（2003）Assurance Reporting for XBRL：XARL (eXtensible Assurance Reporting Language).pdfVIP

Assurance Reportingfor XBRL ：XARL (eXtensible Assurance Reporting Language) J. E. Boritz and W. G. No Both at University of Waterloo Abstract I. Introduction Accounting was develop ed in resp onse to the demands of Since Pacioli defined the double-entry bookkeeping business and other organizations and usersf or relevant and system in his 1494 book, Summa de Arithmetica, Geometria, reliablefi nancial informationf or decision making. Currently, Prop ortioni et Prop ortionalita, there have been many new many comp anies are p roviding users withfi nancial informa- developments in accounting and these continue, contribut- tion via the Internet on the World Wide Web (WWW or the ing to economic prosperity. Today, accounting information Web). However, such information must of ten be reentered is being provided on the Internet, especially the World Wide by users seeking to analyze it because asye t there are no Web (WWW or the Web), to enable the timely and efficient common, generally accept edf ormats f or exchang ing business exchange of information among preparers and various information on the Web. XBRL (eXtensible Business Rep orting stakeholders. However, despite the increased access to Language) is currently being develop ed to overcome this information that the Web offers, such information often limitation and p rovide financial information users with a cannot be easily incorporated into spreadsheets and other standardized method to p rep are,p ublish, and exchange analysis software, requiring tedious, costly, and error-prone fi nancial information. cutting and pasting or transcription. Also, there is little to Although there are several benefits of using XBR