AUTHORED BY

STEPHANIE FAREWELL PH.D.

OCTOBER 2010

FOR
XBRL INTERNATIONAL, INC.

XBRL OR CUSTOMIZED XML?

Choosing the right electronic business reporting technology to meet your needs – the first time

Copyright ©2010, XBRL International, Inc. and Stephanie Farewell

All rights reserved.
 XBRL or Customized XML?

CONTENTS

Overview ............................................................................................................................................. 3
Laying the Groundwork....................................................................................................................... 3
What is a Standard?................................................................................................................. 3
XML Standard .......................................................................................................................... 4
What is XBRL? .......................................................................................................................... 4
What is Customized XML? ....................................................................................................... 5
Project Requirements .............................................................................................................. 5
Implementation Examples .................................................................................................................. 5
Prudential Supervision – COREP/FINREP ................................................................................. 6
State Government – State of Nevada ...................................................................................... 6
Nonfinancial Reporting – Sustainability Reporting.................................................................. 7
Internal Reporting – Wacoal.................................................................................................... 7
Choosing the Appropriate Technology for Your Project ..................................................................... 8
Analyzing Your Project Requirements ..................................................................................... 8
Comparing XBRL and Customized XML: Differences and Similarities ...................................... 9
Making the Decision .............................................................................................................. 11
Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 11
About the Author .............................................................................................................................. 12
References......................................................................................................................................... 12

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OVERVIEW
A common decision facing organizations implementing information technology (IT) systems for business reporting
is the selection of the appropriate technology standard to represent the information being reported. This
discussion frequently focuses on whether to develop customized software using Extensible Markup Language
(XML), or whether the project would benefit from the additional richness of information that can be expressed by
using the freely available open standard Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL). XBRL is an application of
1
XML using W3C standards to provide not only a vocabulary for business reporting but also a means of
unambiguously representing the semantics, or meaning, of the information being reported.

This paper is intended for decision makers involved in the planning or approval of projects that could potentially
use XBRL. It is at a high-level such that a technical understanding of XBRL and XML are not necessary. The
discussion is relevant across organization types, including large (or small) for profit enterprise, all levels of
government, and prudential and securities regulators. Examples illustrate the decision process used by
organizations charged with prudential oversight, government regulators, corporations, and novel implementations
(sustainability) in their decision to ultimately choose an XBRL solution. The paper concludes with a discussion of
some of the issues involved in making the decision between XBRL and customized XML.

LAYING THE GROUNDWORK

Before examining some real-world business reporting projects, let’s begin by building a common understanding of
standards in general and XBRL and customized XML in particular. The goal here is to focus on the business
perspective, while providing you with a basic vocabulary for discussing the project with your implementation team.
In addition, I touch on the concept of project requirements and the importance of understanding the needs of a
project before selecting a technology.

WHAT IS A STANDARD?
Standards are encountered in many aspects of our professional lives, not just IT. For example, the International
Organization for Standardization (ISO) has developed over 18,000 standards on a variety of subjects, including
2
standards for industries, services, health care, IT, and quality management (ISO 9000).

A standard describes an agreed upon way of doing things. It is:

• documented – anyone can make use of the document (specification) as a rule, guideline, or definition
• repeatable – the specification is detailed enough to lead to consistent quality in output
• widely accepted – a specification only becomes a standard when people agree to use it
• created by all interested stakeholders – pooling of resources and expertise make standards robust
3
• voluntary – though some laws may make the application of particular standards mandatory

1
W3C – World Wide Web Consortium – http://www.w3.org
2
ISO website – http://www.iso.org/iso/home.html

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Why are standards relevant? Standards provide consumers with a level of confidence in the products and services
they purchase or use. From an IT perspective, implementing a standard ensures that the data and software
applications you produce are interoperable with those produced by other organizations following the same
standard. Standards also save time and money because you do not need to continually “reinvent the wheel.”

XML STANDARD
From a business reporting perspective, the XML standard enables your organization to structure, store, share, and
present your data in a platform-independent way. For example, you can extract data from a database and encode
it in XML. Now you can share XML-encoded data as-is with investors or a regulatory body, provided they have the
tools and information necessary to interpret and present the data. Alternatively, you can send the data to a Web
browser, where you can specify how it is presented and even enable authorized users to update data and model
scenarios. Many commercial vendors and open source projects support the XML standard with tools and software.

