Two thirds of all accounting software vendors have either already enabled at least one of their accounting software packages or will do so by December 2004, according to a new survey from the US.
XBRL-US, the organisation that is promoting the development and adoption of the univeral business reporting IT 'language', says that the results of its survey illustrates that software vendors believe the demand for XBRL functionality within accounting software is on the rise.
Paul Penier of Ernst & Young, chair of the XBRL-US Adoption Committee, says: 'As the need for enhanced business reporting through higher quality, more transparent and timely information increases, the need for technology that enables better reporting also increases.'
XBRL – its full name is Extensible Business Reporting Language – is a royalty-free open specification system for software that uses XML data tags to describe financial information for public and private companies and other organisations.
The idea is that all users of financial information will be able to use it as a common system allowing them to prepare, publish, exchange and analyse information in a variety of formats.
More than 200 companies and organisations, including leading accountancy firms, are members of XBRL International.
For more, visit the XBRL International website at www.xbrl.org.
