Important Glossary

1 PDF- Portable Document Format 2 HTML- Hypertext Markup Languages 3 AICPA- American Institute of Certified Public Accountants 4 XML- extensible Mark-up Language 5 GAAP US - Generally Accepted Accounting Principles 6 IFRS - International Financial Reporting Standards 7 MCA - Ministry of Corporate Affairs 8 SEC- Securities and Exchange Commission 9 FDIC- Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation 10 ICAI- Institute of Chartered Accountants of India 11 IASB- International Accounting Standards Board 12 C & I Taxonomy- Commercial & Industrial Taxonomy 13 HRMC- HM Revenue & Customs 14 FFIEC- Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council

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Study objective
In todays business climate, all businesses are being bombarded with requests to provide more detailed, more rigorously defined and a wider variety of information-yet most business are not equipped to deliver it. The pressure on business and regulatory agencies to capture, exchange, and analyze data is also growing rapidly. For business to comply with these regulatory requests, they must collect and monitor more detailed information and report them on a more frequent basis. Governments and regulators requesting this information must also implement sophisticated systems to capture, process and analyze massive amounts of information from thousands (in some jurisdictions millions) of fillers. This information must be accurate, complete and consistent allowing regulatory organizations to quickly asses, consolidate analyze and act on these monthly, quarterly or annual filing. A financial data exchange standard was needed to ensure that information is being consistently reporting across organizations add to the satisfaction of a variety of regulatory bodies. Enter XBRL established in 1999, an open source XML language developed to define and exchange business and financial information. It promises to help achieve corporate and regulators goals for quick and automated analysis of larger amounts of information thus reducing the time, cost, and errors involved in business reporting processes. XBRL provides an exciting opportunity to finance professionals in the following fields: a. Compliance with the MCA Regulatory environment; b. Impact assessment of XBRL on Management Information Systems; c. Designing extension Taxonomies; and d. Mapping (Tagging) line items in accounts masters with the XBRL Taxonomy. e. Certification of XBRL Financial Statements Being finance student motivated me to explore this revolutionary language in financial statement preparation. Even though XBRL adoption debate has been going on for over a decade now with as many detractors as there are proponents across the world, this effect cannot be understated. Each group is steadfast in their position, citing the many advantage or disadvantage of XBRL, in support for their position. Hence I choose to study on this subject as a part of my capstone project, to leverage from the findings.

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Executive summary
XBRL is the buzz word today in accounting professional fraternity. Why not, The Companies (Filing of documents and forms in Extensible Business Reporting Language) Rules, 2011 has mandated filing of annual reports of specified class of companies using XBRL and as always, something new, a jargon probably never heard before, has been thrown at us to comply with. In the following report, we try to unravel this mystery and solve the puzzle answer a few basic questions Why, What, Who, How and Where - put together these fragments to frame a picture called XBRL. Being a complex topic which required through understanding of IT and accounting, we will try to focus on our area of interest (accounts). This report will first talk about XBRL history and its origination. Then in second part we can see small over view or guidance about XBRL. Then we will see XBRL mandate by regulatory body of India and its adoption worldwide in third and fourth part. And in last part of our report we will talk about problems faced in implementation of XBRL by various organizations. This report considers XBRL as future of financial reporting, so is not trying to judge it in any ways. U can find need, origination, growth and present stage of XBRL in this report.

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1 Understanding XBRL
1.1 Introduction XBRL stands for extensible Business Reporting Language. It is an open standard, and being developed by XBRL International, a non-profit organization. XBRL is a revolutionary concept in the world of business and financial information and will have a far reaching impact across the entire financial reporting chain. Worldwide adoption of XBRL as the information standard for business and financial reporting has gathered substantial pace in past two years with regulators in US, Japan, European Union, China and now in India successfully implementing XBRL based reporting systems. XBRL means bar-coding business information with tags. The business information no longer remains a block of text but each information element is tagged which makes it computerreadable. Traditional business reporting is done in various formats viz. printed financials, spreadsheets, PDF documents, HTML and so on. All these are human readable and can be interpreted by human beings or by systems with human intervention. The structure of XBRL makes handling and processing of business data platform independent. It supports all the standard tasks involved in compiling, storing and using business data. All types of entities can experience cost benefits and process efficiencies with the use XBRL. Extensibility being one of the underlying principles of XBRL, it can be easily adapted to a wide variety of different requirements. All the stakeholders of the financial information supply chain can benefit. 1.2 Who develops XBRL? The origins of XBRL lie in the proposal of Mr. Charles Hoffman, AICPA to use XML (extensible Mark-up Language) for electronic reporting of Financial Information. XBRL is being developed by XBRL International Inc. (XII). XII is a Not for Profit consortium of Regulators, Government Agencies, Accountancy Institutes, Leading Corporate, IT & Financial & Professional Services Companies. XBRL International Inc. (XII) is a Consortium similar to how the Universal Product Code (UPC) Seal (commonly Bar Code) was developed. Bar coding has revolutionized product distribution, How will XBRL effect financial reporting is thing to watch for. 1.3 Need for XBRL XBRL is rapidly being adopted worldwide as a de facto financial and business reporting standard. XBRL facilitates convergence of accounting standards by the ability to align financial concepts among public taxonomies. Stock Exchanges, Supervisory and Regulatory bodies across globe are looking forward for XBRL adoption. Few reasons why should XBRL be adopted1. Accurate and Quality Data XBRL validates the data based on the rules and relationships defined amongst the data elements, which results in obtaining clean and valid.

