The Impact of XBRL on Auditing: A Treat of Challenge or Opportunity

XBRL technology paves the way for continuous and integrated financial reporting and enhances the accuracy of online financial information reporting. In USA, PCAOB has issued a guideline on audit services of XBRL based financial statements. Considering SEO’s plan of using XBRL technology for financial reporting in the capital market, this research reviews the opportunities and challenges faced by auditors regarding XBRL in Iranian capital market. According to responses gathered by questionnaire from some Iranian CPAs, using XBRL will provide opportunities for audit profession in relation to Comparability, reliability and format of presenting financial information and can increase the audit quality. On the other hand, the risk of errors in XBRL taxonomy and also the necessity of modification to audit procedures required for reviewing XBRL financial statement have been introduced as the main challenges for audit profession in this regard.