The language of finance.

New technology dedicated to upgrading how companies report their performance has been launched in South Africa. Backed by the Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE), the system will make corporate accounts faster to prepare, less prone to error and easier to compare.

The technology, extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), works by assigning a standard tag to every field in a financial report. Noted JSE CEO Russell Loubser: "XBRL is a business reporting language that offers cost savings, greater efficiencies, improved accuracy and reliability."

The royalty-free technology may take a while to become universally adopted, he said, but it is so useful it will become entrenched over time. The chairman of XBRL, Kurt Ramin, maintains that once the system is set up, data can be moved around easily, eliminating human error.

The JSE is the world's first stock exchange to present its annual results in the new format.

XBRL International is a consortium of accounting societies, financial institutions and technology developers.