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2. Automation With XBRL, the intelligence of understanding and interpreting the data is transferred to the system and this facilitates automation in data processing and management. By using XBRL, companies and other producers of financial data and business reports can automate the processes of data collection. 3. Reduce cost of ownership of data The XBRL data is interoperable and thus created once can be used by multiple agencies seamlessly. And as a result of interoperability the overall cost of creating data and meeting the compliance requirements is reduced dramatically. Moreover, XBRL is an open and Royalty free standard 4. Reduce reporting burden Many of the information requirements of the different agencies is similar and companies have to submit the same multiple times. As the data is interoperable, the redundant information elements can be done away with and thus reducing the reporting burden on enterprises 5. Seamless Integration The XBRL data carries along with it, the additional attributes and facts, which makes the data self-explanatory. And thus the data remains no longer dependent on any application or platform for interpretation and processing. The XBRL data can be easily integrated into any system 6. Efficient Business Processing As XBRL cuts down the time spent on less efficient process like rekeying and re-arranging data, the entire business process now becomes more efficient and productive. XBRL will streamline the preparation of business and financial reports for internal and external decision making. 7. Easy location of data All the information is identified with a unique XBRL tag and this makes locating the data from a vast information repository or from a voluminous report very easy and quick. Since related information is linked (like facts and relevant footnotes), retrieving information is done in no time. 8. Consumer oriented reporting - Consumers can collaborate and share the analytical concepts and are no longer dependent on the reporting concepts embedded in specific software. And consumers can now dynamically design and share their own business reports. 9. Social Analytics - The existing social media like Wikipedia, Facebook, etc, facilitates collaboration of a wide range of participants. XBRL enables a similar social collaboration of analytical and modeling concepts. 10. Real-time data Because of automation and creation of accurate and valid data, the processing of data becomes much faster and so does its dissemination. Thus the information seekers can access the data in real-time. 11. Better Coverage by Analyst community The time required for analysis is quite high because the data is first rekeyed, validated and arranged according to the needs. Since all these activities are no longer required in XBRL based framework and hence the analyst have time to focus on small companies
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12. Comparative Analysis XBRL, being a universal standard, facilitates comparison between companies across globe 13. Transparent Data XBRL facilitates better and faster access to information; transparency in the whole information supply chain is increased. 1.4 Beneficiaries of XBRL data 1. Regulators Greater transparency through ease of analysis of the regulated entities filings. Increase data accuracy. Dramatically reduced the time to process filings from weeks to days. Rise in analyst productivity. Validate and review data much more efficiently and usefully than they have hitherto been able to do. 2. Corporate Community Cost savings in preparation, report creation, analysis. High flexibility through the use of dashboard based business rules. This leads to significant savings in man hours and lead time in compliance and consolidation. Faster availability of data into standard reports. Extracts data from accounting packages and makes it standardized and portable. Provides a common framework of definitions. Easy data handling due to standardization and automation, centralization of delivery. A pioneering status among enterprises in the use of XBRL in India. Image enhancement in the marketplace through Increase of quality and consistency of data Auditors. Automate financial statements handling, cutting out time-consuming and costly collation and re-entry of information. Accurate and Quality Data. Facilitates audit trail Equity Analyst/Investment Banker/Credit Analyst/Investors. Easier access to financial data.

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 Easier analysis and comparison of financial data. Utilizing a publicly available XBRL database of Risk Return filings or prospectuses, could easily, in a matter of minutes, identify funds for review based upon fund type, return history and expense information. Simplify the selection and comparison of data, and deepen their company analysis. Time required for analysis, validation and arranging financial information according to the needs is greatly reduced.

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2 XBRL Concepts and basic guide for financial reporting

As we have understand XBRL stands for eXtensible Business Reporting Language which is a computer based language for electronic communication of business & financial data, between business and over Internet. XBRL is: From the family of XML languages (Extensible Markup Language). An open technology standard for reporting and analyzing business and financial information. Anybody can use it. You dont need to pay any license fees for using it. XBRL is Software independent. You may be using any accounting software; you can still create XBRL based Financial Statements by using Add-on XBRL Tools. XBRL is independent of accounting framework. You may be using Indian GAAP or US GAAP or IFRS; you can still convert your Financial Statements into XBRL Format. Instead of treating financial information as a block of text, XBRL provides a computerreadable tag to identify each individual item of data. By attaching identifying tags to individual pieces of data, a business reporting document becomes intelligent data, allowing the exchange of business reporting data by encoding the information in a meaningful way. 2.1 XBRL is the Bar Code for financial data XBRL is often compared with the Bar Codes.

UPC bar code

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Bar Codes contain information relevant to the product in a computer readable format such as name of product, manufacturer, date of manufacturing, price, expiry date etc. This helps in billing, inventory accounting etc. Similarly, XBRL tag is the Bar Code for finance which contains the context of the data in a format which is computer as well as human readable. XBRL Tags, on the other hand, are only computer readable. In XBRL tags, Data is filtered through rendering applications or viewers to visually present tagged data. E.g. XBRL Tag for Trade Receivables will contain the following information relevant to it:1. Name of entity Trade Receivables of which entity? 2. Reporting period Trade Receivables as on which date? 3. Units The currency in which Trade Receivables have been expressed. 4. Definition - Amount due from customers or clients for goods or services that have been delivered or sold in the normal course of business, reduced by debts stated to be considered doubtful or bad. 5. Reference MCA Revised Schedule VI Part I - Form of Balance sheet - II (2) (c). 6. Scale Data reported in actual, thousands, lakhs or crores. However, XBRL takes a huge leap forward in how complex business and financial information can be transferred around the world. 2.2 Myths about XBRL XBRL is being globally used today for electronic communication of business and financial information. However, there are still some misconceptions about XBRL. 1. XBRL is another compliance burden. Truth: Regulatory bodies around the world have been the first to adopt XBRL for reporting by various stakeholders which has given rise to the myth that XBRL is another compliance burden. However this is not correct as XBRL is just a standardized form for exchanging various types of business data. All types of organizations, commercial and non-profit organizations, can use XBRL for reporting purpose both external as well as internal and derive the benefits of XBRL. 2. XBRL is only for large companies. Truth: XBRL provides benefits of faster, cheaper & accurate information to both listed companies as well as unlisted companies. Globally, XBRL is being used more by unlisted (privately held) companies rather than only listed companies. 3. XBRL is only for financial reporting. Truth: Its true that the initial focus of XBRL was on financial reporting only. However, today XBRL is being used for non-financial reporting also e.g. reporting of environment, social & governance (ESG) data.
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4. XBRL is software. Truth: XBRL is not software; its a standard and an open source which is being used by software vendors in designing their products for tagging of information. 5. XBRL is complicated. Truth: Most of the people are using email today, but they dont need to know about the technology such as internet protocols which work behind email. Today, good XBRL Tools are available in the market, which hide the complexity of XBRL and offer a very user-friendly interface. 6. XBRL is for IT people. Truth: Its true that XBRL requires knowledge from two domains i.e. IT domain and accounting domain. The Importance of sound knowledge of accounting cant be underestimated in converting a financial statement into XBRL format. Moreover, it is easier to teach IT to accountants rather than teaching accounting to IT people. 2.3 Purpose of XBRL XBRL enables data to be assembled in instance documents that can be read by other computer systems. Although XBRL Instance can be rendered in human-readable financial statements and reports, it is important to note that the original objective of XBRL is to enable computer-system based comparison & analysis. XBRL data can be retrieved from XBRL instance documents and can then be organized in a form that satisfies the needs of particular users, such as financial analysts or regulators. Organizations with which companies file financial information, such as the SEC (US Securities and Exchange Commission), Statistics Canada and others, notably in Europe, have recognized the potential of XBRL filing, because they can receive filings into their systems and process them electronically with little or no human intervention. Accordingly, the SEC established a voluntary XBRL filing program in 2004. Statistics Canada has carried out pilot testing for some of its filings. In Europe, process is under way to standardize reporting by European financial institutions in 25 countries using XBRL. Another important example in the US is that of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which has implemented an XBRL filing system for all US banks. Recognizing the benefits of XBRL filing, Ministry of Corporate Affairs of India has mandated the submission of financial statements in XBRL format by selected large companies from financial year 2010-11. Securities and Exchange Board of India is also planning to develop a common platform for electronic filing in XBRL format by all listed companies, mutual funds, stock brokers, merchant bankers and other stock market intermediaries. Reserve Bank of India has already started implementing XBRL based external reporting by banks in India through Online Return Filing System (ORFS) and Automated Data Flow from Banks to RBI.

