Ministry of Corporate Affairs

XBRL Filing Manual

Version 1.1

Released on 5th October, 2011

PREFACE  

This document aims to facilitate the preparation and filing of XBRL financial reporting data. It provides guidance on the preparation, filing, and validation of financial statements prepared in eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) format on the MCA portal.  

Purpose of this Document  

This document describes the various specifications and guidelines to be followed for preparation of XBRL documents. It also includes the various steps required to be followed for submission of the XBRL documents on the MCA portal.  

Intended Audience  

This document is intended for use by the companies and the XBRL vendors involved in preparation of XBRL documents and for the public users.  

Table of Contents

Steps for filing financial statements in XBRL format on MCA portal...................................................... 4  

1.1 Creation of XBRL instance document ................................................................................... 4  

1.1.1 Map Company’s each financial statement element to a corresponding element in published taxonomy ....................................................................................................................... 5  

1.1.2 Create instance document for Balance sheet and Profit and Loss Account ................... 5  

1.1.3 Specifications to be followed for creation of instance document .................................. 6  

1.2 Download MCA XBRL validation tool from MCA portal ....................................................... 10  

1.3 Load the Instance Document in the validation tool .............................................................. 10  

1.4 Use the tool to validate the instance document ................................................................... 11  

1.5 Perform pre-scrutiny of the validated instance document through the tool .......................... 11  

1.6 Final verification post pre-scrutiny of the document ............................................................ 11  

1.7 Attach instance document to the Form 23AC-XBRL and Form 23ACA-XBRL .................... 11  

1.8 Submitting the Form 23AC-XBRL and Form 23ACA-XBRL on the MCA portal ................... 12  

1.9 Viewing of balance sheet and profit and loss submitted in XBRL form on MCA portal ........ 12  

Annexure – I: How to interpret validation errors .................................................................................. 13  

Annexure – II: List of common errors .................................................................................................. 14  

Annexure – III: List of currency codes ................................................................................................ 16  

Steps for filling financial statements in XBRL format on MCA portal  

1. Creation of XBRL instance document  

2. Download XBRL validation tool  

3. Load the instance document  

4. Validate the instance document  

5. Pre-scrutiny of the instance document  

6. Convert to pdf and verify the contents of the instance document. (This step is essential to ensure that the textual information entered in the instance document is clearly viewable)  

7. Attach instance document to the Form 23AC-XBRL and Form 23ACA-XBRL  

8. Submitting the Form 23AC-XBRL and Form 23ACAXBRL on the MCA portal  

1.1 Creation of XBRL instance document  

1.1.1 Map Company’s each financial statement element to a corresponding element in published taxonomy  

Companies have the option to create their own XBRL documents in house or to engage a third party to convert their financial statements into XBRL form.  

The first step in creation of an instance document is to do tagging of the XBRL taxonomy elements with the various accounting heads in the books of accounts of the company. This would create the mapping of the taxonomy elements with the accounting heads so that the accounting information can be converted into XBRL form.  

Mapping is the process of comparing the concepts in the financial statements to the elements in the published taxonomy, assigning a taxonomy element to each financial statement concept.  

Selecting the appropriate elements for some financial statement elements may require a significant amount of judgment. For that reason those in the company who are most familiar with the financial statements should be involved in matching financial statements concepts to taxonomy elements. The mapping should be reviewed before proceeding further as the complete reporting would be dependent on the mapping.  

In case any information is present in the financial statements for which corresponding tag/element is not available in the taxonomy, then the same needs to be captured in the next-best-fit element in the taxonomy or should be included under the corresponding ‘Others’ element. Further, it is imperative to include footnote w.r.t. the same while preparing the instance document.  

For tagging or capturing the information which is often included in brackets in the labels in the company’s financial statements, can either be captured as footnote or if detailed tags are available, the same should be tagged with the detailed tags in the taxonomy.  

1.1.2 Create instance document for Balance sheet and Profit and Loss Account  

Once the tagging of financial statement elements with the published taxonomy elements is done, the next step is to create the instance document. An instance document is a XML file that contains business reporting information and represents a collection of financial facts and report-specific information using tags from the XBRL taxonomy.  

It is to be noted that no extensions to the core Taxonomy will be allowed.  

Separate instance documents need to be created for the following:  

(i) Stand Alone Balance sheet of the company  

(ii) Stand Alone Profit and Loss Account of the company  

(iii) Consolidated Balance sheet of the company  

(iv) Consolidated Profit and Loss Account of the company  

The instance document should contain the financial information for both the current as well as the previous financial year.  

