as further benefits. It will make comparing and analysing business information easier, he says. "Providers of business information can leverage a single file for reporting to various external bodies, rather than creating different versions for each party."

XBRL, which he says is being adopted globally, is an extensible mark-up language, or XML - a means of communicating information between businesses and the Internet. It was developed by XBRL International, a global consortium of accounting societies, financial institutions, technology companies and other financial industry stakeholders.

The software provides royalty-free, XML-based standards for tagging financial information to enable automated production and retrieval of financial and other business information, a statement says.

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