Integrating REA and XBRL GL to Facilitate Modern Business Reporting
Denise Guithues Amrhein

Abstract
Debreceny and Gray (2003) examined the ontological underpinnings of the eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) while Geerts and McCarthy (2004) and Buder and Koschtial (2009) examined the ontological underpinnings of the Resource-Event-Agent (REA) model. What has been lacking is an assessment of the complementary nature of these two ontologies. We propose that synergistic benefits can be achieved by combining eXtensible Business Reporting Language Global Ledger (XBRL GL) and the timeless REA-Enterprise Ontology (REA-EO) model. The timeless REA-EO semantic model is the means to articulate the organization’s information needs while XBRL GL is the information standard for instantiating an organization’s information needs with tagging that provides agreed-upon meta descriptions of data elements/attributes, business rules, and references. This paper examines how the combination of XBRL GL and REA can facilitate increased adaptability and re-usability of business information which is needed to serve today’s dynamic business environment.

Full Text: PDF