Digital Financial Reporting

Today, Louis Matherne who is the Chief of Taxonomy Development at the FASB posted a message indicating that the FASB has updated Elements of Financial Statements (Chapter 4) and Presentation (Chapter 7) of the US GAAP conceptual framework.

I have represented the SFAC 6 Elements of Financial Statements in machine readable XBRL.  Looks like I need to update that.

Elements of Financial Statements and Presentation are foundational.  They are the basis for my Fundamental Accounting Concepts Relations.

Just as a reminder, the elements of financial statements defined by the FASB (and learned in Intermediate Accounting class) are:

• Assets
• Liabilities
• Equity (Net assets)
• Comprehensive Income
• Investments by Owners
• Distributions to Owners
• Revenues
• Expenses
• Gains
• Losses

Here are the relationships between the elements: (from this document related to business events)

Elements of Financial Statements says this about the elements of financial statements:

Elements of financial statements are the building blocks with which financial statements are constructed. The term elements refers to broad classes, such as assets, liabilities, revenues, and expenses. This chapter focuses on the broad classes and their characteristics and does not discuss or define particular items that might meet the elements definitions. For example, economic items and events, such as cash on hand or inventory, that meet the definitions of elements are not elements as the term is used in this chapter. Rather, they are called items or other descriptive names. Notes to financial statements are not elements, though they serve important functions that are distinct from elements, including amplifying or

complementing information about items in financial statements.

 For more information please see Essence of Accounting.

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My Version of SFAC 8 in Machine Readable Form

Another version of SFAC 8 which adds features for not-for-profit entities (This is a more precise version)