TAXONOMY

Scope and Level of Tagging

• Scope
• Levels of tagging

Instance Document

An XBRL instance document is a business report in an electronic format created according to the rules of XBRL. It contains facts that are defined by the elements in the taxonomy it refers to, together with their values and an explanation of the context in which they are placed. XBRL Instances contain the reported data with their values and “contexts”. Instance document must be linked to at least one taxonomy, which defines the contexts, labels or references.

Tag

The elements as defined in taxonomy are also referred as XBRL tags or only tags. E.g. SourcesOfFunds, InterestCharges etc. Mark-up languages such as XBRL and XML use tags to describe data, for example 1000 – the word Asset together with the brackets < and > is called a tag; there are opening tags: <…> and closing tags: .

Fact

The values included in the instance document, which correspond to the concepts included in the taxonomy, are called as facts. These facts can either be numeric (monetary, shares or other numeric information) or non-numeric (string, date or text block). E.g.

Concept	Fact
Intangible Assets	100000
Name of subsidiary	Sample company ltd.
Date of board meeting	2011-04-30
Earnings per share	2.33

Context

The reporting period, information about reporting entity and other information which is required to uniquely identify any fact value is considered as context. It documents the entity, the period and the scenario that collectively give the appropriate context for understanding the values of items. Context ids have to be created based on the rules specified in the filing manual.

Scheme

The criteria used for recognizing the entity, which is unique and accepted to the authority to which the instance is to be submitted. Companies filing to MCA have to follow the scheme as mentioned in the filing manual.

Decimals attribute

This attribute is to be defined for numeric items in the instance document. It specifies the number of decimal places to which the value of the fact represented may be considered accurate, possibly as a result of rounding or truncations; it shall be an integer or possess the value INF meaning that the number expressed is the exact value of the fact.

Unit element

An element that appears in instance documents and specifies the units in which numeric items (that refer to its required ID attribute using a unitRef attribute) have been measured; it may define simple units using a measure element and complex units providing divide element and its sub-elements (unitNumerator and unitDenominator); there are several constraints imposed on this element, its children and their content; for example monetary concepts shall refer to ISO 4217 currency codes.

Footnote

Appears in instance documents and provides additional information about facts; for example, several facts may be linked to the sentence Including the effect of merger with Sample Company; to express these connections XBRL utilises a footnoteLink extended link element; footnoteLinks act as a kind of linkbase and enclose locators to the instance documents’ facts; footnotes use footnoteArcs with an arcrole value set to connect facts to additional information.

 

Tagging

MCA Taxonomy

The taxonomy developed by the MCA. The taxonomy is based on Schedule VI requirements, Accounting Standards issued by ICAI, MCA specific requirements and other regulatory requirements. . The current version of taxonomy is for Commercial and Industrial companies. The details of MCA taxonomy and the entry-point are explained in the taxonomy section of the filing manual.

Line items

The concepts as reported by the company in its reports are also referred as line items.

Tagging

It is the process of assigning tags (referred as elements in taxonomy) from the taxonomy to the company specific reporting concepts. Along with XBRL tags, other information like reporting period, currency, scale etc. also needs to be specified for all the reported concepts which are to be included in the taxonomy. Tagging required appropriate selection of elements from the taxonomy based on its attributes, documentation and relationships with other elements.

Text Block Tagging

This indicates capturing a group of information as one single fact, using one single tag from the taxonomy. Presently, information given in Notes to Accounts which appear in many paragraphs will be tagged completely under the data type Text Block.

Detailed tagging

This implies capturing the granular information or the specific information as reported by the companies. The filing manual lists down all the information requirements which have to be tagged and captured in detail in the instance documents. This information should be captured by entities, if it is applicable to them and prepared by them as part of annual report or annual returns as submitted to MCA

Minimum tagging requirement

The scope of information that is at least to be captured in XBRL format in the instance document. The information prescribed as minimum tagging requirement in this filing manual, should be captured by entities, if it is applicable to them and prepared by them as part of annual report or annual returns as submitted to MCA

Mandatory tags

The tags as included in the MCA taxonomy, for which values have to be necessarily included in the instance document. If there is no corresponding value for the tag, then “0” should be entered.

Calculation inconsistency error

The taxonomy has predefined mathematical rules between accounting concepts, which is stored in calculation linkbase. The values which are included in instance documents are checked for correctness based on the rules defined in calculation relationship. If the values for totals and sub-totals do not match as per calculation linkbase, the XBRL software will highlight the same as calculation inconsistency

 

Glossary

Taxonomy

Taxonomy in general means a catalogue or set of rules for classification; in XBRL, taxonomy can be referred as an electronic dictionary of the reporting concepts containing computer-readable definitions of business reporting terms as well relationships between them and links connecting them to resources. A typical taxonomy consists of a schema (or schemas) and linkbases;

Schema

XBRL Schemas together with linkbases define XBRL taxonomy. The purpose of XBRL schemas is to define financial and accounting concepts in system understandable manner. Each concept is given a unique name and its characteristics are defined. Schema also binds together the different parts of taxonomy.

