Real time interactive business reporting

XBRL is a XML based standard for real time, interactive financial reporting. USA SEC (security exchange commission) has made it mandatory for USA companies to make financial reporting in XBRL format. XBRL is taxonomy for all financial terms which normally form the part of various financial reports like balance sheet, Profit and loss account, Cash flow statement etc. XBRL will ensure that companies internal and external financial reporting is always available in real time mode. For example, total inventory value a company may have at any given point of time, forms the part of many financial reports. In order to implement XBRL compliance reporting, a company will need to have an inventory calculation service which will subscribe to all inventory related events. Such events may be happening in different IT systems of the company. As the inventory event takes anywhere in the IT system, inventory calculation service will be invoked and inventory will be calculated in real time. Similarly, all financial items which will form the part of usual financial reports will require having a service and relevant event subscriptions. Such infrastructure will enable all financial reports to be available in real time. Another aspect of XBRL is that it generates interactive reports and hence user can compare company’s performance over time and with other similar companies. Such feature are needed when an investor is evaluating a company. SOA, EDA, publish and subscribe and EAI are the capabilities which companies will require to have in order to develop XBRL compliance based reporting system. All types of companies like banks, auto, energy, and engineering will require to develop XBRL reporting system. This may be a huge opportunity for software companies in near future.