From a technical perspective, the XML specification defines a set of rules for creating valid XML. It is not focused
on business reporting, but rather it is a broad-based specification applicable to any project requiring the
structuring and electronic exchange of data. To implement XML for business reporting, you can choose to adopt
the XBRL standard—an XML-based specification designed specifically for business reporting—or you can design a
custom implementation of XML that meets your business reporting needs, which is referred to in this paper as
customized XML.

WHAT IS XBRL?
XBRL is a freely available, market-driven, open, global standard for exchanging business information using XML.
The XBRL specification is developed and published by XBRL International, Inc. (XII), which is a non-profit
consortium of more than 650 companies and agencies interested in the development, promotion, and adoption of
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XBRL. XBRL builds upon XML, allowing accountants and regulatory bodies to identify items that are unique to the
business reporting environment in their countries and also taking into consideration the multidimensional nature
of business reporting. The XBRL standard provides your development team with everything it needs to implement
a reporting solution that is interoperable with systems currently in use by many international organizations and
regulatory bodies.

From a technical perspective, XBRL implements XML, but also encapsulates other WC3 standards to enable
features important to business reporting—like multiple relationships (both hierarchical and non-hierarchical) and
extensibility—that are not available in native XML. The XBRL specification defines how to create documents
containing your data in well-formed XML (called instance documents) and how to create files containing relevant
business terminology, their meanings, their data types, relationships among terms, and the rules/formulas they
must follow (called taxonomies).

3
BSI (National Standards Body of the UK) website – http://www.bsigroup.com/en/Standards-and-
Publications/About-standards/What-is-a-standard/
4
XBRL website – http://www.xbrl.org/AboutTheOrganisation/

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The taxonomies available through XII are created by groups of experts with extensive knowledge of regulatory
requirements and reporting frameworks, both within individual countries and globally. These taxonomies are
prescriptive but not restrictive; you can extend public taxonomies or
create your own custom taxonomies to define business terminology
R EASONS TO A VOID B UILDING
unique to a given environment—without updating software
N EW XML L ANGUAGES
applications that process XBRL. However, it is possible to specify in
the rules surrounding a particular XBRL implementation that If you want to discover some
taxonomy extensions are not permitted (e.g., Federal Financial good reasons to avoid
Institutions Examinations Council). Many vendors support XBRL with reinventing the wheel when it
data validation tools and compatible software applications. comes to XML, Tim Bray wrote
an enlightening article entitled
WHAT IS CUSTOMIZED XML? Don’t Invent New XML
Languages.
Customized XML is a custom implementation of XML created to meet
the business reporting needs of your organization. Your development While last updated in 2006, its
team uses the XML specification and possibly other XML-based message is still relevant today:
technologies as a basis for creating a business reporting solution. The Before investing in a new XML-
solution is generally proprietary and unique to your organization. based solution, make sure that
you have examined all the
A customized implementation has many advantages, not the least of existing XML-based languages to
which is simplicity. For example, some projects may not require see if what you need already
multiple relationships, extensibility, and sharability with other exists.
organizations. With customized XML, you can make use of off-the-
shelf XML tools and software to create and validate the XML, though you may still need to develop tools for
validating your data.

PROJECT REQUIREMENTS
The previous sections exemplify why you need clearly-defined project requirements before you begin discussing
technologies. A simple business reporting project has very different needs than a complex one. Similarly, if your
data needs to be shared/exchanged with other companies, associations, or regulatory bodies, you need to find out
how the data needs to be formatted and whether the target organization has expectations with respect to the
appropriate technology. The Choosing the Appropriate Technology for Your Project section at the end of this
paper provides guidance on analyzing your project’s needs and choosing an implementation strategy.

IMPLEMENTATION EXAMPLES
A common decision facing organizations implementing IT systems for business reporting is the selection of the
appropriate technology to represent the information being reporting. In this section, four examples are used to
illustrate projects wherein XBRL was chosen. These examples identify the project requirements, alternative
technologies considered (if available for public dissemination), and the basis for decision.

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PRUDENTIAL SUPERVISION – COREP/FINREP5

In 2004, the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS) was faced with the task of implementing a
common electronic reporting format for the harmonized Basel II European tables. Common solvency ratio
reporting (COREP) is for credit institutions and investment firms reporting. Financial Reporting (FINREP) is for credit
institution’s published financial statements and prudential reports produced with Internal Accounting
Standards/International Financial Reporting Standards.

