The Periodic Table of
eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL)

A glossary of terms related to XBRL for every finance executive.
Refer to this periodic table to keep yourself updated on XBRL and related terminologies.

Base Taxonomy

A taxonomy used as the starting point for an XBRL report.

Block Tag

An XBRL tag that represents the content of an entire section of a report. A block tag may include text, numeric values, tables and other data.

Built-In Dimension

A dimension that all facts require and which is defined by the XBRL specification.

Business Report

A document used to convey information to serve specific reporting needs. A business report such as an annual report is typically periodic.

Business Validation Rules

Business validation rules are included in a taxonomy as XBRL formula rules. They help software to check the quality of an XBRL report.

Calculation Tree

A calculation tree represents the relationships between taxonomy concepts to help describe and validate simple totals and subtotals.

Closed Reporting

A reporting programme that prescribes the data points to be reported. Preparing reports in closed reporting is like filling a form or a template.

Collector

An organisation that retrieves XBRL reports for regulation, collection, and/or analysis of business data. For example, market regulators.

Concept

An XBRL taxonomy element that provides meaning to a fact being reported. For example, the XBRL elements for "Profit" and "Turnover".

Consumer

An end user of the information contained in XBRL reports.

Cube

A cube is a combination of a set of dimension and a set of concepts.

Data Point

A line item in a financial report against which an XBRL tag is placed. A data point and its assigned value make up a fact.

Definitional Taxonomy

A compilation of the elements in a reporting taxonomy. A definitional taxonomy is not meant to be referenced directly in an XBRL report.

Dimensional Structure

A dimensional structure is how a cube is defined in a taxonomy.

Dimension

A specific aspect of a data point that describes one of its characteristics.

Dimension Default

Also called a default member, it provides the default dimension value for facts where the dimension is not reported.

Dimension Value

A value used by a dimension when defining a data point.

Domain

A set of related values available to define a dimension.

Domain Member

An element that represents one of the possiblities of a domain.

Entity-Specific Disclosure

Disclosures specific to a reporting entity or a small number of reporting entities. They do not have matching elements in the base taxonomy

Entity-Specific Taxonomy

A taxonomy created by the preparer of an XBRL report and containing customized XBRL tags that represent entity-specific elements.

Enumeration

An ordered list of values for a fact that are defined by a taxonomy.

Extension Taxonomy

A taxonomy that adds to the base taxonomy. Extension taxonomies are built by entities other than the one that built the base taxonomy.

Fact

An individual unit of information in an XBRL report. A fact has a corresponding concept, value, and dimensions that define a data point.

Filing

Filings are documents submitted to a collector or regulator. Filings may include XBRL reports as well as extension taxonomies.

Filing Guidance

Documents accompanying filing rules and designed to help entities with XBRL report preparation. May include guidance on XBRL tagging scope.

Filing Rules

Filing rules specify the technical requirements of an XBRL reporting mandate, including XBRL taxonomy versions and specification modules.

InlineXbrl

Inline XBRL allows entities to prepare digital documents that are machine-readable and human-readable at the same time.

Ixbrl Report

An iXBRL document embeds machine-readable XBRL tags in an HTML document viewed using a web browser. See definition of Inline XBRL.

Label

A label describes XBRL taxonomy components to a human reader. Labels can be in multiple languages and of multiple types.

Open Information Model (Oim)

The Open Information Model (OIM) is a strategic initiative by XBRL International to modernize the XBRL open data standard.

Open Reporting

An XBRL reporting environment where report preparers decide the data points to disclose. This is common in financial reporting where disclosure is principles-based.

Preparer

A person or entity that creates XBRL reports, often in compliance with regulatory requirements.

Presentation Tree

The hierarchal structure of taxonomy elements that helps users visualize or navigate the taxonomy.

Reference

Information that accompanies a taxonomy component and provides a link to external information about the element.

Reference Part

A part of a reference, such as the chapter and paragrahp number.

Reporting Taxonomy

The taxonomy with whose elements the contents of a report are to be tagged. XBRL reports are validated against the reporting taxonomy.

Structural Element

Taxonomy elements that contain cubes, dimensions, and domains.

Tagging

Tagging is a method of preparing an XBRL report by mapping the values in a business report with the elements in an XBRL taxonomy.

Taxonomy

A taxonomy is a dictionary or a collection of XBRL elements. These elements define or provide meaning to the facts in an XBRL report.

Taxonomy Architect

A person responsible for decisions on how a taxonomy is designed.

Taxonomy Author

A person or entity responsible for defining the content of an XBRL taxonomy.

Taxonomy Owner

A person or organisation who maintains the content, design, and structure of an XBRL taxonomy.

Taxonomy Component

Any part of a taxonomy that can be defined.

Taxonomy-Defined Dimension

A dimension that is unlike a built-in dimension in that it is defined by a taxonomy.

Taxonomy Entry Point

A subset or 'view' of a taxonomy identified by a unique URL or set of URLs.

Text Block

A text tag that represents narrative text.

Text Tag

A fact that represents textual information.

Validation Rules

Rules that allow entities to check the quality and interoperability of XBRL reports.

Xbrl

XBRL stands for eXtensible Business Reporting Language. XBRL helps entities present business information in a machine-readable format.

Xbrl-Csv

"An advanced format that combines the powers of the XBRL and CSV format to help collect high-volume granular data "

Xbrl-Json

An advanced format that combines the powers of XBRL and JSON to make data easy to use and achieve higher Interoperability

Xbrl-Xml

Traditionally, XBRL is based on XML or eXtensible Markup Language.

Xbrl Formula Rules

Validation rules defined in a taxonomy using the XBRL formula specification.