DTS

Discoverable taxonomy set (DTS) is a collection of taxonomy schema documents and linkbases. The DTS includes all taxonomy schemas and linkbases that can be discovered by following links or references in the taxonomy schemas and linkbases included in the DTS.

Entry point

A DTS contains many schema and linkbase documents A schema which imports the base (or as required) schema and necessary linkbases, is called entry-point. Entry-point schema is usually used to browse or view the taxonomy.

Namespace

An XML namespace is a collection of names, defined as a uniform resource identifier (URI) and gives information regarding the ownership and or location of the taxonomy. The namespace for taxonomy usually contains the authority defining the taxonomy, date of taxonomy, in the form of web URL. The namespace specification however does not require nor suggest that the namespace URI be used to retrieve information; it is simply treated by an XML parser as a string.

Prefix

When declaring namespaces, a short name to identify the namespace is also defined and this is called as prefix. The schema components are associated with prefix belonging to that namespace. Prefixes precede names of elements, attributes and some of their predefined values provide an indication of where to find definitions of these properties.

Elements

An element is a business or a financial concept which is defined in the taxonomy according to XBRL specifications. Each element has a type, is identified by name and may have a set of attribute specifications as per the XBRL standards.

Abstract attribute

An abstract attribute appears on item definitions in schemas and the possible values are true and false; true indicates that the item shall not appear in instance documents, while false indicates that the concepts will hold value. Abstract elements (elements with abstract as true) are defined to bind concepts in a hierarchical manner in the taxonomy.

Data type attribute

This attribute indicates the data expected for concepts. Most common data types are monetary, shares, string etc. In addition, taxonomy developers may create their own data types to represent the information in a more efficient manner. Brief explanation of data types used in MCA taxonomy

• monetaryItem Type
• This data type is used for all the financial concepts which denote an amount represented in a currency; an instance document when uses an element with monetaryItem data type, the user need to define the unit reference ( currency unit) in which the content is measured. Eg. Accumulated depreciation, Total income etc.
• sharesItem Type This data type is used for financial concepts which are measured in shares. Eg. Number of shares authorized shares etc.
• stringItem Type This data type is used for concepts which contain textual information. Eg. Name of subsidiary, Accounting Policy changes etc.
• PerShareItem Type This data type is used for concepts which are measured in per share. The unit reference in instance document needs the mentioning of currency as numerator and share as denominator. So the final value of measurement may come out as USD per share or Rupee per share. E.g. Earnings per share.
• percentItem Type This data type is used for concepts that are denoted as percentage. Eg. Percentage of shares held by government
• PureItem Type This data type is used for financial concepts that are denoted as ratio or proportions. Eg. Proportion Of Voting Power In Subsidiary
• decimalItem Type This data type is used for concepts which are generally represent any kind of number other than mentioned above Eg. Number of debentures
• Text blockItem Type This data type is used for concept which would describe a block of information. Usually for capturing a paragraph or notes which contain both textual and numerical information, this data type is used. Eg. Disclosure of Contingent Liabilities
• DateItem Type This data type is used for concepts which represent date. E.g. Date of Board meeting
• MCA specific data types
  
  

  Data type	Attribute
  CINNumberItemType	Maximum length 21 characters. If there is fixed pattern, the same can also be incorporated
  SRNNumberItemType	Length 9 characters.  Pattern : first character is alphabet, and remaining 8 are numbers
  DINNumberItemType	Length 8 characters.  All numbers
  NatureOfReport	Enumerations : Standalone, Consolidated
  ContentOfReport	Enumerations : Balance Sheet, Profit and Loss Statement
  LevelOfRounding	Enumerations : Actual, Thousands, Lakhs, Millions, Crores, Billions
  IndustryType	Enumerations : Commercial and Industrial, Bank, NBFC, Power
  CountryName	Pattern : Should be as per ISO 3166-1 format
  TypeOfSubsidiary	Enumerations : Section 4(1)(a), Section 4(1)(b), Section 4(1)c, Section 4(6), (Section 4(7)
  TypeOfBalanceSheet	Enumerations : Sources and application, total assets and liabilities format
  TypeOfIncomeStatement	Enumerations : Main, Alternative
  TypeOfCashFlowStatement	Enumerations : Direct Method, Indirect Method
  ShareType	Enumerations : Equity, Preference

SubstitutionGroup attribute

Appears on element definitions in schemas; XBRL defines four basic substitution groups, items , tuples, dimensions ( axes) and hypercubes ( tables); its purpose is to indicate which type can be substituted for the actual definition. The following substitution groups are used in MCA taxonomy

• Item
  Item is an element used to define a concept which will hold single value in the given period. Most of the concepts represent one value in one period, and hence are defined as items. E.g. Total assets, depreciation etc.
• Tuple
  Concepts which can have multiple values for the same period or if elements are required together to make the information more meaningful and complete, the substitution group is defined as tuple. E.g. Subsidiary information – there would be multiple values for name, shares held for any given period.