The CEBS identified the following project requirements:

• represent the entire set of Excel tables
• facilitate validation
• define presentation
• support multiple languages

XML, SDMX, and XBRL were considered. XML was eliminated because it did not provide a standardized format for
financial data. While Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange (SDMX) could support the multidimensional data
contained in the tables, it was eliminated because it did not support the full set of project requirements.
Ultimately, XBRL was chosen because it allowed the CEBS the ability to define the semantic meaning of the data
within a modular taxonomy so that it could be implemented at the level of detail required in different countries
and facilitated data level validation.

STATE GOVERNMENT – STATE OF NEVADA6

In 2009, the State of Nevada’s Controller’s Office (SCO) was charged with collecting the debts of state agencies (SA)
that were 60 days or more past due. Approximately 60 agencies provide accounts receivable information to the
SCO 2 -3 times per month primarily in Excel format.

The State of Nevada identified the following project requirements:

• support accounts receivable data coming from multiple sources in a consistent format
• support additional SA data requirements while ensuring the data is in a standard format
• support data validation before and during the submission process
• avoid re-keying data
• enable programmed and ad-hoc reports

An XBRL solution—built using a taxonomy based on XII global standards—allows the reported data to be validated
by the SA prior to submission to the SCO, thereby improving data quality. Further, unlike the previous system of
Excel files which required time-consuming manual aggregation and was susceptible to re-keying errors, it is not
necessary to re-key data after the XBRL tags have been applied. After the data has been tagged and validated, it
may be used and re-used in both programmed and ad-hoc reports. In addition, this paves the way for XBRL to be a
part of a larger integrated financial reporting portal within the state.

5
Eurofiling website – http://www.eurofiling.info/corepTaxonomy/corep_taxonomy_documentation.html
6
CFO website – http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/14293057/2/c_14296446?f=home_todayinfinance
World Commerce Review website – http://www.worldcommercereview.com/publications/article_pdf/127

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NONFINANCIAL REPORTING – SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING7

The Global Resource Initiative (GRI) is a non-governmental international joint initiative of the Coalition for
Environmentally Responsible Economics (CERES) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The GRI
seeks to enhance the quality, rigor, and utility of sustainability reporting by creating a standardized approach for
voluntary reporting. Sustainability reporting is a component of triple bottom line reporting.

The GRI identified the following project requirements:

• increase the reliability and consistency of sustainability information
• facilitate the exchange of sustainability data
• increase the value from the exchange of sustainability data
• facilitate regional reporting differences

The GRI recognized the benefit that technology had played in the exchange of financial data. Seeking to achieve
similar gains from sustainability reporting, the GRI developed the first version of the G3 taxonomy in 2006. There
are significant gains that can be made by including environmental and social performance information into the
digital world in a consistently defined and easily searchable manner that can be accessed and shared across
disparate systems. XBRL provides the means to define the semantics of sustainability reports to facilitate
consistency. Further, there are significant connections between issues raised in sustainability reports and the
economic value of the firm. For example, information regarding an organizations greenhouse gas emissions and
occupational health and safety initiatives may be useful for predicting future costs. Hence, it is likely that gains can
be made by incorporating sustainability reports into the larger realm of integrated reporting, which includes
environmental, social, and financial reporting. In June 2010, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange mandated
integrated reporting. XBRL facilitates the use of multiple taxonomies, such as a financial reporting taxonomy (e.g.,
US GAAP) and sustainability taxonomy (e.g., G3).

INTERNAL REPORTING – WACOAL8

Wacoal Inc., the Japanese women’s apparel manufacturer, was faced with a common problem. Through a series of
mergers and acquisitions they had grown into 36 subsidiaries with an assortment of 32 disparate legacy accounting
systems that did not communicate across platforms and thus hindered the consolidation process.

Wacoal identified the following project requirements:

• ensure a flexible system that can be extended to meet future needs
• support real-time cash management
• improve decision support
• integrate the disparate systems

In an effort to increase efficiency Wacoal considered the alternatives: implement a consistent accounting
information system across subsidiaries, develop an XML solution for connectivity, or implement an XBRL solution.
Wacoal decided to implement an XBRL solution because it satisfied both current needs and could facilitate future
growth and change.

