Links within reports
Links can be used within a report to quickly jump to related information.
In sustainability reporting, various sections of the report refer to other sections of the same report. A report can include a footnote stating where a given fact is. This may cause the referred data to be difficult to find and verify.
In digital reporting, data preparers can use hyperlinks to quickly navigate between related items. Using links instead of describing the relationship makes the related information:
- Easy for humans to find and read
- Easy to correctly interpret
XBRL standard and linking within reports
The Inline XBRL (iXBRL) format of the XBRL reports uses HTML hyperlinks to link between sections of sustainability reports. Using hyperlinks in sustainability reports improves the overall quality and readability of the report.
The XBRL standard allows data preparers to use the following linking techniques:
- A fact-to-fact relationship connects two facts within one report.
- A fact-to-footnote relationship connects a fact to an untagged piece of text.
Example
A company, Carmaker, reports its greenhouse gas emissions and divides the progress report into three separate scopes.
CarMaker report (iXBRL format)
For each scope, the data preparer provides narrative and tabular data. For scope 1 and for scope 2, they decided to use fact-to-fact linking between narrative and tabular data.
Scope 1 narrative data containing associated facts which link the narrative data of scope 1 to the tabular data of scope 1.
Scope 1 tabular data containing footnotes which link the tabular data of scope 1 to the narrative data of scope 1.
More detail
Regulating links within a report
Standard setters and regulators can define requirements that data preparers should follow when adding links to their sustainability reports:
- Standard setters should indicate in the guidance documentation where the links should be provided.
For example, a standard setter can encourage data preparers to link between summary progress reports and the detailed tabular data discussed in those progress reports. - Regulators should define, in their filing manuals, when data preparers should use fact links and how they should describe them.
Regulators can define what information should be specified when adding links.
Standard setters, regulators, and data preparers should gather feedback from data consumers about the sustainability reports. They should make sure the sustainability data is easy to read and use, and satisfies the data consumers’ needs.