XBRL mythbusters: the more you know, the better equipped you'll be.

• Author: Monterio, Brad J.

When I began working with eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) 13 years ago. I had a hunch that it was going to be the next big thing for corporate reporting. My hunch proved right as XBRL is today's global standard For providing context and structure around business infOrmation. It's easy to see why.

XBRL makes data easily read by computers and software and is required in the world's leading capital markets as a way to bring greater transparency to financial and non-financial information. XBRL helps companies streamline report preparation processes and shorten time to consolidate and the hooks. And it allows users to spend more time on analysis of data rather than gathering of information.

The journey to get NBRL when' it is today has had its challenges, including many myths that have cropped up about it From organizations or all types and sizes public and private, governmental and non-governmental, for-profit and nonprofit. In the United States, as we enter the latest phase of the SEC's NBRL mandate, whereby all listed companies must provide XBRL-formatted financials. plus detailed tagging of all Footnotes. it's important to tackle some of these myths to understand XBRL can ease the pains of SEC reporting processes.

"Technology advancement is revolutionizing the reporting process by integrating XBRL into urn' active document. not treating XBRL. as a separate document, thereby allowing companies to save hundreds of hours in their report assembly and filing processes," said Liv Watson, a founder of the XBRL standard and director of international business development at WebFilings. "This is no myth: I've worked with small and large companies who have already achieved these savings in their reporting processes."

Did You Know ...

Its important to have a bit of context and market. updates before enumerating the top myths about XBRL:

* The United States, China, japan, United Kingdom, Germany India, Singapore, Australia and the Netherlands have either mandated XBRL, for various types or external reporting, such as tax, financial statements and mutual hinds, or have set up voluntary XBRL filing programs.

* XBRL, International, the standard setting body for XBRL, estimates that companies representing more than 75 percent of the world's market capitalization arr using XBRL. With more countries considering for various uses, the pervasive use of the standard vill broaden.

* Several million companies around the world are using XBRL to meet various reporting mandates, including tax and financial statement Wings. Tax reporting is one of the fastest-growing areas in terms of XBRL use. Since tax reporting requirements cut across a much wider span of companies. including privately held ones, this could impact your organization in the near future.

* A growing number Of federal governments are integrating XBRL across their agencies to streamline reporting and...