7
Global Reporting Initiative website – http://www.globalreporting.org/ReportingFramework/G3Guidelines/XBRL/
8
Strategic Finance – http://www.xbrl.org/Business/Companies/Breathing-New-Life-into-Old-Systems.pdf

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Hitachi Systems and Services Ltd. built the XBRL Global Ledger (XBRL-GL) journalizing engine as the backbone for
the new system. The journalizing engine allows data from the disparate systems to be tagged with XBRL taxonomy
tags which then supports the data consolidation process. Because of the inherent flexibility of XBRL, future
modules can be added that will fully integrate with the existing system. The implementation has been quite
successful. It has increased real-time cash management by increasing the frequency of reporting and by reducing
the burden to combine information across systems. In addition, the XBRL solution has reduced the end of cycle
close by two days due to the automation of information integration.

CHOOSING THE APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY FOR YOUR PROJECT

The preceding examples show how the project requirements drove the selection of XBRL over customized XML.
This is not always the case; there are projects that do not necessarily require the fullness of an XBRL solution.

To help you assess your own project requirements, we begin this section with a list of questions that should help
you to frame your requirements in terms of the functionality that you need. Then, using the comparison table
provided, you can look at how the technologies stack up against your requirements.

ANALYZING YOUR PROJECT REQUIREMENTS

Take a few minutes to review the following questions and select the ones that reflect your requirements. Beside
each question is the functionality that you may need from your XML-based technology to satisfy your project
requirements. After you have identified the functionality you need, you can find out the level of support that XBRL
and customized XML offer by looking up the functionality in the table in the following section.

Table 1: Analyzing project requirements and identifying functionality

Q UESTION F UNCTIONALITY A
□ Do you want to collect and analyze business information Data sharable internally
coming from disparate internal systems? Supports relational databases
□ Do you exchange business information externally with other Uses XML standard
organizations or regulatory bodies? Supported by XML validation tools
Data sharable externally
□ Does some of your data require multiple relationships to be Expresses multiple relationships
defined, such as information that belongs to multiple Uses other XML-based technologies
hierarchies or dimensions?
Supports multidimensional databases
□ Does your current system of reporting (such as Excel Supports simple and complex formulas
spreadsheets) contain formulas that you want to retain?
□ Is data quality of high importance? Supported by XML validation tools
Supported by data validation tools
□ Does the data need to be presented in multiple languages or Multilingual/multiple currencies
currencies?

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□ Would references to applicable laws or regulations clarify the Data sharable externally
meaning of the information being exchanged? Ability to document references
□ Do you need high quality presentation of data? Provides user-defined presentation
□ Do you expect your data structure or content to change over Flexibility (extensibility)
time?
A
The functionality listed in this column corresponds to the Functionality column in Table 2.

COMPARING XBRL AND CUSTOMIZED XML: DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES

The following table lists the functionality typically required by XML-based projects and then shows the differences
and similarities in how XBRL and customized XML support that functionality.

Note: The following XML terms are used to describe some of the functionality: element, schema, DTD, and
relationships. In XML, an element is a tag that describes the meaning of a piece of data, such as “current asset” or
“liability”. Schemas and DTDs are files that contain lists of user-defined elements. You can create relationships
between or among elements; for example, “current assets” is part of “assets”.

Table 2: Assessing how XBRL and customized XML implement functionality for business reporting

F UNCTIONALITY XBRL S TANDARD C USTOMIZED XML

Uses XML standard Yes. Yes.
Uses other XML-based Yes. XBRL uses: Maybe. The development team decides
technologies • XML Schema to define elements whether to use other XML-based
• Namespaces to specify which technologies based on project needs.
schema to look in to find a
particular element
• XLink to enable multiple
relationships among elements
• XPath and XQuery to support the
functionality of some optional
XBRL modules

Expresses multiple Yes. XBRL defines relationships separately No. If implemented as per the XML
relationships from elements, so you can express more specification alone, the relationship is
than one relationship among elements, specified as part of the definition of an
such as multiple hierarchies. element.
Flexible (extensible) Yes. You can define new elements and Maybe. The software needs to be
relationships without updating your XBRL- designed to handle unexpected elements.
based software application.
Data sharable Yes. You can define elements and Yes. You can define elements and
internally relationships for data used internally. relationships for data used internally.

