The Power of XBRL Demonstrated
After over ten years of development, the power of XBRL is being demonstrated in some interesting and compelling ways. It is being put to practical use in a number of countries and XBRL implementations in increasing numbers. In the process XBRL is proving its benefits in increasing the efficiency, the speed, the accuracy and the transparency of financial reporting. In this article several tools that demonstrate the power and utility of XBRL are described (hyperlinks included). If you know of other helpful tools, please share them by commenting on this post.
XBRL Data in Use
A recent demonstration of XBRL is on the XBRL US Website at http://xbrl.us/research/Pages/data.htm. The tool allows users to see a graphical display of selected XBRL data broken down by year, by quarter, by selected financial concepts and by selected industry.
Brix iPhone App
XBRL US has another free tool that is available to iPhone users. The XBRL iPhone App, called “Brix” or “The Brix Project”, allows users to browse XBRL filings on an iPhone. Filings on the Brix App can be browsed by company or by taxonomy element. The tool also shows the most recent XBRL filings and tracks the total number of companies that file XBRL reports with the SEC as well as the total number of XBRL reports filed to date. The iPhone Brix App can be found at on the XBRL US website at http://xbrl.us/research/Pages/iphone.aspx.
Sample XBRL Data Issues
XBRL US has yet a third tool to inform XBRL users about the most common XBRL error types. The foundation of this site is the XBRL US Consistency Suite which is being used to test the validity and consistency of filings and saving the filing results in an XBRL database. The sample of common XBRL data issues is listed at http://www.xbrl.us/research/Pages/CSuiteSample.aspx. In addition, a count of the number of errors by type is shown on the lower right of the Consistency Suite page at http://xbrl.us/research/pages/Csuite.aspx.
The SEC’s Financial Explorer
Another interesting tool is the SEC’s Financial Explorer (http://209.234.225.154/viewer/home/). The Financial Explorer graphically represents XBRL filing data in a way that non-financial users may find beneficial.
Prime Aim
Prime Aim offers a user friendly XBRL query tool to enable the public to search XBRL filings. The tool is found at http://primeaim.com/ and offers assistance in helping users learn how to use the site. There are Advanced and Browse options as well as a help page and “how to” page.
Reporting Standard Query
Reporting standard has a tool that allows users to write their own queries of XBRL SEC filings. Filings that match the query criteria ar accessable from the query tool which can be found here: http://www.xbrl4.org/regulators/ExploreXBRL.html
XBRL Calculation Issues
XBRL Site, a Chalie Hoffman creation, offers a listing of possible XBRL calculation issues by filing company. The site allows links to the specific calculations that it highlights. Users should be aware that there are occasions when XBRL calculations may not work for valid reasons (like the total being a rounded amount as opposed to an exact amount). The list of possible calculation errors can be found at http://www.xbrlsite.com/demos/Analysis/2009-11-15/Viewer/Other/CalculationIssues.html.
Financial Filing Glossary and Logical Model
Another Charlie Hoffman site summerizes the SEC’s XBRL Logical Model and Provides a Glossary of SEC Filer XBRL terms. There are links throughout the site to take filers to the details of each topic covered. The site may be found at http://secxbrlglossary.wikispaces.com/.
XBRL Cloud
XBRL Cloud analyzes SEC filings and highlights the number of validation errors, warnings, and best practices. I was previously under the impression that XBRL Cloud used its own validation criteria, but thanks to direct contact with XBRL Cloud, I am happy to say that XBRL Cloud goes to great lengths to present findings based on publicly published documents such as the SEC’s EDGAR Filing Manual, and the US GAAP Architecture. Because the validation techniques are based in open and widely recognized standards, companies that have good report on XBRL Cloud can have confidence that their XBRL filings meet required standards. The beauty of XBRL Cloud is that companies, investors and other interested users see a “report card” on how companies are doing with their XBRL SEC filings. The site can be found at http://edgardashboard.xbrlcloud.com/.
Other XBRL Tools
There are other interesting XBRL tools available as well, including a Firefox XBRL add-on (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/xbrl-addon/) that allows users to pivot XBRL data, multiple XBRL taxonomy viewers (http://viewer.xbrl.us/yeti2/resources/yeti-gwt/Yeti.jsp, http://bigfoot.corefiling.com/yeti/resources/yeti-gwt/Yeti.jsp, http://www.fasb.org/jsp/FASB/Page/SectionPage&cid=1176157088011, http://www.compsciresources.com/ – lower right side of page). Even Microsoft Office contains capabilities to help XBRL users access XBRL tagged data.