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2.4 User of XBRL Various participants of the Information Supply Chain viz., Management, Regulatory Agencies, Stock Exchanges, Banks, and Investment Analysts etc. are all benefited by use of XBRL as Financial Reporting System whether sharing information within the organization or sharing business & financial data across company lines. 1 Company XBRL allows for lower preparation costs, increased flexibility in reporting and timely information for the Management. It improves the accuracy and reliability of data. The Management can re-use the data for Internal as well as External Reporting purposes. It helps Management in creating value for the Company by providing accurate & reliable data and providing timely information for investors, investment analysts, regulatory agencies and business associates. 2 Regulators In an XBRL based reporting system, the Regulators can obtain data which can be entered automatically into their Computer Systems, without re-keying or re-formatting. This can dramatically reduce costs by automating routine processes. They can analyze the data more quickly & more efficiently. They can focus their efforts on analysis of data & decision making rather than spending time & efforts on data manipulation for the purpose of shaping it in a desired usable form. They can also quickly identify the problems in filing. 3 Stock Exchanges The Stock Exchanges can implement XBRL based reporting system for the Companies listed on Stock Exchanges to make their process of collection of financial data more efficient and reliable. The data collected on XBRL format has more value for the investors, investment analysts & financial data aggregators. 4 Banks The use of XBRL in External Reporting by Banks reduces the efforts involved in data validation & offers cost savings to the Bank. The Credit Department of Bank can use XBRL for Credit Risk Assessment. Credit Department can obtain data from the customer more quickly & efficiently through automated reporting which can reduce cost involved in processing the data. Credit Department can focus more on analysis of data rather than waste their time on re-keying the data. This will result in better credit risk assessment & monitoring. 5 Investment Analysts XBRL can help Investment Analysts to handle and compare a wide range of companies on different financial & non-financial parameters. They can provide quicker and better quality investment advice.

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2.5 How does XBRL work? Instead of treating the information as a block of text XBRL assigns a unique pre-defined electronic tag to the information/data which identifies the content and structure of the information. This makes the information/data immediately searchable, reusable and interactive. The electronic tags can be understood by computer systems. It allows data to interface with databases, financial reporting systems and spreadsheets. Once the data has been tagged, it can be used for various computer-based applications such as comparison and analysis in future. 2.6 Impact of XBRL on Enterprise Financial Systems From the technical point of view, XBRL is replacing other previously defined XML Standards for describing financial contents and business processes during the past few years such as FpML (Financial Product Mark-up Language), RIXML (Research Information using eXtensible Mark-up Language), or ebXML (Electronic Business using eXtensible Mark-up Language). The reason why XBRL is replacing these standards is the wide support that it is getting from Regulatory Bodies, Government Authorities, Fortune 500 Companies and not-forprofit-organizations around the world. The impact of XBRL on Accounting, Financial Reporting and Business Intelligence is such that it is bound to lead to the next wave of innovation in Enterprise Financial Systems. IT professionals around the world are talking about three waves of innovation which may overlap each other in the real world situation. First Wave is preparatory software & services. This has to happen first as the Companies start looking for software to convert their financial statements on XBRL format due to Regulatory Requirements. This started a couple of years back as various capital market regulators including US SEC have made it mandatory for all listed companies to submit their financial statements on XBRL format. Second Wave will be Analysis Tools for Investment Analysis purpose. This is just starting, as the Companies in the US and around the world are submitting their financial statements to the stock exchanges & capital market regulators on XBRL format. Some companies have already come out with free on-line analytical tools in USA which download the data from SECs server and present the analysis in graphical way. This is potentially game changing for the Investment Management Industry. Third Wave will be Internal Systems. This is the Triple Play Approach create one set of Accounts that is used for: Investors; Regulators; & Internal Reporting In the next wave of XBRLdriven innovation, data will flow from operational systems all the way through consolidated Internal reporting to External Reporting to Investors &

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Regulators. This will enable: - Regulators to get the transparency that they mandate and Companies to get better internal business information / Management reporting systems. 2.7 Difference between XML, HTML & XBRL. XML (eXtensible Mark-up Language) was developed by W3C (World Wide Web) to transport and store the data with focus on what data is. XML Is used basically to transport the data between the application and the database. HTML (Hyper Text Mark-up Language) was designed to display the data with focus on how data looks. HTML is used for designing a Web Page to be rendered on the client side. XBRL takes these tag a step further and describe the environment that a set of financial statements has been drawn up e.g. entity identifier, reporting period, units, name of account, amount etc. 2.8 The Financial & Business Reporting Supply. Chain An Information Supply Chain is a set of organizations, people & applications that collect information and efficiently distribute that information to its consumers. To understand The Financial & Business Reporting Supply Chain, let us take an example of External Financial Reporting. The processes and participants of The Financial & Business Reporting Supply Chain will look something like the figure below:

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The financial and business reporting supply chain The typical large organization uses a large number of spreadsheets and word processing documents to summarize the information which eventually becomes its External Financial Report. You can see on your screens the processes & the participants in the External Financial Reporting Supply Chain. They work together to make External Financial Reporting work. Those that operate within The External Financial Reporting Supply Chain will include:1. Companies: Use the Accounting Standards set by the professional accounting bodies ICAI or IASB to create & submit their financial reports to regulatory bodies such as Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Stock Exchanges and SEBI etc. 2. Financial Publishers: Publish financial statements in a variety of formats for filing with regulators, mailing to shareholders and otherwise disseminate the financial information about the company. 3. Data Aggregators: Take the financial information from the companies, put it together to make it comparable and then sell the information to Investors, Investment Analysts.

