Digital Financial Reporting

Every XBRL-based public company financial report is essentially a set of fact sets. In the 6,023 XBRL-based reports that I analyzed (all 10-Ks submitted to the SEC using US GAAP):

• There are 754,430 fact sets
  • 407,392 fact sets (54%) are text blocks (Level 1 Notes, Level 2 Policies, Level 3 Disclosures)
  • 181,063 fact sets (24%) are sets (or hierarchies, no mathematical computations)
  • 120,708 fact sets (16%) are roll ups
  • 37,721 fact sets (5%) are roll forwards
  • 7,546 fact sets (1%) are roll forward infos or something else

What I used to call "blocks" I am not calling "fact sets".  Fact set is a better term that someone else came up with.  The document Understanding and Leveraging Fact Sets explains what a fact set (block) is and some of the things you can do with them.

Happy reading!

I have updated the visualization of the logical model of a financial report.  You can view it here.

(Click image for larger view)

Want to understand more?  Here is a list of resources:

• Introduction to the Conceptual Model of a Digital Financial Report: This document explains the details of the logical model and also points to additional details that you might find useful if you really want to understand the logical model.
• Reconciliation of Models: Provides a reconciliation between various models of a digital financial report.
• Financial Report Object Properties: Provides additional details about the properties of the objects in the logical and implementation models.

Don't grasp why this stuff is important? Computer Empathy will help you understand that.