Digital reporting and iXBRL

Digital reporting is the electronic preparation and submission of financial and non-financial information in a structured, machine-readable format.

Historically, annual reports and financial statements were prepared as paper documents or static files such as Word, Excel or PDF. Data had to be read, extracted and compared manually. Digital reporting reduces that manual effort by allowing regulators, government bodies, businesses, accountants, analysts and other stakeholders to access, process and compare reported information more efficiently.

In the UK, electronic filing in iXBRL (Inline eXtensible Business Reporting Language) format became compulsory for HMRC (His Majesty's Revenue and Customs) from April 2011. iXBRL is the format used to file accounts electronically and combines a human-readable version of the accounts with embedded machine-readable data.

The key difference between XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) and iXBRL is that XBRL is designed primarily for computers to read, whereas iXBRL can be read both by people and by software systems.

All UK companies must file their corporate tax computation and statutory accounts in iXBRL format or risk penalties.

A taxonomy is a digital dictionary of available tags. Different taxonomies are used for different reporting frameworks, jurisdictions, and statutory requirements, and they are usually organised to follow the structure of a set of accounts.

Each tag defines the type of information being reported and may include rules such as the expected data type, permitted values, currency, and relationships with other items. In practice, taxonomies provide the common language that enables digital reports to be prepared, filed, and analysed consistently.