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4. Investors: Look at the financial information provided by the company using the Accounting Standards for External Financial Reporting and take a decision about investment or disinvestment in the company. 5. Banks: Use the financial information provided by the company in making a decision about the credit limits sanctioned to the company. 6. Trading Partners: Look at the financial information provided by the company to be aware of the financial health of the company. 7. Management Accountants: Use the financial information provided by the Company in various consulting assignments that they handle for it. 8. Auditors: Do their best to prevent the use of fraudulent information and they generally verify that Accounting Standards are correctly followed by the company. 9. Regulators: Make sure that the process operates fairly, smoothly and in the best interest of the markets. 10. Software Vendors: Create software that assists the companies in their different roles within these processes. Different participants use different software in order to meet their specific needs. 2.9 XBRL Tags One of the terms which are very commonly used in XBRL is XBRL Tags. XBRL Tags are Computer-readable codes that give a standard definition for each line item in a financial statement Viz.: Balance Sheet, Statement of Profit & Loss, or Cash Flow Statement. In fact a Tag or an element is a computer code that represents one concept such as Tangible Assets or Share Capital. Same data types are tagged identically, e.g., all companies name will have identical Tag; all Net Assets will have an identical Tag. Your computer must have an XBRL Tool and the documents you access must be XBRL coded or Tagged so that they can be read by your computer. In XBRL, the information is not treated as a block of text or a set of numbers, instead information is broken down into unique items of data and an XBRL tag is attached to these unique items of data which are computer readable.

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Example:

Source: ICAI website You can see from the extract of a Balance Sheet above, in which Total Liabilities as on March 31, 2012 is 100. The Tag <Total Liabilities>100</Total Liabilities> enables a computer to understand that the item is Total Liabilities and it has a value of 100. Information in XBRL Tag XBRL Tag contains the information relevant to the value to which the tag has been attached to. The information includes:- Name - Data type - Balance type - Period type - Definition - Reference

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Source: ICAI website At the bottom of the figure can be seen the XBRL Tag which has all the information such as name, data type, balance type, period type and reference etc. 2.10 Taxonomy Taxonomy is the electronic dictionary of all tags (financial terms) that are used in XBRL. Tag is like a word within the dictionary, while taxonomy is their classification according to a pre determined system. A good taxonomy takes into account the importance of separating elements of a group into sub groups that are mutually exclusive. Taxonomies are generally developed by the Accounting Standard Setter; for example, C & I Taxonomy has been developed by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI). The IFRS taxonomy is developed by International Accounting Standard Board (IASB). Taxonomies are made up of two things:(i) Schema Container of business terms along with XBRL properties. It stores information about taxonomy elements viz., names, ids etc. The schema file has an extension of .xsd. (ii) Linkbases interrelationship among the terms defined in the schema. They use the elements defined in the schema file and provide structure to those elements. Linkbases are of following type 1 Presentation Linkbase Presentation Linkbase controls the presentation of data. It defines how concepts should be presented and displayed. Its structure is based upon the hierarchy of line items in the financial
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statements. Presentation is part of XML coding that depicts the parent-child relationship according to the hierarchy. The order of an individual tag is derived from its immediate parent. The order presents the serial number at which an individual tag is placed in hierarchy. The order of the first child element of a new heading is denoted by 1 and the order goes on like this. Example: Current Assets (Abstract)

