XBRL Label Linkbase

Definition

The XBRL Label Linkbase provides human readable strings for concepts. There may be different labels for different purposes. All labels are stored and linked to the elements in a label XBRL Linkbase.

Elements defined in a schema are built to convey accounting meaning to computers. In order to make it easier for computers to process their names, they have to obey some rules. For example, the use of spaces is not allowed so 'Cash and Cash Equivalents' would be named 'CashAndCashEquivalents' .

Additionally, large taxonomies such as IFRS obey specific rules of naming and labelling to ensure consistency within the schema. For example, there could be a list of words that are excluded from the names, e.g., :and:, "of" ..., or words that appear only in a particular order (i.e., 'Net' or 'Total' at the end of the label after a comma).

In the label linkbase, elements are connected to human readable labels using the "concept-label" XBRL Arcrole. As mentioned above, elements can be assigned to labels in different languages. An example that describes definitions of labels of the IFRS element AssetsTotal in English, German and Polish is provided below.

Multilingual Labels

XBRL aims to become a worldwide standard for electronic business reporting. This requires taxonomies to present business data in many different languages. Therefore, it is important to be able to create an element that is assigned with labels for different languages. Using the label linkbase, multiple languages can be supported, as well as multiple strings within each language. To distinguish between languages, XBRL uses the XBRL Attribute lang. Taxonomy creators may also define different labels for one element.

Other Considerations

One of the ideas of XBRL is that the information about the period and currency for which the element is reported is not contained within an element definition but is described by a XBRL Context in instance documents. In financial reporting on the other hand, many terms express the date for which they are being reported, for instance Property, Plant and Equipment at the beginning of year and Property, Plant and Equipment at the end of year. XBRL allows the creation of different labels depending on the context in which an element will be used.