Contemporary Accounting Research on (i)XBRL: Current Insights and Future Directions
Abstract
Since January 2020 the European Single Electronic Format (ESEF) regulation has required public firms in the European Union (EU) member states to file their annual financial reports in the inline eXtensible Business Reporting Language (iXBRL). This mandate is the first worldwide that also requires an audit of the iXBRL filings. This comprehensive review sheds light on the benefits and limitations of iXBRL as a reporting format drawn from relevant XBRL literature. First, the literature on the XBRL adoption and the overall capital market effects are being discussed. Second, the review considers literature on the use of extended XBRL tags and their influence on financial reporting quality and financial statement users’ information processing costs. Third, studies that extract and use both numerical and textual data via XBRL tags are presented. In addition, the review discusses the literature addressing auditors’ interaction with XBRL data. Lastly, a practical overview provides insights on the audit procedures for ESEF filings and is gathered from an interview conducted with a practitioner. The literature review concludes with potential future research prospects on the iXBRL reporting format