Digital Financial Reporting

Plain Text Accounting, per their website, means doing accounting with plain text data formats and scriptable software.  There are three such systems behind this movement: Ledger, hledger, and Beancount.

All three of these software applications are command-line reporting tools that use a plain text data format (i.e. database) that do double-entry accounting.  Essentially, these applications are double-entry accounting "engines".  You can both INPUT and OUTPUT accounting transactions and the results from accounting transactions.

This is interesting.  What is even more interesting is that I can get 100% of the information into both the Ledger and the hledger accounting systems that I need for friction-free record-to-report.  Remember this prototype that related to record-to-report?  Well, I added this plain text accounting transactions format to my output from my database.  I was able to get BOTH the XBRL concept and the transaction grouping code into both Ledger and hledger.

What does this mean?  It means friction free accounting! 

• I was able to take this XBRL GL (or this XBRL dimensions, or this plain text accounting format)
• Turn that information into this fact table
• Turn the fact table into a human readable report (or this Inline XBRL version of the same information;or this unformatted version of Inline XBRL)
• Verify 100% of the mathematical computations. (this is a second validation; these are the roll ups)
• Verify the stucture of the disclosures in the report.
• Analysis of the report. (See the bottom where concepts within the "analysis:" namespace were added to the report)

The above is a little prototype.  This MINI prototype financial reporting scheme adds notes and policies.  This not-for-profit example is another larger prototype that is also more comprehensive.  I have numerous other prototypes.

Sure, those were all prototypes.  You know what.  I can do the same things for the Microsoft 10-K.

What I am seeing is a "fat free global ledger exchange format". What I am also seeing is zero friction in the tasks and processes related from getting information from the accounting information systems into an external financial report.  This includes a more efficient and therefore less costly audit process.

Pop an expert system on top of all this and a rules engine or reasoner to support the expert system and the accounting process is more efficient and more effective.

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GNUCash (free accounting software)