BLOG: Digital Financial Reporting
This is a blog for information relating to digital financial reporting. This blog is basically my "lab notebook" for experimenting and learning about XBRL-based digital financial reporting. This is my brain storming platform. This is where I think out loud (i.e. publicly) about digital financial reporting. This information is for innovators and early adopters who are ushering in a new era of accounting, reporting, auditing, and analysis in a digital environment.
Much of the information contained in this blog is synthasized, summarized, condensed, better organized and articulated in my book XBRL for Dummies and in the chapters of Intelligent XBRL-based Digital Financial Reporting. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.
Entries from August 22, 2021 - August 28, 2021
SEC's EDGAR API
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has published an EDGAR API that is worth having a look at. With the API, you can do things like the following:
- Get a list of submissions to the SEC for a specific CIK number. Here are Microsoft's submissions.
- Get a list of fact values for a specific concept for a specific CIK. Here is the concept Assets for Microsoft reports submitted.
- Get a list of all facts reported by a specific CIK. Here are all facts reported by Microsoft.
- Here is another list of facts. Don't exactly understand what they are doing here frankly.
Well...this is a start.
Reading List for Business Professionals Interested in XBRL
I provided a reading list for software engineers interested in XBRL-based financial reporting.
Here is a similar list for business professionals:
- Essence of Accounting: Brings into conciousness certain things about accounting. A logical description of the record to report process: accounting, reporting, auditing, and analysis.
- Computational Professional Services: Helps you understand the opportunities for automation that exist.
- Method Overview: Using this method, enterprises can reliably and effectively stream a high-quality machine-readable XBRL-based global standard knowledge graph of a complete, consistent, and provably correct general purpose financial statement. Further, an entire record-to-report process can be automated effectively. This method provides both the flexibility and the control necessary.
- Logical Theory Describing Financial Report: A general purpose financial report explained logically using axioms, theorems, and a world view.
- Mastering XBRL-based Digital Financial Reporting: Everything you would ever want to know about XBRL-based digital financial reporting.
- Video demonstration of Pesseract: This video shows the basic functionality of Pesseract which is a rules-based expert system for creating financial reports.
Xenett
Things seem to be speeding up. Stumbled across something interesting today: Xenett.
Xenett says that they are an ecosystem for accountants. To understand what they might be up to, watch this YouTube video, What is Xenett?
They seem to have a cloud based practice management system.They seem to have some sort of enhanced import functionality related to QuickBooks and Xero. They have some sort of automated review functionality that is supposed to save 60% of financial review time. Personally, I would have a different strategy in terms of review. Avoid making the mistake in the first place (i.e. expert system for creating financial report) and then there is no reason to "review" because there will be no mistakes where the expert system is watching over the financial report being created.
Introducing the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI)
GLEIF publishes Introducing the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI). LEIs are another piece in the digital financail reporting puzzle.