PeriodType attribute

It is used to describe the measurement period of the concept and may be assigned one of two values – instant and duration. Instant indicates that the concepts are measured as at a particular date, while duration indicates concepts hold value for a period.

Extended link element (also referred to as ELR)

These are logical grouping of elements. Extended links represent a set of relationships between concepts and are defined in schema. The extended links are then used in linkbases to build the relationships. Extended links contain locators, arcs, arcroles and resources

Linkbase

XBRL linkbases and XBRL Schemas define together XBRL taxonomy. Schema defines the core elements and its characteristics, while the purpose of XBRL linkbases is to combine labels and references to the concepts as well as define relationships between those concepts. There are various types of linkbases different kinds of linkbases and each has a special purpose.

Locator

It provides a reference to the taxonomy schema element definitions that uniquely identify each concept; they provide an anchor for extended link arcs.

Arc

Arc are used to connect two or more locators. According to the XBRL Specification 2.1, arcs link concepts to each other by associating their locators; they also link concepts with resources by linking the concept locators to the resources themselves; arcs are also used to link fact locators to footnote resources in footnote extended links; arcs have a set of attributes that document the nature of the expressed relationships; in particular they posses attributes: type (whose value shall be arc), from, to and arcrole.

Arcrole attribute

It defines the use of arc. It documents the kind of relationship that the arc expresses; there is a set of standard arcroles defined for specific arcs (labelArc, referenceArc, calculationArc; definitionArc, presentationArc and footnoteArc); the value of arcrole shall be an absolute URI, (eg in the presentation linkbase on a presentationArc it is ).

Presentation linkbase

Business reports are in general organized into identifiable data structures e.g. a Balance Sheet. The presentation linkbase stores information about relationships between elements in order to properly organize the taxonomy content. The arcrole used in presentation linkbase is .

Order Attribute

This attribute is defined on arcs and used to determine the sequence of relationship. In presentation linkbase, it is of prime importance as the display of elements will be based on the order as defined for every element.

Calculation linkbase

The idea of a calculation linkbase is to improve quality of an XBRL report (XBRL instance). The calculation linkbase defines basic calculation validation rules (addition/subtraction), which must apply for all instances of the taxonomy. The arcrole for calculation relationships. It represents relationships between concepts that are of numeric nature and have similar period type. The weight attribute defines the algebraic sign of the operation.

Weight attribute

A required attribute on calculationArc elements and indicates the multiplier to be applied to a numeric item value (content) when accumulating numeric values from item elements to summation elements; a value of 1.0 means that 1.0 times the numeric value of the item is applied to the parent item; a weight of -1.0 means that 1.0 times the numeric value is subtracted from the summation item; there are also rules that are applied to the calculation of elements possessing opposite balance attribute values (credit and debit).

Definition linkbase

The definition linkbase stores other pre-defined or self-defined relationships between elements. For example a relationship can be defined that the occurrence of one concept within an XBRL instance mandates the occurrence of other concepts, or relationships describing elements of general nature and elements which are very specific or elements which can be categorized based on parameters etc.

Label linkbase

The goal of the XBRL Consortium is to create and develop a world-wide standard for electronic business reporting. This requires the taxonomies to represent business data in multiple language. Therefore it is possible to create an element (concept) in the taxonomy with labels in different languages and or for different purposes e.g. a short label PPE compared to its long label Property, plant and equipment. Those labels are stored and linked to their respective elements in a label linkbase.

Reference linkbase

Most of the elements appearing in taxonomies refer to particular concepts defined by authoritative literature. The reference linkbase stores the relationships between elements and the references e.g. Schedule VI, Part A or Accounting standard 23, para 2 etc. . The layer does not store the regulations themselves but the source identification names and paragraphs.

Formula linkbase

A formula is a specification is that is being developed by XBRL International; it aims to satisfy the formula linkbase requirements document by providing a generalised mechanism to build formulae based on XBRL concepts and XBRL dimensions; formulae can be used to describe business rules for creating new XBRL facts in new instance documents and for describing consistency checks for instance documents.

Specification

XBRL Specification

It defines the rules and fundamentals of the language; it is designed to communicate information to IT professionals who develop applications and tools intended to be XBRL-compatible, and to a lesser extent it assists taxonomy developers.

To find out more and obtain the latest version of the XBRL Specification 2.1 visit the XBRL International website (http://www.xbrl.org).

FRTA

Financial Reporting Taxonomy Architecture; it is a document published by the XBRL International Consortium that recommends architectural rules and establishes conventions that assist in the comprehension, usage and performance of different financial reporting taxonomies; it is mainly intended for application by public taxonomy developers (authorities).

FRIS

Financial Reporting Instance Standards; it is a document published by the XBRL International Consortium that recommends the rules and conventions for creating an instance document