Consolidated balance sheet and Profit and Loss instance documents to be created only in case the same is applicable to the company.  

Once the instance document has been prepared, it needs to be ensured that the instance document is a valid instance document and all the information has been correctly captured in the instance document.  

1.1.3 Specifications to be followed for creation of instance document  

The following are the specifications to be followed while preparing the instance document:  

1.1.3.1 Technical Specifications  

1. The value of the xlink:href attribute in the schemaRef element in the instance document must be http://www.mca.gov.in/XBRL/2011/08/27/Taxonomy/CnI/ci/in-gaap-ci-2011-03- 31.xsd.  

2. An XBRL instance document must be schema valid according to all schemas in the DTS(Discoverable Taxonomy Set)  

3. The value of the scheme attribute of the identity element in the context must be http://www.mca.gov.in/CIN  

4. The value of identity element in the context must all be x-equal and must be the CIN of the company.  

5. Context must not have segment or scenario element present  

6. An instance must not contain duplicate xbrli:context elements.  

7. Every xbrli:context element must appear in at least one contextRef attribute in the same instance.  

8. An instance must not have more than one fact having the same element name and equal contextRef attributes  

9. All monetary facts must have the same unitRef attribute. However, in case of monetary values related to subsidiary information like share capital, reserves etc. of subsidiary can be reported in different currency therefore these can have different unitRef attribute.  

10. The facts corresponding to a single concept must not have contextRef attributes pointing to contexts with overlapping time period. In case of periodType=”instant”, it means to have same date, and in case of periodType=”duration”, it means to have a duration that overlap. For example: The following contexts have overlapping duration, this would not be allowed.  

<xbrli:context id=”D2010″>  

<xbrli:entity>  

<xbrli:identifier scheme="http://www.mca.gov.in/CIN">  

L24223MH1946PLC005434  

</xbrli:identifier>  

</xbrli:entity>  

<xbrli:period>  

<xbrli:startDate>2009-04-01</xbrli:startDate>  

<xbrli:endDate>2010-03-31</xbrli:endDate>  

</xbrli:period>  

</xbrli:context>  

<xbrli:context id=”I2010″>  

<xbrli:entity>  

<xbrli:identifier scheme="http://www.mca.gov.in/CIN">  

L24223MH1946PLC005434  

</xbrli:identifier>  

</xbrli:entity>  

<xbrli:period>  

<xbrli:startDate>2009-08-01</xbrli:startDate>  

<xbrli:endDate>2010-07-31</xbrli:endDate>  

</xbrli:period>  

</xbrli:context>  

</xbrli:period>  

</xbrli:context>  

11. A link:footnoteLink element must have no children other than link:loc, link:footnote, and link:footnoteArc.  

12. A link:footnoteLink link:loc xlink:href attribute must start with the sharp sign “#”.  

13. Every nonempty link:footnote element must be linked to at least one fact  

14. Non significant digits for values for numeric facts MUST be equal to “0″.  

15. An instance document must not contain unused units  

16. If the unescaped content of a fact with base type nonnum:escapedItemType contains the “<” character followed by a QName and whitespace, “/>” or “>”, then the un-escaped content must contain only a sequence of text and XML nodes.  

17. The value of a fact must be in plain text. HTML/RTF are not allowed  

18. A fact is defined to have a footnote if it has an id attribute and a link:footnoteArc to a nonempty link:footnote in the same instance.  

19. The filing is required to reference certain recognized schemas and linkbase. Filings must always refer to recognized files at the specified URI locations. A reference to a local copy will not be allowed.  

20. In an instance, the sub-elements of a tuple must have the contextRef attribute with values x-equal to each other.  

21. The xsi:nil=”true” attribute must be used only to convey a value that is different from both “zero” and different from not reporting the fact at all, or to identify a fact detailed only by a link:footnote.  

22. The value of the decimals attribute of a fact must correspond to the accuracy of the corresponding amount as reported in the financial statements.  

23. The content of a numeric fact never has a scale factor  

24. When choosing the most appropriate element for facts in one or more periods, the element’s xbrli:periodType attribute takes precedence over the type attribute, which takes precedence over the element’s documentation string, which in turn takes precedence over the label string, which in turn takes precedence over link:reference elements.  

25. Do not define or use units that imply a scale factor on a currency.

26. Text that is shown in the financial statements at the bottom of a page or at the bottom of a table preceded by a superscript must appear in the instance as the text of a link:footnote element.  

