What is XBRL?
XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) is an open standard language optimised for business information, including but not limited to financial and accounting information. It is based on XML (eXtensible Markup Language) and related technologies (XML Schema, XLink). XBRL is the optimisation of XML to represent business and financial data.
The advantage XBRL has over XML is that the tagged data can be associated with a description as well as the computer readable tag. XBRL aids data sharing more than XML allowing any number of human terms for the same data concept can be associated with it (e.g. sales, income, revenue, turnover).
XBRL enables the tagging of data with identifying information, according to a classification system (or taxonomy). Because XBRL tags are computer-readable, they allow the electronic transmission of data along with resources relating to each concept that help define their semantic meaning (i.e. the associated definitions and other metadata from the taxonomy).
Electronic transmission of data with semantic meaning enables the automated processing of that information in context, reducing the time and resources that would otherwise be required to manually analyse and compare it.
What is a taxonomy?
A taxonomy is essentially a collection of concepts, similar to a dictionary that classifies and clarifies data and its use.
The capability of XBRL to communicate semantic meaning associated with specific data elements, independent of any software application or platform, makes it useful for the transmission of business and financial information to multiple company stakeholders and regulators. It enables the validation of information contained within business transmissions against the constraints defined in the taxonomy and facilitates the analysis and reuse of that business information for other purposes.
What is the SBR Taxonomy?
In the SBR context, the taxonomy is a collection of reportable terms and their association with accounting and related concepts. It is the language used to enable business software to send reports to government agencies.
The SBR Taxonomy is based on international standards and best practice. In developing the taxonomy, participating agencies undertook a process of rationalisation/harmonisation. The process identified, defined and labelled every element of data that is reported to agencies for each of the forms in scope. Duplicate items with disparate names were harmonised under one tag whilst allowing industry specific labels for the same term in different reports. Similarly, items with the same name, but disparate definitions, were identified and uniquely tagged.
More information can be obtained from www.sbr.gov.au
APRA XBRL 2.0 Taxonomy will be superseded with SBR Taxonomy XBRL 2.1 in July 2011
APRA introduced XBRL 2.0 taxonomy in 2002 it will be replaced in July 2011 with the SBR Taxonomy XBRL 2.1. Support will continue for the ARPA taxonomy until 2013/14 OR until data requirements are updated. ARPA strongly recommends that anyone considering implementing XBRL investigate the SBR Taxonomy and consider the benefits of adopting this new technology.
· Improved descriptions and guidance for all data items collected in APRA forms.
· Harmonisation of data items both within APRA and with other SBR agencies such as ASIC, ATO and State Revenue Offices. The goal of harmonisation is to avoid duplication of data items i.e. define a data item once (e.g. net profits) and achieve agreement on the definition of the data item, its inclusions and exclusions making mapping quicker and easier.
· The use of dimensions which improves harmonisation and more closely aligns with the way data is stored in financial systems. This will make it easier for organisations to map the taxonomy to their internal systems or data warehouse and thus automate their submissions to APRA.
Please direct any queries or questions to sbr@apra.gov.au
