What is XBRL?
XBRL stands for eXtensible Business Reporting Language. The X also stands for XML, a computer language similar to HTML that is a powerful means of communicating via the Internet. At its most technical, XBRL is a method of exchanging information of a business or financial nature. The idea behind XBRL is to represent each datum as a separate entity with its own identity tag. Large groups of data can also be classified with unique tags. Examples of this are net profit and business gain or loss. Each of these is known as a taxonomy, or a method of identifying data in a specific way for a specific purpose. In this way, data is made easily readable by computer data processors. Whereas HTML or plain-text presentations would list a financial institution’s numbers as blocks of text, XBRL provides a more natural and user-friendly way for data to be shared. Think of it this way: You don’t have to manually input all those numbers anymore. Or, as is more likely the case, the computer doesn’t have t