27. Each unit should appear with only one scale factor in a given instance.  

28. Every numeric fact (such as ‘Number of shares’) must also have an associated unit (e.g. xbrli:shares) and the unit must be declared.  

29. All units and contexts must appear before any item or tuple.  

30. XBRL document names must be unique in the disclosure system  

31. Filers must use one of the taxonomies as specified in the disclosure system as their standard taxonomy.  

32. Encoding of all XBRL documents must be “UTF8“  

33. The xbrli:xbrl element must not have any facts with the precision attribute.  

34. Priority for selection of element for purpose of tagging should be in following order: label, data type, position in presentation and calculation link base and period type.  

35. The order of elements in a tuple should be as per the order in presentation link base of the taxonomy.  

36. The textual information in the instance document should have the language attribute as ‘en’  

37. Instance document generated should be as per the valid taxonomy schema otherwise the XML generated will not be properly formed and you might get errors which start with ‘cvc’. This is a basic level error and the software vendor needs to be contacted for these errors i.e. cvc-complex-type.2.2. The schema validator used is Xerces from Apache (http://xerces.apache.org/) which is Industry Standard Schema Validator.  

38. HTML Guidelines:  

These guidelines need to be adhered to by the companies to provide the textual information in the instance document. Please note that all textual information would be displayed in the viewer tool / converted human readable document as per the format given by the company in the instance document  

Please note that the XBRL content will be rendered in multiple media types (including HTML viewer, print medium, small screen devices,pdf etc). It is required that the embedded HTML for providing textual information is properly rendered in each of the media types. Hence, it is prescribed that the HTML contents follow the below guidelines.  

a) All tags must be properly closed and must be in lower case.  

b) The following predefined css classes can be used for displaying.  

header1 - top level header  

header2 - next level header  

header3 - even next level header  

header4 - even next level header  

header5 - bottom level header  

bordered - tag with visible borders  

unbordered - tag with invisible borders  

tableHeader - headers of the table  

tableRow - row in the table  

tableRowLabel - the label for a row  

tableRowValue - A value inside a table  

normalText - Normal text  

noteText1 - For writing a note level 1 (top level) [notes are text that are important to mention, but does not match exactly with the context of the text (not to be confused with XBRL context). The top level will be shown as most important]  

noteText2 - For writing a note level 2  

noteText3 - For writing a note level 3  

noteText4 - For writing a note level 4 (bottom level) numericValue - Used for specifying numeric values nonNumericValue - Used for non-numeric text highlightedText1 - Highlighted text level 1 (top level)

highlightedText2 - Highlighted text level 2  

highlightedText3 - Highlighted text level 3  

highlightedText4 - Highlighted text level 4 (bottom level)  

c) Specifying style attribute for html tags is not allowed.  

d) <div> and <span> tag may be used for organizing content.  

e) Multiple classes for the same element can be specified by separating them by space.  

f) Only allowed tags are <div>, <span>, <p>, <br>, <table>, <td>, <tr>, <thead>, <tfoot>, <tbody>, <th>, <col>, <colgroup>. HTML formatting tags like <b>, <i> etc. are not allowed.  

g) Please avoid more than one level of table nesting.  

h) Processing instructions are not allowed.  

i) The following entities are allowed - &nbsp; &amp; &lt; &gt;. No other entities are allowed.  

1.1.3.2 Business Specifications  

1. The instance document prepared should conform to the business rules framed by MCA for preparation and filing of the financial statements in XBRL mode. The business rules are available on the XBRL website of the Ministry (www.mca.gov.in/XBRL)  

2. General information about financial statements- The information should be provided in the instance documents as per the following classification for Extended Link role - [610000]:  

ELR- [610000] General information about financial statements

3. Since for the first year, the standard taxonomy as published by MCA is to be used and no extensions are allowed. Hence in such cases, companies are required to strictly follow the calculation relationships of taxonomy and derive the totals and sub-totals accordingly. Following the calculation link base will ensure there are no calculation inconsistencies, except for the unavoidable errors which are due to mutually exclusive extended links.  

4. It is suggested that whenever any value or information are adjusted or clubbed to match the calculation relationships (and thus are different from the actual financial statements of the company), a footnote describing the adjustments made should be attached.  

5. In case of Director details, if last name of the director is not available as per the DIN details, then the same should be mentioned as dot(.). Please note that in such case, the element for Last name of director should be included in the instance document.  