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F UNCTIONALITY XBRL S TANDARD C USTOMIZED XML

Data sharable Yes. The XBRL community has defined, No. Customized XML is generally
externally under a system of due process, standard proprietary and unique to the needs of an
elements and relationships (called individual organization.
taxonomies) that meet the requirements
of regional reporting methods and enable
organizations to share data.
Ability to document Yes. XBRL has the ability to document No. The XML specification alone provides
references authoritative sources for any concept built no standard mechanism to reference
into it. external sources. A custom facility would
need to be designed and implemented to
provide this functionality.
Multilingual/multiple Yes. XBRL supports multiple languages and Maybe. The software would need to be
currencies multiple currencies within the same designed specifically to provide this
instance document. functionality.
Provides a user- Yes. The presentation linkbase allows No. However, the information provider
defined presentation user-defined presentation views. could provide a separate file (i.e., an XSLT
stylesheet).
Supports simple and Yes. XBRL supports simple No. The XML specification alone provides
complex formulas addition/subtraction in the taxonomy. The only a single set of hierarchical
Formula Specification provides the ability relationships. A custom facility would
to define more complex formulas. need to be designed and implemented to
express any mathematical relationships.
Supported by XML Yes. XML validation tools can be used to Yes. XML validation tools can be used to
validation tools ensure that the XBRL is well-formed ensure that the XML is well-formed
(syntactically correct) and valid (according (syntactically correct) and valid (according
to the schemas). to schemas or DTDs).
Supported by data Yes. Data files include information about Maybe. Data validation tools would need
validation tools that data, such as the time period to to be developed from scratch.
which the data belongs. Existing XBRL-
based tools are available to validate
mathematical relationships between data
items that are defined in the taxonomy.
Data validation tools cannot validate that
the correct tag was chosen from the
taxonomy.
Supports Yes. The separation of elements and Yes. Requires more effort, however,
interoperability with relationships plus XBRL’s extensibility because the elements and relationships
relational databases makes XBRL data easily interoperable with are intertwined.
any relational database.
Supports Yes. Elements may be defined using a Yes. Elements may be defined using a
multidimensional dimensional approach according to an dimensional approach. Requires additional
databases open standard. effort to specify how the dimensionality
should be expressed. Such expression
would use a proprietary approach, which
would not be generally accessible.

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MAKING THE DECISION

After analyzing your project requirements and the functionality associated with those requirements, you should be
able to come to a reasoned decision about the type of technology you feel would best suit your project. However,
you should discuss the requirements and functionality with your implementation team. If they propose a different
technology than the one you selected, ensure that any concerns you may have about the proposed technology are
addressed before moving forward.

It should be noted that in some cases organizations do not follow this type of analysis. For example, the Federation
of European Accountants (FEE) recently made the following comment about the use of XBRL:

If the full potential of the electronic network ... is to be realised in practice, we agree that the
format of the information submitted should be harmonised. As mentioned in our response to the
CESR Call for Evidence on standard reporting formats FEE is of the view that XBRL should be the
way forward and does not see a need to analyse alternative electronic reporting methodologies
at this stage. There seems to be broad support for the move towards XBRL in various jurisdictions
in the European Union and around the world and thus FEE believes that the resources used in the
move towards a common format should be used in the direction of developing XBRL and not for
9
analysing alternative reporting means.

This type of approach—to adhere to a standard created and implemented globally because it is a standard—
returns us to the discussion of standards at the beginning of this paper. Using a standard provides stakeholders
with confidence in the resulting system, interoperability, and a clear path forward for the future. Because a global
standard exists for business reporting, the FEE felt comfortable recommending the adoption of the standard
without requiring analysis of the alternatives.

CONCLUSION
As you consider the merits of a customized XML solution and an XBRL solution to your business reporting
technology project, you should clearly define the project requirements to include details on the type of
information to be exchanged, the conditions under which the information is produced, and how the information
will be shared across the information supply chain. The project requirements rather than the existing technology
skill-set within your organization should guide the decision. For more complex business reporting projects,
customized XML may continue to be presented as an option. However, you should be aware that you may be
committing to the redevelopment—in isolation—of a system parallel to the community-developed XBRL. Tens of
thousands of hours have been spent by technical and subject matter experts in the development of the XBRL
Specification and in the development of the US GAAP, IFRS, and XBRL GL taxonomies. By being cognizant of the key
differences between customized XML and XBRL, you can make an informed decision.

9
FEE comment letter on the CESR Consultation Paper on “Development of Pan-European Access to Financial
Information Disclosed by Listed Companies” page 3.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Stephanie Farewell is an Associate Professor of Accounting at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She is a
licensed CPA in Arkansas. Stephanie received her BBA, MACC and Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma. Recent
publications appear in the Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Journal of Information Systems, Issues in
Accounting Education, Accounting Education: An International Journal, and The CPA Journal. She teaches
introductory and advanced accounting information systems.

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Committee of European Banking Supervisors. (2009, December 23). CEBS Why is XBRL recommended to be used?
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