Digital Financial Reporting

The Japanese Institute of Certified Public Accountants has published a cartoon which explains what XBRL is, explains the benefits of XBRL, and explains how it works.  The video is about 15 minutes long, in Japanese, but has English subtitles.

You can get to the cartoon here.

This video cartoon is quite clever and does a good job of explaining important ideas about XBRL and how it will be impacting financial reporting and auditing in the coming years.

Here are three quotes from the cartoon for CPAs:

The way audits are conducted my also change from paper-based verification to computer verification.

XBRL may alter the way information is disclosed and audits are conducted.

A few years from now, the job of a CPA will probably undergo dramatic change because of the availability of audits by XBRL and the assurance of XBRL data assurance, among other tools.