Source: ICAI website The above picture depicts the order of Current Investment as 1 being the first child of tag Current Asset Abstract and the order of Current Asset Abstract as 2 which is the child of parent Assets. 2 Calculation Linkbase Calculation Linkbase defines arithmetical relationships between concepts. These calculations include simple addition and subtraction only. Its structure is based on the weights either +1 or 1 depending upon the balance type. The weight of +1 means that the child value is summed into parent value and the weight of 1 means the value of concept should be subtracted from the parent. Calculation Linkbase defines calculation relationship amongst taxonomy elements which includes: (i) Specifying which elements are totaled and which elements are added together to make a total. (ii) Comparing calculated value with the tagged value in XBRL Instance Document However Calculation Linkbase has certain limitations of calculation relationship which are as under: A- It only validates the values tagged in XBRL Instance Document to detect calculation inconsistencies. It does not create a new information e.g., in case of total assets, it will only check whether sum of Current Assets and Non Current assets is equal to Total Assets or not but it will not automatically create a new tag for the total assets. B- It works only in case of same reporting periods either instant or duration. However it cannot detect calculation consistencies in cases which involve two different reporting periods e.g. Opening Balance + Change During the period = Closing Balance.
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3 Label Linkbase Label Linkbase stores labels for XBRL concepts. It provides human readable information about concepts. C & I Taxonomy 2012 has used following types of label: (i) Standard Label: Standard label role for a concept. Every element has a standard label. (ii) Period Start Label and Period End Label: The label role for a concept with the period Type="instant" when it is to be used to present values associated with the concept when it is reported as a start/end of period value. (iii) Total Label: The label role for a concept when it is to be used to present values associated with the concept when it is reported as the total of a set of other values, e.g., Total current assets. (iv) Net Label: The label for a concept when it is to be used to present values associated with the concept when it is being reported as the net of a set of other values. e.g.: Net increase (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents. (v) Terse Label: Short label role for a concept, often omitting text that should be inferable when the concept is reported in the context of other related concepts, e.g., Interest received. (vi) Negated Label, negated Total Label, negated Terse Label: Label for a concept, when the value being presented should be negated (sign of the value should be inverted). If taxonomy has multi-lingual labels in Label Linkbase, the report can be generated in different languages by just a click of the mouse. 4 Definition Linkbase Definition Linkbase defines the dimensional relationship between concepts. It allows users to link additional information to the data, e.g.:- A reporting entity can report its Net Sales using simple reports. Definition Linkbase facilitates provision of additional information on various segments E.g. product or region by using Enterprise's primary reportable segments [Axis] as described below: - Primary reportable Segments 1 [Member] - Primary reportable Segments 2 [Member] - Primary reportable Segments 3 [Member] - Primary reportable Segments 4 [Member] 5 Reference Linkbase Reference Linkbase contains the reference to the Literature or Statute for taxonomy elements e.g. Accounting Standards, Guidance Notes on Accounting or the Companies Act, 1956.
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6 Formula Linkbase Formula Linkbase contains advanced and user defined mathematical and logical relationship between concepts e.g. financial ratios. Example: Basic Earnings per Share = Net Profit or Loss / Weighted Average No of Shares Formula Linkbase provides a stronger validation system by inclusion of certain additional checks in the taxonomy itself which are otherwise incorporated in Offline Validation Tool. The C&I taxonomy does not have a formula Linkbase as of now. 7 Taxonomy extensions Addition of a new element in the core taxonomy to create a taxonomy extension to meet the reporting requirements of local jurisdictions, industries or other users is known as taxonomy extension. Example: The Balance Sheet of a company has a line item as Land and Buildings. There is a specific element LandNet in the taxonomy. There is another specific element Buildings Net in the taxonomy. However, there is no element in the taxonomy called Land and Buildings Net. Therefore, there is a need to add a new element Land and Buildings Net in the taxonomy. Taxonomy extensions allow an entity to make a true representation of its audited financial statements in XBRL format. However, practical issues are involved in it as it reduces the standardization of information which can make Inter-company comparison difficult; (i) It may allow non-compliance with the reporting requirements in revised schedule VI (ii) Interoperability is more difficult; 8 Items Items are facts holding a single value. They are represented by a single xml element with the value as its content. 9Tuple Tuple are facts holding multiple values. They are represented by a single xml element containing nested items or tuple. Tuple are used for reporting of data in a grouping where information is tied up with each other and is reported under the same tuple id. Tuple facilitates presentation of multiple data (values) for n number of groups. For example, a company may have n number of related parties. C & I Taxonomy 2011 had used the Details of Related Party Transactions tuple for reporting related party transactions for various related parties.

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One related party may have unlimited number of related party transactions which are also required to be reported. The same is facilitated by using Nested Tuple e.g. Details of Related Party Transactions is the nested tuple under tuple Details of Related Party Transactions used by C & I Taxonomy 2011 to report such transactions. 2.11 Dimensions The Dimensions concept was first introduced by XBRL International in 2006 through the publication XBRL Dimensions 1.0 to accommodate reporting of a business concept through various dimensions such as by products, by regions, and by segments etc. The original version of XBRL specifications was uni-dimensional. The introduction of Dimensions makes the taxonomy multi-dimensional and very convenient for reporting the business information by various dimensions. For example, suppose a business entity has sales information by geographical regions, by products, and by segments. Using the dimensions feature of XBRL, the Company can create XBRL Instance document of this information. From this XBRL Instance document, Computer Software can create reports or display the information quickly by geographical regions, by products and by segments. Dimensions are used in financial reporting, both internal and external. The most common form of use of dimensions is reporting of segment data. Some common forms of use of dimensions in financial reporting are: Reporting entity and its segments business or geographical; Data of Sales and its break-down by products or region; Comparison of actual and budgeted financials 1 Simple Tagging Report The tagging concept in a simple tagging report consists of two layers, viz, Indian GAAP tags and reporting period as depicted in the figure in next page:-

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Source-ICAI website C & I taxonomy 2011 had followed simple tagging concept where specific tags were available for reporting of each line item. 2 Dimensional Tagging Reports The tagging concept in a dimensions consists of an additional layer of dimensional tags (Axis & Members) with the two layers viz, Indian GAAP Tags and reporting Period as depicted in the figure next page:-

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Source: ICAI website By using dimensional structure individual tags can be used repeatedly in same calendar. This also results in lower number of tags. The figure given in next page is another example of the tagging concept in presentation of data of Share Capital which shows the use of dimensions for providing break-down of share capital in equity and preference capital:-

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Sources: ICAI website In the above example, multiple tags such as Number of shares Issued, Value of shares Issued have been used for Current Year end with the help of Equity and Preference Share Members. C & I taxonomy 2012 is based on the dimensional structure explained herein above. XBRL Dimensions Building Blocks.

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The figure given below depicts the building blocks of dimensions:-

Source: ICAI website Primary Item is the concept defined in the taxonomy which is part of xbrl item substitution group, e.g. Revenue, Share Capital, Assets etc, Hypercube is the collection of one or more dimensions together with facts. Hypercubes are XBRL elements with the substitution group value of xbrl:hypercubeItem. Table is the highest level of grouping item in Hypercube. It must contain one or more Axis and one or more Line Items. Axis is the common theme about which more detailed information is provided. Each Hypercube must contain at least one Axis. However, Hypercube can contain more than one Axis. It should come before Line Items. Members is the description arranged on an Axis used to qualify a. Each Axis must have default member. Axis may or may not have pre-defined members. Line Items are group of all non-dimensional elements i.e. regular elements. They should come after Axis. Default Members: These are the members which are automatically used when nothing is specified in a fact which is part of dimensional structure.

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Types of Dimensions 1. Explicit Dimensions - are those in which all the members are explicitly defined. The figure given below shows the use of Explicit Dimensions for presenting the break-down of Share Capital data in C & I Taxonomy 2012:-

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2. Typed (Implicit) Dimensions are those in which members are not defined. If the number of members is so large, that it is impractical to list all of them, XBRL Dimensions Specifications 1.0 provides a mechanism to express these types of Dimensions implicitly. The advantage of having typed dimensions in the taxonomy is that different companies may add different number of members depending upon their reporting requirements. For example,. In case of related party transactions, since each company may have different number of related parties and to accommodate the same in C&I Taxonomy 2012 typed dimension [Categories of Related Parties Axis] has been used. This provides flexibility to a reporting entity to create the members required for related parties to meet its reporting requirements. The figure given in next page shows the use of Typed (Implicit) Dimensions for presenting the break-down of Related Party data by creating two members viz. Related party 1, Related party 2 etc. using Categories of Related parties [Axis]:-

