Enterprise Resource Planning Systems and XBRL Reporting Quality

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are indispensable for a majority of larger and midsize firms, and have changed the way accounting information is collected, stored, processed, and disseminated. Although most ERP systems integrate an eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) component in their core modules, little research has examined how ERP systems affect the quality of XBRL filings. Using unique data from branch-level ERP implementation, we find that the degree of ERP adoption among a firm’s branches is negatively associated with the firm’s XBRL filing errors and positively associated with XBRL reporting comparability, which in turn facilitates external users’ access to the firm’s XBRL filings in the SEC’s EDGAR. These results suggest that ERP systems improve XBRL reporting quality.  Moreover, our results indicate that ERP can mitigate the negative effect of extension taxonomies on XBRL reporting quality, which highlights the importance of the ERP system in a complicated XBRL reporting environment.