6. In case of standalone instance document’, if the following error appears – “As NetProfitLoss is present, at least one of the following elements is mandatory: [ShareEarningsAssociatesJointVentures, AdjustmentsRelatedMergerAcquisitions, ShareMinorityInterestProfitLoss, NetProfitLossbeforeMinorityInterestShareJointVenture]”  

- In such case, if the element ‘NetProfitLossbeforeMinorityInterestShareJointVenture’ is not available in the financial statements, then you are required to provide the same value as the value provided for element ‘NetProfitLoss’.  

1.2 Download MCA XBRL validation tool from MCA portal  

A tool has been provided on the MCA XBRL portal for validating the generated XBRL instance document. Validating the instance document is a pre requisite before filing the balance sheet and profit & loss account on MCA portal. You are required to download the tool from the portal and validate the instance document before uploading the same. The MCA XBRL validation tool can be downloaded from the XBRL website of the Ministry (www.mca.gov.in/XBRL)  

1.3 Load the Instance Document in the validation tool

To load the instance document, you need to click the open button, select the instance document and open it. You need not exit the tool to load another instance document just click on 'open' again in the menu bar to open the next document.  

The detail of the company is available under the General Information tag in the XBRL viewer.  

1.4 Use the tool to validate the instance document  

The next step is to validate the instance document. The following validations shall be performed by the tool-  

• Validating that the instance document is as per the latest and correct version of taxonomy prescribed by MCA  

• All mandatory elements have been entered  

• Other business rules as specified by MCA  

• Other validations as per taxonomy  

To know about ‘How to interpret validation errors’ please refer Annexure – I  

For ‘List of common errors’ please refer Annexure – II  

1.5 Perform pre-scrutiny of the validated instance document through the tool  

Once the instance document is successfully validated from the tool, the next step is to pre-scrutinise the validated instance document with the help of the same tool. For pre-scrutinizing the instance document, a working internet connection shall be required. In the Pre-scrutiny, the server side validations (i.e. validations which are to be validated from the MCA21 system) shall be performed.  

1.6 Final verification post pre-scrutiny of the document  

Once the instance document has been successfully pre-scrutinized, the next step is to generate pdf by using ‘Export to pdf’ functionality in the tool to verify the final instance document. It is imperative that the company and the professional certifying the instance documents should use this feature to verify the accuracy of the instance document.  

In case there is pdf conversion error or the size of the converted pdf is zero kilobytes, then check the textual information entered in the instance document and follow the html guidelines provided in section 1.1.3.1 point no. 38 technical specifications to correct the instance document and validate and pre-scrutinize again

Important Note: This step is essential to ensure that the textual information entered in the instance document is clearly viewable  

1.7 Attach instance document to the Form 23AC-XBRL and Form 23ACA-XBRL  

There shall be a separate set of Form 23AC-XBRL and Form 23ACA-XBRL available on the MCA portal for filing in XBRL form. First fill up the Form 23AC-XBRL and Form 23ACA-XBRL. Thereafter, attach the validated and pre-scrutinised instance document for Balance sheet to Form 23AC-XBRL. Similarly, the instance document for Profit and Loss account is to be attached to Form 23ACA-XBRL. Separate instance documents need to be attached w.r.t. Standalone financial statements and consolidated financial statements.  

1.8 Submitting the Form 23AC-XBRL and Form 23ACAXBRL on the MCA portal  

After the forms are filled, you are required to perform pre-scrutiny of the form, sign the form and then upload the same as per the normal eForm filing process. It shall be validated that the attached instance documents are validated and pre-scrutinised from the XBRL validation tool.  

1.9 Viewing of balance sheet and profit and loss submitted in XBRL form on MCA portal  

The XBRL instance documents submitted along with Form 23AC-XBRL and 23ACA-XBRL are in machine readable format. Therefore, for viewing the same in a human readable format, these shall be converted into human readable format by the MCA21 system. For viewing the same on MCA portal and for taking certified copies of the same, these converted documents shall be made available.  

Annexure –– I  : How to interpret validation errors  

Once the validation has been performed you will see a list of errors which have occurred. Please follow the instructions given below to interpret those errors -  

• All the Element Names will be shown within single quotes i.e. ‘NatureOfReportStandaloneConsolidated’  

• All the values will be shown within square brackets i.e. [Main]  

• Errors which start with “cvc” are those which have occurred for the reason that the instance document generated is not as per valid taxonomy schema and the XML is not properly formed. This is a basic level error and the software vendor needs to be contacted for these errors i.e. cvc-complex-type.2.2. The schema validator used is Xerces from Apache (http://xerces.apache.org/) which is Industry Standard Schema Validator.  

