Inline XBRL Specification Approved to RECOMMENDATION Status by XBRL International (XII) Steering Committee and Standards Board

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The XBRL International Steering Committee and the XBRL International Standards Board announced last week the approval of the Inline XBRL Specification publication and the associated registry of specified transformations as an XBRL International RECOMMENDATION. This specification allows HTML documents to be viewed in a browser while making use of XBRL tags which can be processed automatically by currently available software solutions and applications. Vendors will also be able to test their software against the specification using an XII provided conformance suite. In addition XBRL International has published an open source, reference implementation of an Inline XBRL validator and extractor.

“The Inline XBRL specification delivers transparency in reporting in a new and intuitive way.”

Inline XBRL satisfies the need to work in a “human readable” document while utilising the “computer readable” XBRL standard for business and financial reporting.

"This is a major step forward for the XBRL International community,” states Philip Allen, Editor of the Inline XBRL Specification. “The Inline XBRL specification delivers transparency in reporting in a new and intuitive way."

The UK’s HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) were an early adopter of Inline XBRL in November 2009 and Companies House, the official UK government register of UK companies, revealed that they will “…add Inline XBRL software filing for unaudited full accounts to their service by the summer of 2010 and then continue to develop their Inline XBRL capability for all the main accounts types they receive by summer 2011.” ¹

About XBRL International, Inc (XII)

XBRL International, Inc. (XII) is a global consortium using a cooperative effort to create a common business reporting language based on XML. This Web protocol is being developed and promoted by an international, not-for-profit consortium of more than 600 major international companies, associations and government agencies.

A RECOMMENDED Specification is a work that represents consensus within the XBRL International community and has its stamp of approval. The International Steering Committee considers that the ideas or technology specified by a Recommendation are appropriate for widespread deployment to promote the mission of XBRL International.

Inline XBRL is the latest in the suite of XBRL specifications produced by the XBRL International consortium technical working groups under the auspices of the International XBRL Standards Board.

For more information on the Specification go to: http://www.xbrl.org/SpecRecommendations/

¹ Source: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/ct/ct-online/joint-filing-statement.htm