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Source: ICAI website Multiple Dimensions in a Single Hypercube: Hypercube can contain more than one dimension in taxonomy. In such a case, the reporting entity needs to select one member specific to line item or default member. With the help of multiple dimensions, individual line items can be reported with a different set of information with minimum number of tags.
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For example Disclosure of Tangible Assets Table in C&I Taxonomy contains multiple dimensions. The following three [Axis] have been used in the table for reporting: (i) Classes of Tangible Assets Axis (ii) Sub Classes of Tangible Assets Axis (iii) Carrying Amount Accumulated Depreciation and Gross Carrying Amount Axis the Default Members for the above mentioned [Axis] are as under: (i) Company Total Tangible Assets Member (ii) Owned and Leased Assets Member (iii) Carrying Amount Member If a reporting entity is using any tag from the table, then it will be required to select one member from each of the three [Axis] mentioned above for creating dimensional context. If any of the axis information is not applicable to the reporting entity, then it can select the default member. All good XBRL software ensures that one member is selected from each of the [Axis] while creating dimensional context. For example, if the reporting entity in the above mentioned example has Furniture & Fixture Gross of Rs.1, 00,000/- then the applicable members in such a case will be: Furniture and Fixtures Member from Classes of Tangible Assets Axis Owned Assets Member from Sub Classes of Tangible Assets Axis Gross Carrying Amount Member from Carrying Amount Accumulated Depreciation and Gross Carrying Amount Axis The picture below depicts the use of multiple dimensions with the tags:

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Source: ICAI website

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3 XBRL Mandate in India

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has mandated the submission of financial statements by selected large Companies in XBRL mode from financial year starting on or after 1st April 2011. The Companies covered under XBRL-based filing of financial statements for financial year 2011-12 are as under:(i) Companies listed in India and their Indian Subsidiaries; or (ii) Companies having Paid-Up Capital of Rs. 5 Crores & above; or (iii) Companies having a turnover of Rs. 100 Crores & above; or (IV) Companies which were required to file their financial statements for last year in XBRL mode. Due Date of XBRL Filing The due date of filing of financial statements in XBRL format with MCA without payment of additional fees is 15th November 2012 or within 30 days of the date of Annual General Meeting, whichever is later. (MCA Circular No. 16 dated July 6, 2012) In case of delay in filing, the Companies are required to pay additional fees as prescribed in Schedule - X read with section 611(2) of the Companies Act, 1956. Verification and Certification of XBRL financial statements Verification of XBRL financial statements is to be done by the authorized signatory of the Company viz,: Managing Director, Director, Manager or Company Secretary. MCA has mandated the certification of XBRL financial statements being filed at MCA by practicing Chartered Accountants / Company Secretaries / Cost Accountants.

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4 Adoption of XBRL world wide

4.1 India XBRL enabled Financial Reporting is not new to India, it was one of the initial countries who adopted the XBRL enabled Financial Reporting in as early as October of 2008; though the scope of reporting was very limited. It was introduced on a larger scale in the Financial Year of 2010-11. In India, a majority of companies follow the Financial Year starting the 1st of April and ending on the 31st of March. In the 1st year of applicability, approximately 25,000 to 30,000 companies were covered, which constituted merely 3% of approximately 900,000 companies registered in India with the Ministry of Company Affairs (MCA). Recently, India completed the 2nd year of XBRL enabled Financial Reporting for commercial companies. In the 2nd year (Financial Year 2011-12), it was expected that the number of companies covered for XBRL Reporting would be increased to at least twice of the present number, but it was kept at the same level. The tagging requirement in the 1st year was not very elaborate, which impacted the quality to a greater extent. So, instead of increasing the number of companies covered for XBRL reporting, MCA increased the scope of detailed tagging and asked the companies to focus on quality of data conversion in XBRL format. To achieve the real benefit of XBRL enabled Financial Reporting, all companies need to be brought under the applicability net and a mass Education cum Training and Development program should be launched by MCA in collaboration with various Professional Bodies and Corporate Institutions. Furthermore, MCA also needs to focus on the quality of XBRL software being developed by the software companies. MCAs verdict on the quality aspect for 2nd year filing is awaited, and at the close of 3rd Financial Year (2012-13) there is no clarity about the class of additional companies to be covered under XBRL reporting. Timely communication on this aspect will help companies to prepare themselves in advance to adopt XBRL reporting. 4.2 Belgium Since January 2008, XBRL has been mandatory for all filings of annual accounts to the National Bank of Belgium. The Directorate-general of statistics and Economic information is studying how companies could save time completing survey reports about their structure, using data already submitted in their annual accounts. The non-profit-making organization XBRL Belgium has been set up to encourage its use in Belgium. Since April 2008, project has been extended to the annual accounts of the not-for profit sector. The CBSO (Central Balance Sheet Office - CBSO) receives currently more than 90% of all the annual accounts filed in XBRL 4.3 Canada The Canadian Securities Administrators Voluntary XBRL filing program is now in effect, XBRL Canada is working on a taxonomy that conforms to IFRS. Canada had moved to IFRS by 2011 and preparations where underwent to accommodate this change from an XBRL viewpoint.

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4.4 Chile The Superintendence de Valores y Seguros (SVS) the Chilean capital market supervisory - has been taking steps together with other authorities and representatives from the academic, regulatory, business and trade union sectors for adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) since last three years. Starting 2009 those companies which are the most actively traded on the Securities Market was been required to file their annual financial statement according to the international standards. The SVS XBRL Team has extended the IFRS taxonomy according its requirements and the companies would be filing their returns based on this taxonomy. The SVS XBRL project is one of the first XBRL projects in South America. 4.5 China The China Securities Regulatory Commission has been looking forward towards adoption of XBRL for information disclosure of listed companies since 2002 and has been joined by the Shanghai Stock Exchange for the implementation of XBRL as a reporting standard. XBRL International has granted acknowledged status to taxonomies being used for comp any reporting in China confirming the taxonomies meet XBRL standards and Chinese companies are now using the taxonomies for quarterly, half-year and annual reports since 2005. The SSE has extended the taxonomies to cover all the elements used in all types of reports e.g. regular, intra-year reporting etc. As of April 30, 2009, all the 864 companies listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) have submitted their XBRL instances simultaneously during the disclosure of the periodical reports of 2008 for the first time, and included the aforesaid XBRL instances as part of the mandatory disclosure. The XBRL instance documents of these 864 companies are available on SSE website as scheduled. 4.6 Denmark The Danish Commerce and Companies Agency (DCCD) is home of the Central Business Register (CVR). The CVR-register and the former Companies Register (Publi-com) provide a range of updated data available in various forms. Since 2005 entities are submitting annual accounts in XBRL. A complete XBRL solution for the Danish class B annual reports has been running since the beginning of 2008. The XBRL Taxonomy in Denmark has been developed by the DCCA in co-operation with both industry and experts. 4.7 Germany Of the one million German corporations which have to file their annual statements with the German Bundesanzeiger, around 425,000 are filing in XBRL format since 2007 using the latest German GAAP taxonomy ie. HGB Taxonomy. The third version of C&I taxonomy is updated and GAAP Taxonomy for financial institutions was finalized and included into the package. German GAAP is generally applied by any German business entity as it is the basis for taxation and, regularly (except for listed companies), external reporting.

