What is XBRL?
XBRL turns financial reports into machine-readable data. Each figure (for example revenue, cash or [net income](/glossary/net-income)) is tagged with a label from a standard taxonomy, plus details such as period, currency and entity. Software can then extract and compare data instantly.
XBRL is maintained by XBRL International, a not-for-profit consortium.
Where it's used
- United States: the SEC requires listed companies to file in Inline XBRL.
- European Union: listed companies file annual reports in the ESEF format using Inline XBRL with the IFRS taxonomy.
- United Kingdom: company accounts and tax computations filed with Companies House and HMRC use iXBRL.
- Many central banks, securities regulators and tax authorities use it for supervisory reporting.
Inline XBRL (iXBRL)
Inline XBRL embeds the tags inside a human-readable HTML document, so one file works for both people and machines.
Taxonomies
A taxonomy is the dictionary of tags. Examples include the IFRS Accounting Taxonomy and the US GAAP Taxonomy.
Why it matters
- Faster, cheaper analysis for regulators and investors
- Fewer manual re-keying errors
- Better comparability between companies
Most businesses tag their reports using accounting or filing software rather than writing XBRL directly.