The number of available XBRL tools will continue to grow as XBRL use expands around the globe. Already XBRL is being used in SEC filings and Bank FDIC Call Reports in the US, Tax Returns in the United Kingdom, a securities filings in China, stock exchange listings in Tokyo and more. XBRL use will not be limited to financial reporting. Projects are underway to apply XBRL to environmental and sustainability efforts, risk management projects and governmental transparency efforts. To see what’s going on in the world of XBRL see XBRL Planet at http://www.xbrlplanet.org/index.php.
I am sure there are other XBRL tools as well. If you know of other helpful XBRL tools that demonstrate the power of XBRL please share them by adding a comment to this post.
Jeff
Below is information about 9W Search and our objectives . We are now in the process of incorporating XBRL tag retrieval into 9W.
A Revolutionary Financial Search Engine:
9W provides a single answer to millions of financial questions
to cell phones, tablets and laptops
9W?
9W is the answer to the question “Herr Wagner, does your last name start
with the letter V?” The answer from Herr Wagner is—– “Nein”, “W”
I am the co-founder of EDGAR Online and have working to democratize the use of financial information for nearly twenty years. Since I retired as Board Chairman of EDGAR Online I have been engaged in creating 9W Search, an Austin – based search engine, designed to bring the tsunami of computer readable information to all mobile devices as well as to web sites.
9W’s source of answers is the rapidly expanding ocean of government–required information (SEC/XBRL, FDIC/XBRL, Dept. of Labor). 9W will return a single correct answer to millions of financial queries (no scrolling like Google)-just one precise answer..
9W is intended for use of a wide variety of information consumers:
• buyers and sellers of financial products
• accountants, lawyers, professionals
• all employees of public companies
• An initial marketing plan will offer, to students and faculty of Business Schools, the permenent FREE use of 9W to all EDU addresses
9W answers questions as easily as going to IMDB (the Internet Movie Data Base) to remember who played Robert DeNiro’s brother in “Raging Bull”.
EXAMPLES OF SIMPLE ANSWERS:
• Any 1 to 3 company net income for the current and five previous years
• 52 week stock high and low price
• Auditor name and if there has been any change in former years
• Company phone number and address
• Company TAX ID #
• ANY of approximately 250 data point s and computations (in the near future 9W will be able to retrieve all individual line items if they are tagged in XBRL).
EXAMPLES OF MORE COMPLEX QUESTIONS THAT 9W WILL BE ABLE TO ANSWER:
• “Is your employer’s stock a large part of your own benefit program? Perhaps Bear Stearns and Lehman employees should have asked this question before their own retirement plans were wiped out.
• How many shares did “ticker symbol” repurchase in each of the last ten years? Does this show optimism by management?
• Instantly compare the “EBITDA”, or any other data point or ratio, of up to three “ticker symbols”
• What are the share prices TODAY of Facebook and Twitter (non-public companies) in the “private market”?
I would like to invite you to take a look at our pre-alpha pilot. Please go to http://pilot.9wsearch.com , register and you will be automatically logged in. This is a very early stage MVP but we feel it does an adequate job of showing where we are headed.
Thank you in advance for your interest.
Sincerely,
Marc Strausberg
512-692-9609
Marc, It sounds like Web 3.0 may soon be here. Welcome to a semantic world. Thanks much, Jeff
I have a query on tagging portion of xbrl. In below example if its balance sheet table as in
http://xbrl.us/preparersguide/pages/section4.aspx
ASSETS
Cash and cash equivalents $ 663 $ 590
Marketable debt and equity securities 6,283 4,632
Here do i search the complete taxonomy for the line item “Cash and cash equivalents”. This will include data from multiple sections like Disclosures/Policy and Statement of financial posotion.
Is there any data for US GAAP where it is mentioned that for Balance sheet section we need to search only these sections of taxonomy say (financial position,Disclosure xxx) or is it thumb of rule that i need search complete taxonomy.
It is generally best to start your taxonomy search in the appropriate presentation group (also called node or network – for example 104000 – Statement – Statement of Financial Position, Classified). Most of the elements you need should be within the appropriate presentation group. If you cannot find an element you need within the applicable presentation group, it is ok to use an element from elsewhere in the US GAAP taxonomy (UGT). Be careful – make sure that the period type, XBRL type/data type, documentation string (definition of concept) and authoritative references fit the context of the fact you are tagging. Edgar Filer Manual (EFM) section 6.6.29 speaks to the priority of considerations when selecting a taxonomy element. Note: EFM 6.6.12 through 6.6.29 give helpful guidance when considering which taxonomy elements to use.
Section 4 of the XBRL Preparer’s Guide refers to calculation relationships so I am guessing you question may also pertain to the calculation relationships of the elements selected. The calculation relationships that should exist between your selected taxonomy elements will be defined in the calculation linkbase of your extension taxonomy and can be customized to fit your company’s situation.
