What is XBRL?

XBRL is a language for e-communication of financial and business data for business reporting. It is a standardized communication language in the electronic form to express, report, or file financial statements by Companies. However, XBRL is only a method of presentation or reporting. It does not attempt to make any changes in the content to be reported.

What is the full form of XBRL? 

The full form of XBRL is “EXTENSIBLE BUSINESS REPORTING LANGUAGE”.

Applicability of XBRL filing

Below mentioned class of companies shall file their financial statements and other documents under section 137 of the Companies Act, 2013 with the Registrar in E-form AOC-4 XBRL:

• All public companies listed in the stock exchange in India and their Indian subsidiaries.
• All companies with a turnover of Rs 100 crores or more.
• All companies with a paid-up capital of Rs 5 crores or more.
• All the companies which are required to prepare their financial statements in accordance with the Companies (Indian Accounting Standards) rules, 2015.

However, Non-banking financial companies, Housing finance companies, and Companies engaged in the business of the Banking and Insurance sector are exempted from filing financial statements under these rules.

Moreover, the companies which have filed their financial statements in XBRL under section 137 shall continue to file their financial statements and other documents in XBRL only, though they may cease to fall under the class of companies specified above. 

How does XBRL (EXTENSIBLE BUSINESS REPORTING LANGUAGE) work?

XBRL makes the data readable, with the help of two documents 

1. Taxonomy and 
2. Instance document

Taxonomy defines the elements and their relationships based on the regulatory requirements. Using the taxonomy prescribed by the regulators, companies need to map their reports and generate a valid XBRL instance document. The process of mapping means matching the concepts as reported by the company to the corresponding element in the taxonomy. In addition to assigning XBRL tag from taxonomy, information like unit of measurement, period of data, the scale of reporting, etc. needs to be included in the instance document.

Documents required for XBRL for MCA

The following documents need to be filed in XBRL Format:

• Balance Sheet
• Profit and Loss Statement
• Cash Flow Statement
• Schedules related to Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss Statement
• Notes to Accounts
• Statement pursuant to Section 212 of the Companies Act, 1956 relating to subsidiaries
• Audit and Annual Report

Benefits of XBRL

XBRL offers many benefits in the field of business reporting and analysis:

• Improved way of reporting
• Automated data collection
• Reliable and accurate
• Cost-effective
• Time-saving process
• Analytical process
• Safe in data handling
• Helps in better decision making

The use of XBRL is quite varied and wide. XBRL enables producers and consumers of financial data to switch resources away from costly manual processes, typically involving time-consuming comparison, assembly and re-entry of data.