THEORY AND PRACTICE FOR THE ADOPTION OF XBRL - EXTENSIBLE BUSINESS REPORTING LANGUAGE

Abstract

The standardization of information has increasingly the relevance in an environment of globalization. The adoption of international standards of accounting data by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), raises the need to adopt a common language in the exchange of financial information. This paper aims to provide the reader, accountant or not, the understanding of XBRL. According to the Federal Accounting Council (CFC, 2010), the XBRL standard began to be researched ten years earlier, in theUnited States, by Charles Hoffman, a CPA. The understanding of XBRL passes through two fundamental concepts: Specification and taxonomies, which allow a system to organize, extract and analyze information coded within this classification. The XBRL International is free (royalty-free), is designed for financial and accounting area. The idea is to address the financial and accounting information electronically demarcated. For example: Gross margin, will have its unique tag name in a demonstration carrying American, Brazilian, or whatever country generally accepted accounting principles used to demonstrate their financial disclosures in that format. As the CFC, all types of entities (companies, regulators, government etc.), can use XBRL to reduce costs and improve efficiency in the processing of their business and financial information. The use of software can also immediately validate the data, highlighting errors and failures that can be immediately accessed. It can also help in the analysis, selection and processing of data for further use. Human effort can be channeled to higher levels, with higher added value, for example, aspects of analysis, evaluation, information and decision making. Thus, investment analysts can save effort, greatly simplify the selection and comparison of data and analysis.