Digital Financial Reporting

I wanted to point out a great resource for information about XBRL Global Ledger (XBRL GL).  The site is maintained by Gianluca Garbellotto, a long time proponent of XBRL GL and someone who is very active in its creation.

The site has a bunch of great examples, samples, and a nice viewer which help you see what XBRL GL is all about.  One of the nicest things on the site is its collection of webcasts about XBRL GL.

There are three good sources for finding XBRL software that I am aware of:

• XBRL Info Wiki
• XBRL US Products and Services Page
• XBRL International List of Products and Services

None of these lists are available in an XML (or XBRL) format for creating your own custom queries, etc.  Over the next month or so I will endeavor to create such as list as it would provide a very good demonstration of why people are using XML/XBRL.

No comments or commentary on what is good software and what is not so hot, you have to figure that out for yourself.

SAP has teamed up with UBmatrix and reports that they have "XBRL Reporting Optimized for SAP Software Environments. You can read about this in their SAP Solution Brief: SAP BusinessObjects XBRL Publishing by UBmatrix.

SAP goes on to say they provide "Support for the 'last mile' of finance - The application streamlines finance corporation, reporting, and publishing processes without sacraficing data quality."

In the past, accounting software vendor support for XBRLwas, well, let's be nice and say optimistically stated. Seems like the SEC's choice to make public companies use XBRL changes the game.

Here is some info directly from the SAP solution brief:

Summary
The SAP® BusinessObjects™ XBRL Publishing application by UBmatrix enables business users to leverage data in SAP Business Suite software and SAP BusinessObjects enterprise performance management solutions and prepare eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) documents. Designed for ease of use, speed, and flexibility, the application gives you greater control over the XBRL generation process for the communication of financial and business data.

Business Challenges
• Pressure to implement an XBRL publishing solution quickly
• Desire for more control and flexibility than XBRL outsourcing offers
• Limited in-house resources who can work with complex XBRL syntax directly

Key Features
• XBRL taxonomy navigation – Quickly search and filter large, complex taxonomies to find tags relevant for your business data
• Mapping – Map taxonomy tags to data using a drag-and-drop mapping environment
• Validation – Use comprehensive validation functionality to confirm accuracy and completeness and identify issues
• Disclosure inclusion – Link to and import management discussions, disclosures, footnotes, and other narratives created in Microsoft Word to XBRL documents
• Taxonomy extension – Easily extend published XBRL taxonomies to include other information
• Compliance – Be confident that your XBRL documents comply with the business rules of third-party taxonomies

Business Benefi ts
• Reduced time and effort to create XBRL documents thanks to integration with Microsoft Excel, taxonomy navigation tools, and drag-and-drop functions that simplify mapping
• Lower audit costs because auditors can “slice and dice” your financial data quickly and easily, enabling them to perform audits faster, more accurately, and at lower cost
• Greater confidence in your financial disclosures because data and mappings are validated as accurate, complete, and in compliance with business rules defined by third-party taxonomies
• Increased flexibility and control and lower costs by eliminating the need for XBRL outsourcing services

I have become aware of two new whitepapers which provide overviews of what XBRL is all about:

• Introducing Interactive Data which is provided by EDGAR Online
• Extensible Business Reporting Language: An overview for technical users provided by Altova

The great news here is that more people are taking the time to invest in creating information which explains XBRL!