XBRL-based structured digital financial reporting - Blog: Digital Financial Reporting (using XBRL)

Here is an update to my world's first XBRL-based, machine-readable financial reporting checklist. (No one has refuted my claim that this the world's first)

I have now added machine-readable business rules for the 55 disclosures listed below. This is still only considered a working prototype because this (a) has not been completely tuned yet and (b) is not yet implemented in commercial software (it currently only runs using my custom made software). This document shows the results I am getting for the first 25 disclosures I implemented. The other 30 that I added are getting similar results. The document also walks you through the tests that I am currently running.

#	Disclosure
1	Document Information [Hierarchy]
2	Entity Information, by Legal Entity [Hierarchy]
3	Document and Entity Information [Hierarchy]
4	Balance Sheet
5	Income Statement, by Legal Entity [Roll Up]
6	Statement of Comprehensive Income
7	Cash Flow Statement [Roll Forward]
8	Statement of Changes in Equity [Roll Forward]
9	Nature of Operations Note [Note Level]
10	Basis of Reporting Note [Note Level]
11	Significant Accounting Policies Note [Note Level]
12	Revenue Recognition Policy [Policy Text Block]
13	Inventory, Net (Current) [Roll Up]
14	Property, Plant and Equipment Useful Lives, by Type [Hierarchy]
15	Property, Plant and Equipment, Net, by Type [Roll Up]
16	Property, Plant and Equipment, Net, by Type [Roll Up] (Axis/Member style)
17	Intangible Assets, Finite-lived, Future Amortization Expense [Roll Up]
18	Intangible Assets, Finite-lived, Net, by Major Class [Roll Up]
19	Intangible Assets, Indefinite-lived [Roll Forward]
20	Finite-lived Intangible Assets, Estimated Useful Lives, by Major Class [Hierarchy]
21	Intangible Assets, Indefinite-lived, by Major Class [Roll Up]
22	Goodwill [Roll Forward]
23	Restructuring Reserve, by Type of Cost [Table Text Block]
24	Asset Retirement Obligation, by Legal Entity [Roll Forward]
25	Product Warranty Liability [Roll Forward]
26	Restructuring Reserve [Roll Forward]
27	Long-term Debt Instruments, by Instrument [Hierarchy]
28	Long-term Debt Maturities [Roll Up]
29	Long-term Debt Maturities [Hierarchy]
30	Income Tax Expense (Benefit) Details [Roll Up]
31	Income Tax Contingency, Unrecognized Tax Benefits [Roll Forward]
32	Effective Income Tax Rate, Continuing Operations, Tax Rate Reconciliation [Roll Up]
33	Income before Income Tax, Domestic and Foreign [Roll Up]
34	Deferred Tax Assets and Liabilities [Roll Up]
35	Allocation of Plan Assets [Table Text Block]
36	Fair Value, Assets Measured on Recurring Basis, Unobservable Input Reconciliation [Roll Forward]
37	Unrecognized Tax Benefits, Excluding Amounts Pertaining to Examined Tax Returns [Roll Forward]
38	Defined Benefit Plan, Change in Fair Value of Plan Assets [Roll Forward]
39	Defined Benefit Plan, Change in Benefit Obligation, by Plan [Roll Forward]
40	Accumulated and Projected Benefit Obligations [Roll Forward]
41	Pension Plans or Other Employee Benefit Plans Assumptions Used, by Plan [Hierarchy]
42	Projected Benefit Obligations, Changes In [Roll Forward]
43	Expected Benefit Payments [Roll Up]
44	Net Periodic Benefit Costs, by Plan [Roll Up]
45	Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income (Loss), by Equity Component [Roll Forward]
46	Future Minimum Payments Receivable of Operating Leases of Lessor [Roll Up]
47	Future Minimum Payments Due under Operating Leases of Lessee [Roll Up]
48	Future Minimum Payments, Present Value of Net Minimum Payments, Noncancelable Capital Leases, Lessor [Roll Up]
49	Future Minimum Payments Receivable of Capital Leases, Lessor [Roll Up]
50	Geographic Areas, Long-Lived Assets in Individual Foreign Countries, by Country [Roll Up]
51	Geographic Areas, Revenue from External Customers Attributed to Foreign Countries, by Geographic Area [Table Text Block]
52	Earnings Per Share, Basic and Diluted [Roll Up]
53	Share-based Payment Award, Stock Options, Valuation Assumptions [Hierarchy]
54	Share-based Compensation, Restricted Stock Units Award Activity, Weighted Average Price [Roll Forward Info]
55	Share-based Compensation Arrangements, by Award [Abstract]

What is becoming increasingly apparent is the utility of these business rules not only for after-the-fact validation of XBRL-based financial reports; but also to drive guidance-based digital financial report creating software, queries of reported information (look at the mappings), etc.

More to come...