A new financial reporting language that is expected to enhance the preparation, reporting and exchange of financial statements will be the subject of a week-long international conference to be co-hosted by the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants in Toronto on June 17-21.

XBRL – eXtensible Business Reporting Language – is an XML-based specification developed by more than 140 organizations, including some of the world’s largest companies, associations, regulators and government agencies, says the CICA

“Companies that tag their financial statements in XBRL will realize some significant benefits – a streamlined financial reporting process, technology independence, full interoperability, and reliable extraction of information,” says David Smith, FCA, president and CEO of the CICA. “XBRL empowers everyone in the financial information supply chain by enabling users to electronically import or export globally-standardized statements, eliminating the need for redundant data entry while at the same time simplifying usability of the information.”

XBRL provides a framework for organizations to report and deliver common and comparable financial information internally, as well as nationally and internationally, across all software programs and technologies, using the Internet as well as more traditional publishing formats, he says. XBRL members include General Electric Company, the Royal Bank of Canada, the Toronto Stock Exchange, Bank of America, Microsoft, Export Development Canada, the International Accounting Standards Board, the U.S. FDIC, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Toshiba, NEC, Reuters, SAP, CaseWare, Logiciel Dr. Tax Software Inc., Public Works and Government Services Canada, the Australian Stock Exchange, the CICA and the national accounting institutes of the United States, Japan and Australia.

The CICA is hosting the Fifth XBRL International Conference. It will provide an overview of the methodology and future of XBRL, and highlight applications of XBRL in the financial services sector, including credit risk analysis and monitoring, as well as applications for regulatory reporting, consolidations and taxation.