Enhancing electronic reporting in business information supply chain: using XBRL to establish the enterprise reporting engine

Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) can provide wider access to both financial and non–financial information and facilitate transparent business reporting (Baldwin et al., 2006; Sinnett and Willis, 2008). However, information preparers have not been exposed to possible approaches to incorporating an XBRL–based reporting system in business information supply chain (BISC) with the legacy enterprise systems. This study proposes a comprehensive design model to enhance the effectiveness in electronic reporting for various purposes. A consolidated XBRL–based framework was developed as the core of the design model called enterprise reporting engine (ERE) to effectively capture information needed for internal and external reporting. Using the proposed ERE, information preparers can apply XBRL technology to generate reports for various purposes.