Digital Financial Reporting

I put together this little self guided tour of XBRL-based financial reports.  If anyone has any feedback that would help make this easier or provide additional helpful information please feel free to send me comments.

Here are some key ideas to think about as you look at the XBRL-based digital financial report:

• Alternative reporting format: An XBRL-based digital financial report is an alternative to paper or "e-paper" financial reports.  In today's digital environment a digital report provide benefits.
• Case for XBRL-based digital financial reports: Benefits of XBRL-based reports include greater transparency, better capital allocation decisions, and better functioning capital markets.
• Quality matters: XBRL-based reports are not that useful if the quality of the information in the report is not high.
• Improved financial report creation processes: Not only are XBRL-based digital reports beneficial for users of information, they are also beneficial to creators of reports.  The digital nature of reports enables different processes to be used to create reports.
• Financial transformation and the modern finance platform: Improved processes will transform accounting, reporting, auditing, and analysis.
• Don't panic: Prepare yourself.
• Paradigm shift: What is occurring is a paradigm shift; not an incremental innovation.  The changes will be distuptive, maybe even foundational.  You cannot use yesterday's paradigm to understand this new paradigm.
• Computer empathy: You don't need to "learn to code".  You don't need to learn about technology.  What you need to understand is how computers really work. That is the best way to understand what is and what is not possible.