Teaching and educational notes XBRL to enhance external financial reporting: Should we implement or not? Case Company X Brigitte Eierle a,1 , Hannu Ojala b,2 , Esko Penttinen b,c,⇑ a University of Bamberg, 96045 Bamberg, Germany b Aalto University School of Business, PL 21220, 00076 Aalto, Finland c XBRL, Finland article info Article history: Available online xxxx Keywords: XBRL Financial accounting Information systems Standard Business Reporting Teaching case abstract The growing use of eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) represents a fundamental change for financial information flows. In a number of countries XBRL has already been put to practical use, for instance through implementation within the financial pro- cesses of non-listed companies. This fictional case is designed to help identify the benefits of XBRL. In addition, it helps to create knowledge about the different strategies of XBRL implementation and to apply this knowledge when making investment decisions on accounting information processes. Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction As Mr. CEO, the managing director of Company X, sits in his Helsinki office, he receives a phone call from a friend working in an innovative cloud-based IT firm. The friend is excited about his company’s recent developments in the area of XBRL-based financial reporting. ‘‘XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) allows the reuse of information from financial statements in an intelligent way’’, says the vendor to Mr. CEO and continues: ‘‘we have case examples of companies that have been http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaccedu.2014.04.003 0748-5751/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author at: Aalto University School of Business, PL 21220, 00076 Aalto, Finland. Tel.: +358 40 5754520; fax: +358 9 431 38 700. E-mail addresses: brigitte.eierle@uni-bamberg.de (B. Eierle), hannu.ojala@aalto.fi (H. Ojala), esko.penttinen@aalto.fi (E. Penttinen). URL: http://www.xbrl.fi (E. Penttinen). 1 Address: Otto-Friedrich-Universität, 96045 Bamberg, Germany. Tel.: +49 (0)951/863 2545; fax: +49 (0)951/863 2546. 2 Tel.: +358 44 3290604; fax: +358 9 431 38 700. J. of Acc. Ed. xxx (2014) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect J. of Acc. Ed. journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jaccedu Please cite this article in press as: Eierle, B., et al. XBRL to enhance external financial reporting: Should we imple- ment or not? Case Company X. Journal of Accounting Education (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ j.jaccedu.2014.04.003