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4.8 Ireland The Central Statistics Office (CSO) Ireland has started a pilot to assess use of XBRL in one of its quarterly industry surveys. This is the first live implementation of XBRL in Ireland. The CSO pilot involved the creation of XBRL documents of one of the CSO forms - the Quarterly Accounts Inquiry to Industry. The survey covers enterprises with 20 or more persons engaged in the Mining, Manufacturing and Energy sectors and reports on changes in stocks, acquisitions and sales of capital assets during a quarter. Seven respondent companies participated in the pilot and successfully submitted data electronically using the XBRL solution. 4.9 Japan Japan also is one the early adopters of XBRL and had started voluntary XBRL reporting program for financial services institutions gradually expending the range of reports since 2005. The Financial Services Agency (FSA) has implemented a new system which requires around 5,000 listed companies and 3,000 mutual funds to submit their financial information in the XBRL format. 4.10 Korea As of 2007, all publicly held companies file financial statements using XBRL on the electronic filing system of the Korea Financial supervisory Commission. The system allows viewers to see and analyze a companys financial statements in English. 4.11 Netherlands Since 2005, one of the largest XBRL projects was started by Netherland government with the aim of decreasing the regulatory reporting burden on the entities by 25%. The taxonomy project covers three major reporting areas taxation, annual accounts and economic statistics. Since Jan 2007, all the Dutch corporations were able to submit their data in XBRL format. 4.12 Singapore The Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority of Singapore is mandating the filing of statutory reports in XBRL. Since November 2007, Singapore-incorporated companies are required to file their annual returns including financial information XBRL format. Baring certain types of exempted companies, all listed and non-listed companies will be filing in XBRL. 4.13 South Africa The Johannesburg Stock Exchange developed as a pilot, an XBRL based filing platform. JSE commissioned Deloitte SA & IRIS Business Services (IRIS) for building the platform. Seven companies, and the JSE, along with XBRL SA came together to sponsor this project. This pilot is also the earliest adaptation of IFRS 2008 taxonomy. The taxonomy for South Africa has been developed and is extension of IFRS taxonomy. The South African taxonomies are currently being revised.
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4.14 Spain The Spanish Stock Exchange has begun to use XBRL for receiving and distributing public financial reports from more than 3,000 listed companies. The Bank of Spain, the central bank, is receiving regulatory data in XBRL from more than 400 banks covering more than 90% of the Spanish financial sector. The Bank of Spain has also developed a Financial Information Exchange System to support XBRL reporting by credit institutions. The implementation of XBRL system had lead to significant improvement in data quality. The bank of Spain is now working to extend XBRL reporting to cover reporting of solvency and financial information required under new European Union regulations on banking supervision. 4.15 United Kingdom Companies House has already received more than 200,000 accounts from small companies in XBRL using an extension to the UK GAAP taxonomy. United Kingdom HRMC Draft Regulations to require online XBRL Corporation Tax filings was been issued and where open for comment until 31 July 2009. Companies was required to file online the Corporation Tax returns and payments from 2011 in XBRL format. The rules apply to period ending on April 1, 2010 and later. 4.16 United States XBRL has gained momentum globally due to regulatory adoption. Regulatory bodies across the world are pushing for XBRL filings. The Securities Exchange Commission has played a vital role in accelerating adoption of XBRL in the US. SEC Ex-chairman Christopher Cox refers XBRL data as interactive data. XBR Listed filings have the potential to enhance the speed, accuracy and usability of financial disclosure and cut down costs for investors. Voluntary filing program for XBR Listed returns has been initiated by the exchange in early years and is moving towards mandatory filing in a phased manner. In December 2008, SEC has made it mandatory for companies above US $5 billion as global float, to file their returns from June 2009 quarter onwards in XBRL format and around 500 companies are expected to file XBR Listed returns and over the next couple of years all companies will be phased in for a 100 percent compliance. The SEC is also mandating that all mutual funds start reporting in XBRL in 2010. The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council in US has achieved major success with the use XBRL for regulatory bank reporting. The FFIEC implemented XBRL-based solution in 2005 for the filing of call reports which was used by more than 8000 financial institutions. The results were phenomenal and showed an increase from 66% to 95% in data cleanliness, from 70% to 100% in accuracy, from weeks to hours in timeliness, and a 15% rise in the productivity of analysts.

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Below diagram give snap shot of XBRL adoption worldwide:

Source: ICAI website

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5 Implementation problems in XBRL

