In Finally, Business Talks The Same Language, authors Stanley Zarowin and Wayne E. Hardin (24) attempt to show how the development of a common language for all business reporting – from financial statements to banks and shareholders to filing 10-ks with the SEC – will “revolutionize how business data are reported, used and calculated.”
The authors accomplish their objective by reporting on XBRL, the new “lingua franca” for all business reporting (24). The authors argue that the need for a universal language that is an agreed upon standard by everyone in the financial community is an idea whose time has come in the global investment and economic community. Instead of competing software with varying versions of accounting business reporting languages, the authors argue that a universal standard will revolutionize business reporting, making it fast, easy, and uniform around the globe.
The authors point to evidence of this revolution, the interest by software giants who have recognized the potential of such a universal accounting language program for business reporting “Microsoft and IBM immediately grasped its potential and recognized that the only way a common standard could be developed was if the software and financial communities agreed to cooperate in establishing a standard” (25). The AICPA and others have also embraced the software and are working to have it adopted in countries around the world.
The authors achieve their purpose well, especially revealing the countries that have worked together with the AICPA in order to adopt XBRL, like Australia, England, Germany, Taiwan, and Wales. They make a strong case that a universal, global standard in accounting for business reporting is an idea whose time has not only come but whose arrival is being embraced worldwide in the accounting and business community.
Zarowin, S., and Hardin, E. Finally, business talk
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