• In some of the errors you might see the term “tuple” being used. The same has been explained below for you understanding –  

Tuples: are a set of elements and its sub elements which when grouped together define an entity  

For example, the elements ‘NameofDirector’, ‘DirectorIdentificationNumberOfDirector’ and ‘DateOfBirthOfDirector’ do not mean anything individually. However, if these elements are grouped together inside element ‘DetailsOfDirectors’, they would represent the name, DIN and date of birth of the same director. Details of another director can then be provided in a separate ‘DetailsOfDirectors’ tag in the same manner. Here, ‘DetailsOfDirectors’ is a tuple element.  

Annexure –– II:: List of common errors  

1. The pdf is not getting generated or pdf generated is of zero kilobytes in size.  

Ex: Error creating pdf.  

Resolution: Please check the textual information entered in the instance document and follow the html guidelines provided in section 1.1.3.1 point no. 38 technical specifications to correct the instance document and validate and pre-scrutinize again  

2. The format of the date entered is not as per the valid format.  

Ex: cvc-datatype-valid.1.2.1: '01-04-2011' is not a valid value for 'date'.  

Resolution: It should be in ‘yyyy-mm-dd’.  

3. For Boolean data types ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ has been entered.  

Ex: cvc-datatype-valid.1.2.1: 'yes' is not a valid value for 'boolean'.  

Resolution: Only ‘True’ or ‘False’ can be entered for Boolean DataType  

4. 0-100 entered for Percentage Data Type fields  

Ex: ProportionOfVotingPowerInAssociate should be less than equal to 100%.  

Resolution: Only value between 0-1 needs to be entered. For example to report 60 % as value you need to enter 0.6 in the field.  

5. Wrong Currency code like Rs. entered.  

Ex:  

•cvc-id.1: There is no ID/IDREF binding for IDREF 'Rs'.  

•No valid unit specified for monetory item {http://www.xbrl.org/in/2011-03-31/ingaap} ProvisionCurrentTax  

•No unit defined for unit id Rs  

•Invalid unit specified for monetory item {http://www.xbrl.org/in/2011-03-31/ingaap} AuthorisedPreferenceShareCapital  

•Reporting currency should be in INR for 'AuthorisedPreferenceShareCapital'  

Resolution: For Indian Currency ‘INR’ needs to be entered. For correct currency codes please refer Annexure – III  

6. Ordering of elements in a tuple is not correct.  

Ex: cvc-complex-type.2.4.a: Invalid content was found starting with element 'ingaap: CountryOfIncorporationOrResidenceOfAssociate'. One of '{{http://www.xbrl.org/in/2011- 03-31/in-gaap}NameOfAssociate}' is expected.  

Resolution: The order of elements in a tuple should be as per the order in presentation link base of the taxonomy.  

7. Mandatory fields have not been entered.  

Ex: Element 'ProvisionCurrentTax' is required - Not present for date: 31/03/2010  

Resolution: Please refer Taxonomy and Business Rules for the list of mandatory elements.  

8. For Membership number of Auditor even letters have been entered i.e. A*****.  

Ex: 'MembershipNumberOfAuditor' at least one value is not of valid format: [A534].  

Resolution: Only numeric value needs to be entered.  

9. Financial information entered for current year but not for previous year.  

Ex: Since 'ProvisionCurrentTax' is entered for the current year, corresponding value for previous year should be entered.  

Resolution: If any financial element is entered in current year then it shall be mandatory to enter corresponding previous year. This rule shall not be applicable in case of the balance sheet/ profit and loss account in respect of first financial year of the company. Similarly in case any financial element is entered for the previous year then corresponding value for current year should be entered. For details on these please refer Taxonomy and Business Rules.  

10. case of standalone instance docuement’, if the following error appears – “As NetProfitLoss is present, at least one of the following elements is mandatory:  

[ShareEarningsAssociatesJointVentures, AdjustmentsRelatedMergerAcquisitions, ShareMinorityInterestProfitLoss, NetProfitLossbeforeMinorityInterestShareJointVenture] -  

Resolution: In extended link role [200000] Income Statement [Main], in case the element ‘NetProfitLossbeforeMinorityInterestShareJointVenture’ is not available in the financial statements, then you are required to provide the same value as the value provided for element ‘NetProfitLoss’.

Annexure –– III:: List of currency codes