Very Basic of Financial Report Validator

Saturday, January 22, 2022 at 07:18AM
Charlie in Digital Financial Reporting

This is a very, very basic XBRL-based financial report validator that I have created using Excel.  There are two versions: 

• Validate single report
• Validate and compare multiple reports

(Additional versions for other reporting styles of the multiple reports comparison/validator can be found here.)

There are a bunch of ways these applications can be enhanced and improved such as not hard coding the rules into the validator, doing additional validation tasks, better functionality; my intent here is to simply point out the basics. Reverse engineering is an excellent way to learn.

Here are example Line of Reasoning Reports that are output by the application: 

• Apple
• Microsoft
• Salesforce
• Cisco
• Proctor & Gamble
• Boeing
• Coca Cola
• Intel

Below is a screen shot of the single report validator.  To use the validator all you do is put a URL to an XBRL-based financial report into the YELLOW cell and then press the "Extract Information and Validate" button:

To use the mulitiple reoprt validator, simple click on the "Compare all in List Spreadsheet" in the "Compare" workbook.

Again, this is a very basic validator.  The Pacioli Power User Tool is way more powerful but works using the same principles.  (For more information about Pacioli, see the Pacioli Logic and Rules Engine.

Article originally appeared on XBRL-based structured digital financial reporting (http://xbrl.squarespace.com/).