Digital Financial Reporting

Workiva provides two free to use tools that can help you understand XBRL-based reports.

The first tool is the Workiva Taxonomy Analyzer Classicversion.  This lets you look at the XBRL taxonomies of I believe any XBRL-based report submitted to the SEC by a public company. What is really useful about this tool is that you can compare the taxonomies of two, three, or even more companies.  Here is a screen shot:

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The second tool is the Wdesk Taxonomy Analyzer.  This appears to be a newer tool. This tool lets you view the US GAAP XBRL Taxonomy, the IFRS XBRL Taxonomy, and some other XBRL taxonomies.  Below you see a screen shot.  What is cool about this taxonomy tool is that you can link directly to concepts in the tool.  For example, Click here and you go directly to the concept Assets; or click here and you go to the concept earning per share text block.  While the Yeti taxonomy viewerhas similar linking functionality, the Yeti URLs cannot be proactively figured out.  You have to go to the concept, grab the link, and then you can link to the concept. But, with the Wdesk Taxonomy Analyzer if you know the name of the concept, then you can link to it.  If you don't realize it, this is a big deal.

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I will explain these later.  For now:

• IFRS
• US GAAP

If you want to help and learn a ton of useful information, please contact me.

This is a little prototype that I am putting together related to IFRS references to authoritative literature.  This will grow, and grow, and grow as I add more linked metadata.  Let me know if you have any ideas.  Of course, all of this will be machine readable.

The references will tie into the other IFRS metadata that I am creating.

Artificial Intelligence has made its way to the front page of the Journal of Accounting, the trade magazine of Certified Public Accountants which is published by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, in the article What’s ‘critical’ for CPAs to learn in an AI-powered world:

In the article, a panel of experts which includes David Cieslak (RKL eSolutions), Liz Mason (High Rock Accounting), and Amy Vetter (B3 Method Institute); make the following important points:

"Some young firms are pushing the industry forward, or I should say pulling it if you're looking at a tech adoption curve, but I believe the majority of firms are behind."

 

"... corporate accounting departments are probably the furthest behind. Companies are not making accounting a priority because it's 'overhead'."

 

"... every partner, every director, every manager, every senior, every staff - needs to be thinking about what technology could do to help them. We need to train people to have critical-thinking skills instead of 'we want you to be a robot and produce the same results as the prior year.' "

 

"It can seem overwhelming and daunting, but it's a mindset on the part of the individual."

 

"I think the problem is that there can seem like this huge hurdle we have to get over - new skills we have to learn, new technology we have to learn, new services we need to offer - and then all of that seems overwhelming."

 

"All of those small incremental changes add up over time, and that's what a great change management plan does."

I agree that a mindset change is in order. A paradigm shift is occurring, a transformation.  Gartner defines transformational as something that "enables new ways of doing business across industries that will result in major shifts in industry dynamics."  Major shifts means lots of change and some winners and some losers. Don't be road kill.  The territory of accounting, reporting, auditing, and analysis are changing.  Old maps will not work to understand this change.  You need a new map.

The entire article is work reading.  I would encourage you to take the time. There are additional articles related to using AI in an audit and how a not-for-profit made use of AI.

Want to get started on your personal journey into what I am referring to as accounting, reporting, auditing, and analysis in a digital environment?  Here are three easy incremental steps to take:

1. Watch the 5 minute video, How XBRL Works.
2. Scan or read the document Computer Empathy.  (Currently the document is 76 pages and you don't need to understand everything in the document.  I am trying to condense this document to make it more helpful to the average certified public accountant.)
3. Read the blog post, Everything you Need to Know to have an Intelligent Conversation about Digital Financial Reporting. This includes information about artificial intelligence, digital distributed ledgers, and XBRL-based structured financial reports.

If you want to continue your journey and know more, consider driling down on the links of the document in #2 or the blog post in #3 above.  Or, if you are really motivated and curious, here is a synthesis of my lab notes that I have been keeping for the past 10 years. Whether you want to use good old fashioned AI or add machine learning; that will provide you with the know how to get going down the right track.