As you learned in this chapter, accountants and financial ...

[panfilo]

As you learned in this chapter, accountants and financial analysts around the world have agreed to use XBRL to format financial statements and other reports. In about 200 words, outline the advantages that companies and financial analysts obtained by using the XBRL standard to replace printed reports and data formatted for download into spreadsheet software (such as Microsoft Excel). You can research this subject in your school library or online using your favorite search engine and the links provided for this exercise in the Web Links.

Question 2

Tanya Trago is the IT manager for Greenway Enterprises, a large landscaping company with hundreds of home and commercial customers. She is interested in finding ways to reduce the costs of maintaining the companys tree trimming and lawn maintenance equipment. Greenway runs its own repair and maintenance facility because it operates a large number of mowers, cranes, backhoes, and similar machinery. The facility purchases replacement parts and repair supplies for all of this equipment. Tanya is interested in creating a database to track these parts and supplies. She would also like to integrate that database with information provided by the vendors that sell those parts and supplies to Greenway. Several of these vendors use XML tags to describe their inventory, but no common standard tag system has been adopted in the industry.
   
   
  Use the Web Links, the Web, and your library to conduct research on the use of XML in the landscaping equipment and machinery industry, summarize your findings, and prepare a report of about 300 words in which you give Tanya advice on the advantages and disadvantages of using XML tags as descriptors in this situation.

[kescobar@64]

Answer to Question 1

Some advantages that companies and financial analysts can obtain by using the XBRL standard include: the ability to share information easily with other organizations; costs saved by not having to develop a new standard; and community support of organizations using the same standard.

Answer to Question 2

Some advantages worth considering include:

• XML includes data-management capabilities that HTML cannot provide.


• Information coded in XML is easy to read and understand.


• New tags can be created as needed.


• Multiple data types can be included.

[panfilo]

Excellent

[nyrave]

TYSM