Naturally not only positive impacts of XBRL are there. Several organization deals with issues related to usage of XBRL as integral part of the reporting supply chain. Some issues accrue directly from XBRL properties. Following all categories are described in detail. 5.1 Quality This category subsumes qualitative aspects of data tagged with XBRL. The issues are split into two sub categories. Data quality issues that are directly related to characteristics of XBRL are subsumed as characteristic-based issues. Issues resulting from the processing of XBRL data are categorized as processing issues. 1 Characteristic-based Issues From a credibility and authenticity point of view XBRL is seen as a disadvantage. Data can easily be changed without leaving a trace and the exchange of information needs to be secured. Data security, authentication, validity and integrity issues arise. Due to validation rules XBRL might be used to accrue the markets perception without guaranteeing a quality level. On the other hand validation software reports revealing inconsistencies may lead stakeholders to question the reliability and quality of XBRL data without investigating the numbers. This might have a negative impact on the acceptance of XBRL. Furthermore, the XML tree structure is mentioned as limitation when mashed-up data from different sources is used also lists issues which are related to differences between XBRL documents and the corresponding traditional format document (completeness, existence, attribute accuracy, validity, proper representation, proper taxonomies, and valid taxonomy extensions). It is also stated that the complexity of XBRL may introduce errors. Empirical investigations support this statement 2 Processing Issues The main concern is related to the tagging process which is complicated but required in order to convert financial information into an XBRL document. The technical validation rules of XBRL cannot measure the appropriateness of the tags applied to financial information. Therefore assurance needs to be provided on this aspect. Auditors need to extend their procedures to include the tagging which potentially may complicate the audit process. Moreover it is not clear how the concept of materiality will be applied in an XBRL environment. Additionally the fact that data is available on a more detailed level needs to be considered from an assurance perspective. Another aspect is the compliance with generally accepted accounting standards especially in the case of taxonomy extensions. Besides the assurance perspective it is mentioned that the adoption of XBRL will require changes to the existing processes including internal controls.

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5.2 Adoption Effort Being a complex technology which more or less affects the entire reporting supply chain several finding agree that the adoption and implementation of XBRL entails remarkable effort especially for the organizations providing XBRL formatted information. Two types of effort are discussed in the analyzed papers: building up relevant knowledge (intangible asset) and acquiring necessary infrastructure and software tools. Knowledge this sub category covers issues related to the effort of knowledge building and acquiring. Several authors agree that the implementation of a relatively complex innovation like XBRL requires specific expertise which is not necessarily available in organizations. This results in supplementary costs. Additional learning is required to understand especially complex taxonomies, tagging procedures and extensions. Hence employees need to be educated. The extent depends on the intended level of XBRL usage. But not only providers of financial information are affected. Software developers, intermediaries and addresses are facing new challenges e.g. regarding aggregation and dissemination across organizational borders. For auditors and stakeholders of the standardization process a considerable lack of knowledge is identified. Several articles point out the necessity of new infrastructure. All research refers to software as needed infrastructure. Either software updates or new software tools are required in order to fully utilize the benefits of XBRL. In short term these results in direct costs and effort for establishing the required. This again results in direct costs for software acquisition and implementation. Besides the software acquisition costs, effort for the redesign of affected business processes must be considered. Additionally cost may result from investments in design and maintenance of a web reporting or the implementation of continuous reporting due to increased expectations of intermediaries and addresses. Moreover increased direct costs for auditing are mentioned. 5.3 Uncertainty Adopters of XBRL are facing uncertainty especially regarding the future development Of XBRL and the software support. 1 Uncertain Software Support Comprehensive software support is mentioned in many studies as a crucial success factor for the adoption and dissemination of XBRL. Benefits of XBRL can hardly be achieved without supporting software applications. However, it is stated that a lack of adequate tool support prevents stakeholders from adopting XBRL. There are several reasons mentioned for the limited offerings of XBRL tools, including lack of demand, XBRL complexity, lack of expertise, and threats of free XBRL-enabled applications. Furthermore, available tools were characterized by flaws and omissions, limited support for cross analysis of financial information and discrepancies regarding taxonomy validation rules. Software firms also complain that even small changes to the specification raise serious compatibility issues. Additionally, mentions not readily transferrable taxonomy formats in common data warehousing schemes.
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2 Uncertain Future Developments A limited number of success stories, small number of listed companies, limited evidence of XBRL benefits, and unforeseen implementation effort as well as post-adoption maintenance costs negatively affect the adoption decision of several stakeholders. There is a lack of awareness about XBRL advantages. Benefits of XBRL are not expected to be immediate but will accumulate over time. Moreover, organizations are influenced by other stakeholders (network effect) in the adoption decision and may see the risk of adverse actions by competitors and other parties based on the more detailed information provided via XBRL. For small and medium size companies, it is stated that benefits of XBRL are limited as the reporting requirements are relatively straightforward. The iterative development of the XBRL specification is also mentioned as a problem as it is not clear how changes affect implemented solutions. Overall the risk arises to the market as a whole that the lack of XBRL adoption leads to a spreading of alternative solutions. 3 Standardization Issues In most articles the fact that financial reporting, disclosure practices and legal aspects vary among countries and between industries. This leads to considerable national variation in calculation rules and dimensional structures as well as increased coordination effort for taxonomy design with complex interactions amongst diverse organizations. Regarding the extensibility of XBRL taxonomies the trade-off between the comprehensiveness of a taxonomy that allows more firm-specific information, and standardization that reduces firm specific content but improves on cross-sectional comparability is mentioned. In some articles a lack of global standardization and effective local adoption strategies are highlighted. Standards at different steps in the reporting supply chain or for different stakeholders and countries lead to confusion and do not correspond to the increasing demand for standardization in the capital markets. Being the basis for taxonomy design this also applies to international accounting standards. The necessary prior development and deployment of international accounting standards has hindered the development of local XBRL taxonomies. Also the number of options provided by accounting standards is seen as a problem. Some authors also focus on the standardization process itself. The inconsistent or even conflicting objectives of the diverse stakeholders are mentioned as a problem for the standardization process. Furthermore, in many older publications the instability of the XBRL specification and serious deficiencies in older versions are mentioned as key issues. Some authors see a lack of standardization of technical aspects like the way instance documents are produced or the diversity of XML schema documents, audit procedures and formal semantics for integration of different taxonomies.

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6 Conclusions
From our research finding we can conclude that the economical-financial communication of the companies continues to be characterized by an unsatisfying level of content standardization or by a significant quantity written on paper, which leads to a real discomfort for the economical operators and the national system as an assembly. Surpassing these critical aspects can be eased by enterprising initiatives which to stimulate affirming the reference taxonomy and the technological standards, promoting in the same time investments, aiming to limit the use of paper. The available technology is capable to favor the modernization of financial reporting making, and ease these ones management both in the definition stage of the structures and also in the change and distribution stage. For this, a first protagonist role, on the international scene, is held by the XBRL standard (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) - a language for the electronic communication of the financial information, lead by an international consortium, present in many countries by national jurisdiction.

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7 Bibliographies
Websites 1 www.xbrl.org 2 www2.xbrl.org 3 www.icai.org 4 www.deloitte.com/in

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