New company established to develop XBRL

A new company called Business Reporting Ireland has been established to develop computer language XBRL in Ireland.

The company, launched today in Dublin, includes as its founding members, the Central Statistics Office, Deloitte, Ernst and Young, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland, KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Revenue Commissioners.

XBRL is a new computer language which allows company accounts to be read by any computer system. It is described as an electronic 'tagging' format, which helps consumers of business information to analyse information coming from different sources.

It simplifies the transfer of financial statements, performance reports, accounting records, and other financial information between different software programmes.

XBRL is being supported by more than 200 organisations worldwide including major accounting firms, software vendors, regulators and corporations. Already the Tokyo Stock Exchange demands that all listed companies there file their accounts using XBRL.