One last caution: The XBRL Preparer’s Guide is an outstanding reference tool (I refer to it often myself…especially figures 120 and 121 on negation and calculation weights). Just be aware that there is a spot or two where it conflicts with the SEC’s Edgar Filer Manual.
Best of luck in your XBRL adventure!
Jeff
Jeff,
Thank you for your comments.However I think in terms of priority of searches do we have info on order of sections to search. I am giving an example below.
So here I have 78 sections under banking and savings(see some samples at end of comment). Now when I start reviewing a report (example balance sheet section), the order of search would be say
First search on
108000 – Statement – Statement of Financial Position, classified – Deposit Based Operations and then only in certain sections in disclosures
Next most likely tags I will find in
340000 – Disclosure – Inventory
470000 – Disclosure – Other Liabilities
360000 – Disclosure – Property, Plant, and Equipment
370000 – Disclosure – Intangible Assets, Goodwill and Other…….
Once I know for main sections like balance sheet/cash flow and corresponding disclosure section which are apt, it would make my tagging faster. This may be less cumbersome as it may not make much sense to scan all elements in taxonomy.
So my query is do we have any standard buckets for each of these sections (balance sheet(disclosure1,2,3…) cashflow(disclosure9,10,11…),Comprehensive Income) or is my assumption above a wrong one.
I think Notes to Accounts is a separate bucket altogether which we dip into 195000 – Disclosure – Comprehensive Text Block List
Section Names
108000 – Statement – Statement of Financial Position, Unclassified –
Deposit Based Operations
124200 – Statement – Statement of Income, Additional Statement of Income
Elements
132001 – Statement – Statement of Income, Interest Based Revenue
148400 – Statement – Statement of Other Comprehensive Income
148600 – Statement – Statement of Shareholders’ Equity and….
………………………………
250000 – Disclosure – Accounting Changes and Error Corrections
275000 – Disclosure – Risks and Uncertainties
285000 – Disclosure – Interim Reporting
290000 – Disclosure – Accounting Policies
300000 – Disclosure – Cash and Cash Equivalents
320000 – Disclosure – Receivables, Loans, Notes Receivable, and Others
330000 – Disclosure – Investments, Debt and Equity Securities
333000 – Disclosure – Investments, Equity Method and Joint Ventures
336000 – Disclosure – Investments, All Other Investments
340000 – Disclosure – Inventory
350000 – Disclosure – Deferred Costs, Capitalized, Prepaid, and Other Assets
360000 – Disclosure – Property, Plant, and Equipment
370000 – Disclosure – Intangible Assets, Goodwill and Other
400000 – Disclosure – Payables and Accruals
420000 – Disclosure – Asset Retirement Obligations
425000 – Disclosure – Environmental Remediation Obligations
430000 – Disclosure – Restructuring and Related Activities
440000 – Disclosure – Revenue Recognition and Deferred Revenue
450000 – Disclosure – Commitment and Contingencies
456000 – Disclosure – Guarantees
460000 – Disclosure – Debt
470000 – Disclosure – Other Liabilities
472000 – Disclosure – Noncontrolling Interest
480000 – Disclosure – Temporary Equity
500000 – Disclosure – Equity
…………………………..
993530 – Disclosure – Investments Federal Income Tax Note
993540 – Disclosure – Investments Sold Not yet Purchased
993560 – Disclosure – Open Option Contracts Written
993570 – Disclosure – Investments in and Advances to Affiliates
I’m not sure I totally understand what you are asking, but the presentation groups are not there to disctate which elements should be used for a particular disclosure. The presentation groups exist to guide you toward the right element for each disclosure. That said, if Net Income is disclosed in a footnote and the footnote disclosure Net Income amount ties up to the Income Statement, then the NetIncomeLoss element would be used from the Income Statement presentation group (I’m relating my example to Commercial and Industrial companies since that is what I am most familiar with). It doesn’t matter what disclosure group an element is in, if it is appropriate it can be used.
Also, a single element may appear in multiple disclosure groups. For example, the element “ScheduleOfAccumulatedOtherComprehensiveIncomeLossTableTextBlock” appears in the comprehensive text block list (presentation group 195000) and in the equity disclosure group (presentation group 500000 – Select the “Tree Locations” tab at the top right of the taxonomy to see where a particular element is located). In addition, since you are in the Banking and Thrift industry it may help to start your search within the “Banking and Savings Institutions” limited view of the taxonomy rather than the “All Taxonomies” view (the taxonomy selection choice is available when navigating to the website. I have also found it helpful to search the Excel version of the US GAAP taxonomy that is available at the bottom of the FASB website: . The Excel tool lets you search using Excel toolsets (filters, search, sort, etc.).
Jeff