Do OSSs Support Standard Markup Languages?
The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a standard created to overcome the restrictions of HTML by providing mechanisms to extend the types of information that can be exchanged. XBRL (Extensible Business Reporting Language) is an extension that was created using XML for financial applications. It is the markup language used to tag financial information for the SEC’s EDGAR (Electronic Data Gathering and Retrieval) database. XBRL is currently being used by the SEC to accept financial reports. The creation of languages such as XBRL will allow for the rapid communication of data between organizations, systems, and networks. XML and XBRL are both open system languages. Accordingly, most OSS accounting systems support XML-compliant data. 19. Do Open Source Systems Have Audit Modules? The more widely used proprietary systems have audit modules that support the work of external auditors such as CPA firms and governmental regulators. OSSs are lagging in this area, but one provider, Tiny ERP, do
