The mission of XBRL US, Inc. is to support the implementation of XBRL (Extensible Business Reporting Language) in the United States through the development of the digital dictionary (taxonomy) relevant for use by US public and private sectors, working with a goal of interoperability between sectors, and by promoting adoption of XBRL through the collaboration of all business reporting supply chain participants.
Brief History
The XBRL technology standard for business information reporting was initiated in 1998 when a handful of forward-looking accounting and technology experts came up with the idea of structured data for business information. They took their idea to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) which established a committee to explore the concept and provided funding to begin research and development.
XBRL is a royalty-free, open specification for software that uses XML data tags to describe financial information for public and private companies and other organizations. XBRL benefits all members of the financial information supply chain by utilizing a standards-based method with which users can prepare, publish in a variety of formats, exchange and analyze financial statements and the information they contain. Some of the world's leading accounting, financial, government and software organizations are involved in the adoption and use of XBRL in the U.S.
Since its start in 1998, XBRL International has grown into an international consortium which is now a separate nonprofit entity, comprised of 27 country-specific jurisdictions.
XBRL US, Inc. (XBRL US), the US jurisdiction of the international organization, was also a committee of the AICPA until September, 2006, when it became a separate, nonprofit, 501c6. At the same time, with the spin-off from the AICPA, XBRL US hired its first-ever President & CEO, initiating the creation of a professionally staffed, resource-rich organization.
In April 2008, XBRL US completed the first release of the XBRL US GAAP Taxonomy and since then, has published the 2009 Release and 2009 Addendum.
In the Fall of 2009, XBRL US Labs was launched as the research and development arm of the organization.