About XBRL^®

XBRL allows for Improved...

• Integration of the business reporting supply chain.
• Efficiency gains from avoiding the re-keying of financial data.
• Timeliness and much faster analysis and turn-around.
• Automation of routine reports.
• Accuracy with fewer data entry errors.
• Transparency of information.
• Analysis with hyper-detailed, standardized, individually tagged items.
• Valuations with movement away from earnings-centric valuation and analysis.
• Standardization, but still with a great deal of customization.
• Flexibility for the creation of virtually any type of business or financial research report.
• Compatibility through use of a text file format that can be accessed by many different kinds of systems and software tools.
• Costs with less dependence on data service providers and/or lower cost data.

What is XBRL^®?

• XBRL is... an electronic reporting format for “tagged” financial information.
• XBRL is... an XML-based specification language with enhancements for advanced business reporting.
• XBRL is... a royalty-free, non-proprietary technology.
• XBRL is... a business reporting industry standard for the creation, publication, storage, exchange, and analysis of business/financial reports and data.
• XBRL is... an XML-formatted text document with individually tagged items and references to supporting information.
• XBRL is... an international organization with over 300 member organizations worldwide and 50 in the U.S. jurisdiction including the Big Four accounting firms, major business software companies, government agencies and financial service providers.
• XBRL is... a business report design that was first released in July 2000, and adopted by the SEC for a Voluntary Reporting Program for its EDGAR system in 2005.
• More information about XBRL can be found at www.xbrl.org.

SEC XBRL Voluntary Reporting Program

• The SEC wants to extend successful html tagging of report sections on the EDGAR system to the individually tagged line item level.
• The project has been fast-tracked at the SEC: It first announced the initiative to assess the benefits of tagged data in July '04 and implemented a voluntary XBRL reporting program in early February '05. The SEC has made a series of public releases supporting interactive data since then.
• The XBRL project was initiated by former SEC Chairman William Donaldson and then enthusiastically supported by current Chairman Christopher Cox.