Edgar Online Pushes XBRL For Financial Reporting

Edgar Online Inc., the Internet-based company that provides electronic versions of Securities and Exchange Commission filings, is pushing hard for an XML-type standard for financial reporting. The eXtensible Business Reporting Language, XBRL, creates a standards-based method for companies to publish and distribute financial reports that will be readable across all platforms.

Edgar Online says that by July 25, all financial documents it has collected since 1994 will be converted to the language. Liv Watson, director of XBRL for the company and a leader of the XBRL consortium, says that the platform-independent standard will facilitate Web-based transfers of financial reports, making them easier to read and analyze.

XBRL is being touted by financial-services agencies as one way to resolve reporting irregularities.