What is XBRL?
XBRL is a language for the electronic communication of business and financial data which is revolutionizing business reporting around the world. It provides major benefits in the preparation, analysis and communication of business information. It offers cost savings, greater efficiency and improved accuracy and reliability to all those involved in supplying or using financial data.
XBRL stands for eXtensible Business Reporting Language. It is one in the family of “XML” languages and it is becoming a standard means of communicating information between businesses and on the internet.
XBRL is being developed by an international non-profit consortium of over 600 major companies, organizations and government agencies. It is an open standard, free of licence fees. It is already being put to practical use in a number of countries and implementations of XBRL are growing rapidly around the world.
For more information, see www.xbrl.org and www.xbrl.fi (in Finnish)
XBRL Finland Consortium
XBRL International has created a model that is based on country-specific XBRL consortia activities. XBRL Finland has been established in 2012. RTE Program has set as an objective to form the XBRL Consortium (a non-profit actor) and begin the use of XBRL reporting language in annual reporting to The National Board of Patents and Registration of Finland. Following the international model, the Finnish XBRL Consortium operates as a part of the XBRL International for a membership fee. Through the membership fee support for the development of XBRL reporting language is received. The Federation of Finnish Financial Services, The National Board of Patents and Registration of Finland, The Association of Finnish Accounting Firms, and Statistics Finland have been identified as the actors whose involvement in the early stages of the project would support the creation of XBRL Finland organization.
Aalto University School of Business is committed to act as the host of XBRL work. Elina Koskentalo from Tieke (Finnish Information Society Development Centre) acts as the project manager. Real-Time Economy Program supports XBRL activities through research and is responsible for utilizing the earlier outputs (electronic accounting reference and electronic financial statements) in XBRL work.
For the XBRL work, an initial organization has been established in 2012. Currently, Finnish XBRL organization has 19 members in the consortium.
XBRL Finland organization is a requirement to begin XBRL development and implementation in Finland. XBRL Finland is responsible for the following tasks:
- Finland’s XBRL taxonomy development.
- Awareness of XBRL work and the benefits and business opportunities of XBRL should be raised through different types of seminars and meetings.
- To act as a link to the other XBRL Organizations (such as XBRL International).
- Organization’s internal and external communications (website, media relations, internal communication to members, etc.)
Contact Information
Esko Penttinen, Head of XBRL Finland, Aalto University, esko.penttinen@aalto.fi
Elina Koskentalo, Project Manager XBRL Finland, Tieke ry, elina.koskentalo@tieke.fi