Digital Financial Reporting

I have been fiddling with the XBRL Cloud Viewer (which you can get to for any SEC XBRL financial filing here) and created this video which shows many of the featureswhich I figured out. Be aware that I have a paid subscription to XBRL Cloud so I can use the "Search" and "Explore" functionality.  All the other functionality is the same.

This is really worth checking out. The the last several posts for more information on what this viewer does.  Very useful stuff!

In my last post I mentioned the new XBRL Cloud Viewer. I have been fiddling around with the linking to specific parts of an XBRL instance and this is what I have discovered:

• Linking to a filing: If you click here, you will be taken to a specfic filing, in this case the latest Apple 10-Q.  Look at the link, notice how you pass the location of the XBRL instance to the viewer and the Viewer opens the filing.
• Linking to specific component: If you click here, you will be taken to that same filing and directly to the cash flow statement.
• Linking to specific fact: If you click here, you will be taken to the same filing, to the cash flow statement, and to the specific line item "Increase in cash and cash equivalents".
• Link to specific view: If you click here, you will be taken to the same filing, cash flow statement, the same line item "Increase in cash and cash equivalents", but to the model structure view.
• Link to business rule: If you click here, you will be taken to the same filing, same component, same concept; but this type to the business rule.

That is pretty handy functionality. Not sure if you realized that you can link directly to US GAAP Taxonomy report elements in this manner.  Click here to try that.

If you look at the URLs that you click on, you will see that you can predict what URL needs to be in order to get to a specific location in the XBRL Cloud Viewer.  That is very handy.

Core US GAAP domain level verification of core financial reporting semantics was added to the XBRL Cloud Edgar Dashboardwhich was recently released. Core US GAAP domain level semantics includes:

• Balance sheets report assets.
• Balance sheets report liabilities and equity.
• Balance sheets report equity.
• Balance sheets balance.
• Income statements report net income (loss)
• Cash flow statements report net cash flow

Of the approximately 8,000 SEC public company filers who submit 10-K and 10-Q financial reports, only about 180 violate these core US GAAP financial report semantics, which is consistent with my observations.  Another observation is that the number of violations of these core US GAAP financial report semantics continues to decrease.

XBRL Cloud Edgar Dashboard

I have been checking these core US GAAP financial reporting semantics two or three times a year for three years.  The progress is slow, but good.  The fact that XBRL Cloud has added these business rules, and has otherwise made that dashboard easier to understand, will help overall SEC public company report quality.

In addition to a new and improved dashboard, the XBRL Cloud Viewer has also been improved significantly. One of the most useful new features of the Viewer is that you can link directly to any component within an SEC XBRL financial filing.  For example, if you click here, you will be taken directly to the balance sheet of the Global Seed Corporation

The improved dashboard and viewer are definitely worth checking out.