Xbrl Report

A report that contains XBRL machine-readable tags against disclosures.

Xbrl Reporting Template

XBRL reporting templates are used in closed reporting programmes and represet a tabular view of a taxonomy for presentation or data entry.

Validation

A process to check XBRL reports for conformance with XBRL specifications and basic hygiene such as the appropriate use of taxonomy.

Abstract

An attribute of an XBRL element that indicates the element is only used in a hierarchy to group related elements together.

Attribute

A property of an XBRL element such as its name, balance type, and data type.

Axis

A differentiation of facts within an instance document. Each axis offers a way to classify facts.

Balance

The attribute of a monetary item type that designates the balance of the element as as debit, credit, or neither.

Calculation Relationships

Relationships between numeric items in a report.

Context

Company-specific or report-specific information need for tagged data to be understood in relation to other information.

Decimal

An attribute that expresses the number of decimal places to which numbers have been rounded in an instance document.

Element

A business or financial concept defined in the taxonomy according to XBRL specifications

Hierarchy

Trees or structures used to depict and navigate relationships.

Imputed Value

A value that is not provided but is calculated based on other numbers.

Item

A technical term for a kind of element in XBRL.

Label Type

A name that distinguishes an element and indicates the circumstance of its use.

Line Item

Elements in the rows of a table such as a financial statement.

Linkbase

A technical term to describe an XBRL relationships file.

Mapping

The process of identifying the taxonomy elements that match the disclosures in financial statements.

Name

The label that sets apart an individual element in a taxonomy

Parent-Child Hierarchy

A relationship between elements where one element is subordinate to the other.

Period Type

An element attribute that indicates the reporting period as instant or duration.

Presentation Relationships

A view of the relationships between arranged elements to help users navigate the taxonomy via hierarchies.

Render

To process an instance document into a human-readable layout.

Scaling

A feature found in instance document creation software that helps scale numeric data by value so that users need not key in multiple zeros.

Scenario

An XBRL tag that allows additional information to be associated with facts in an instance document.

Schema

A technical term for an element declaration file.

Segment

A tag that allows additional information to be included in the context of an instance document.

Sign Value

Denotes whether a numeric fact in an instance has a positive or negative value.

Standard Label

This is the default label for an element. Extensions override the standard label.

Table

An element that organizes a set of axes and a set of line items.

Xbrl Tag

A machine-readable element that needs to be mapped to a financial disclosure.

Data Type

The kind of data – monetary, shares, decimals – to be tagged with the element name.

Weight

An attribute of the calculation relationship that works in conjuction with the balance of the parent and child numeric elements.

DTS

Discoverable taxonomy set (DTS) is a collection of taxonomy schema documents and linkbases.

Abstract Attribute

An abstract attribute appears on item definitions in schemas with the possible values of true and false.

Data Type Attribute

This attribute indicates the data expected for concepts. Most common data types are monetary, shares, string, etc.

Periodtype Attribute

It is used to describe the measurement period of the concept and may be assigned one of two values – instant and duration.

Extended Link Element

Extended Link Elements are a logical grouping of elements representing a set of relationships between concepts and defined in schema.

Locator

A reference to taxonomy schema element definitions that uniquely identify each concept.

Arc

Arcs link concepts to each other by associating their locators.

Arcrole Attribute

An arcrole attribute defines the use of an arc and documents the kind of relationship that the arc expresses.

Presentation Linkbase

The presentation linkbase expresses the relationships between various XBRL elements used in a report.

Order Attribute

Determines a relationship sequence. In the presentation linkbase, it helps display elements in the order defined for each element.

Calculation Linkbase

The calculation linkbase lists out the arithmetic relationships in an XBRL report.

Weight Attribute

An attribute necessary for calculation Arc elements to indicate the multiplier to be applied to a numeric item value.

Definition Linkbase

A definition linkbase is used to represent pre-defined and self-defined relationships between the elements in an XBRL report.

Label Linkbase

A label linkbase stores the labels used in an XBRL report and links them to their respective elements.

Reference Linkbase

Most taxonomy elements refer to concepts defined by specific literature. The reference linkbase stores relationships between the elements and their references.

Formula Linkbase

A specification developed by XBRL International to build a general mechanism to create formulae based on XBRL concepts.

Calculation Trace

The results of all calculations in an XBRL document given in the tree view.

Data Type

Data type identifies the data storage format that can hold a specific type of data or range of values for the concept.

Document Data

Data within a Microsoft Office document. In a generic sense, the term could mean one cell in MS Excel, or one word or paragraph in MS Word.

Document Identifier

Every Office document that has Disclosure Management non-data source mappings is assigned a document identifier.

Fact Value

Financial Statements

Reports containing financial information about an entity for a specific period.

Formula Trace

The organized result of all formulae in an XBRL document in a tree or presentation view.

Relation

A connection between two concepts using the xlink standard, with 'from' and 'to' being the endpoints.

Scheme

A reference to the naming authority for entity identification.

Xbrl Element

A machine-readable element present in an XBRL taxonomy.

Xbrl Context

Defines information about the business entity, a reporting period and an optional Scenario.

Xbrl Instance Documents

XML files containing financial information mapped with elements from one or more XBRL taxonomies.

Xbrl Schema

XML Schema is the World Wide Web Consortium standard for the specification of XML instance documents and vocabularies.

Xbrl Specification

Description and guidelines of the XML semantics and syntax used in the construction of XBRL.

Xbrl Tuple

Facts containing multiple values and identified by a single XML concept holding nested items.

Xbrl Unit

The unit pertaining to a numerical value such as currency or shares.

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