Digital Financial Reporting

I have updated a taxonomy exploration toolwhich is useful to accountants who want to learn about XBRL taxonomies by comparing/contrasting different taxonomies.

The tool is Microsoft Excel-based, 100% modifiable/configurable (i.e. the VBA code can be edited to your heart's content.

There are 1480 SEC XBRL 10-K and 10-K/A filings which were filed between January 1, 2011 and November 30, 2011, per the SEC RSS archive, which this tool reads.  Well actually, the tool reads infosets generated (thank you to XBRL Cloud for providing this conversion) from the SEC XBRL filings, so access to the taxonomies is quite fast.

Features include:

• 1480 SEC XBRL 10-K and 10-K/A filings categorized into sector
• The ability to load the taxonomy presentation relations into Excel where you can further tweak how you interact with the filings
• The ability to read the taxonomy presentation relations within a treeview-type interface

You may have to configure the application to work with the version of the Microsoft XML parser on your computer.

This version is unsupported.  If you desire to have a supported version or are looking for some specific functionality, contact me and we may be able to work something out.  Other such analysis and query applications are available should you need them to meet some specific need.  Contact me for more information.

There are two additional interfaces into this information. 

The first is a set of HTML pages. This is a simple, static interface which lets you look at the taxonomies of the filers.  A table of contents is provided which lists the filers in alphabetic order.

The second is an RDF file.  This XML file basically lets you create whatever user interface you want, given the metadata and data available.  This set of XML infoset files is basically what drives the Excel-based application above.

KaijiNet/JapanExpress contains the financial information of all listed Japanese companies which have been submitted in XBRL to the Tokyo Stock Exchange.  This information is provided in English. You can browse through a company's financial information and easily do comparisons.

The search mechanism is an easy to use form-based interface.  In my view this interface is very clean and easy to use.

This is worth checking out.

The FEI Committee on Corporate Reporting (CCR) sent a comment letter to the SEC November 4, 2011 in which the concluded:

CCR believes thatthe changes in requirements proposed above would substantially lower the burden of preparing XBRL filings and bring the costs of preparation more in line with benefits. We note that application of existing protocols for detailed XBRL tagging will be effective for approximately 10,000 SEC registrants, including subsidiaries that follow limited disclosure, in July of 2012. All of the issues that large filers have experienced with detailed tagging could potentially be magnified when smaller, less-sophisticated companies attempt to comply. We therefore believe that action by the Commission is urgently needed.

FEI also published a survey SEC Reporting and the Impact of XBRL: 2011 Survey with these key findings of that survey:

• The most significant challenges mentioned in complying with the XBRL mandate are getting educated on XBRL and addressing the review process.
• XBRL had a limited impact on respondents’ SEC filing dates:
• 72% of large accelerated filers (Tier 1 and Tier 2) reported one day or less delay due to XBRL; and
• Over 90% of Tier 3 filers reported one day or less delay due to XBRL.
• The majority of respondents found that XBRL was either somewhat or significantly easier the second time around.
• Tier 1 and Tier 2 XBRL filers predicted a higher likelihood than Tier 3 XBRL filers of changing their XBRL process, with the vast majority of companies anticipating a change opting for an in-house software solution.
• In-house and built in solutions continue to increase their significant market share.
• Registrants using built-in solutions (software solutions used by in-house reporting teams in which the creation of the EDGAR document and XBRL instant report are fully integrated) are significantly more satisfied than those using other approaches.

Is it just me, or does the survey seem to contradict the comment letter? What do you think?

This useful article published by CompSci, How XBRL is like the NFL, can help you avoid common recurring errors being made by filers learn about the nuances of working with the XBRL medium which have been pointed out in SEC staff interpretations.  Here is a summary of the types of errors this blog post covers:

• Negative values
• Negation
• Concept fact limitations
• Dimensions
• Extension concepts

To that useful list I would add common errors I see in my observations of SEC XBRL financial filings:

• Roll forward computations need to work correctly. Clearly things need to add up, but this can be tricky to verify because XBRL calculations cannot be used to verify this. A roll forward is a reconciliation between two periods, you probably learned about these in school: BASE (beginning balance, additions, subtractions, ending balance). XBRL calculations cannot be used to prove this computation as they do not work across contexts or across dimensions. XBRL Formula can be used to prove this type of computation.
• Dimensional aggregations need to work correctly. An example of a dimensional aggregation is breaking down revenues by business segment or by geographic area. Each segment is a reported using a different dimension. Again, XBRL calculations do not work across dimensions. Again, XBRL Formula can be used to prove this type of computation.
• Financial integrity needs to be intact. For example, the line item for inventory reported on the balance sheet should tie to the breakdown of inventory within the disclosures. This is easy if things are modeled correctly and total inventory in both places use the same reported fact.

Eventually software will watch over the creators of SEC XBRL financial filings, helping to make sure these sorts of errors don't exist.  Today's software is still maturing and does not commonly provide this level of functionality.

For more insights, see my document Modeling Business Information Using XBRL.

I stumbled across CalcBenchwhich is a product which makes use of SEC XBRL financial filings. The best thing is that you can use this for free without having to log in or anything which makes test driving the product easy.  There is even a little user guide.

I have known about PrimeAim for a while, so I went back to that site and there seems to be lots of improvements.  That is worth checking out also.