XBRL Tagging of Financial Statement Data Using XMLSpy: The Small Company Case

Publicly traded companies in the U.S. are required by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to file their financial statement data using XBRL tags. Other countries using international accounting standards have adopted similar XBRL filing requirements. This case provides a brief introduction to XBRL for business or accounting majors, and uses freely available software products (Altova XMLSpy) and training tools that help learners quickly progress through a basic introduction to XML (the foundation for XBRL), the XBRL taxonomy schema, and actual tagging of financial statement numbers. The basic skills learned in this case give accountants and other business professionals a working knowledge of how XBRL and other XML-based business documents are and can be used in practice. The case also raises awareness of the XBRL taxonomy development bodies, filing repositories, and development tools available in this domain for those interested in pursuing this technology in more detail.