Mastering XBRL

This page is for the "semi-technical professional" business users who want to master XBRL.  The focus is more specifically on CPAs, chartered accountants, and other business users who have some knowlege of accounting.  But any business user could benefit, and in fact technical people may benefit from this information and these training opportunities also.  However, the target market is the business user who understands accounting who is not afraid to roll up their sleeves and get their hands a little dirty with the technology.

You probably know if you are a semi-technical business user.  Common characteristics are:

  • You are not scared of technology.  In fact, you are likely currious and like to figure out how things work.
  • You probably can program or want to learn how to program, probably using Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Access.
  • You understand and use SQL.
  • You may be a consultant or an "internal consultant" (the person everyone else in your organization comes to to solve problems).
  • Etc.

Opportunity

Perhaps it is still a bit of a risk right now because XBRL is not used as pervasively as it one day will be.  But, that is the opportunity.  If you believe that XBRL will be used more, and if you want to invest in your skill set to help you take advantage of the opportunity as the world moves to XBRL, this mastering XBRL page is for you.

Another part of the opportunity is that you can learn XBRL from one of the people who conceived of the idea of XBRL; who helped convince the AICPA to help make XBRL a global standard; helped create, build, and test XBRL to be sure it works; and who has been on a wide variety of projects around the world which use XBRL around the world.  That person is me!  Plus, I am a business user, I am semi-technical.

Further, I am well connected in the XBRL community and have lots of good sources of information and knowlege.  I take advantage of these sources to pull together the best possible set of knowlege for myself; and then I share this knowlege with you.  If you wish, you can even get connected to those who have deep, deep, deep understand of XBRL.  They have helped me to understand XBRL and they will help you also.

Objective

The objective of this training is to help you:

  1. understand what XBRL is, what XBRL is not, and how the technology works, in depth,
  2. to see the true benefits and allowing you to explain those benefits it to others,
  3. to have the skills to review the work of others to see if that work is correct, for example if taxonomies are created correctly and meet business objectives,
  4. to have the skills to properly and throughly test taxonomies and instance documents,
  5. to develop the skills to be able to audit XBRL,
  6. to develop a specialty area of XBRL; for examples, one specialty areas might be writing business rules using XBRL Formulas,
  7. to talk to technical people about XBRL.  For example, not all technical people understand XML, understand the real differences between XBRL and XML, or understand the value of open standards such as XBRL.  We help business users understand these sorts of things so they can discuss these topics with technical users from a position of knowlege.

Finally, the ultimate objective is to empower you with a "master" level understanding of XBRL.  Just like a master plumber, you will be able to solve any problem relating to XBRL using best practices.  As XBRL is used more and more these skills will become more needed and more valuable.  This is an investment.  But if you want to work with XBRL at certain levels, you need to master XBRL.

How you will Learn

There are many different approaches to obtaining this information.

  • Self Study.  This is a low cost option and it takes longer; but you can do it at your pace, within your budget, and to the degree you want.  We will help show you the path to understanding XBRL right here.
  • Supported Study.  You study on your own, but we have support options available to supplement your efforts to learn XBRL.
  • Saturation Study.  Come to a one week class and get up to speed fast.
  • Custom Classes.  If your organization would like to train a number of individuals, we can help you.
  • Support.  If all you need is support from time to time, we can provide that option also.

For more information on any of these options, please contact Charles.Hoffman@UBmatrix.com.  These classes can be given in your area by a UBmatrix business partner if you desire.  Also, there are opportunities for train the trainer type classes.  Contact UBmatrix or a UBmatrix business partner for more information.

 

Self Study - Get started right now!

You can get started learning XBRL right now.  The following steps will definitly set you on course to learning about XBRL:

  1. Get the book "Financial Reporting Using XBRL".  It can be obtained here.  The book costs very little, basically the price of Lulu printing the book plus your shipping.  For other alternatives, please contact me.
  2. Get the sample files which come with the book.  Please send me an email, and I can send you a link to the most current set of sample files.  These sample files are constantly updated, providing the most current and best samples which you can use to learn and reverse engineer.  Alternatively, you can use the XBRLS meta patterns and comprehensive example, you can get these here.
  3. Get an XBRL tool.  I work for UBmatrix and use the UBmatrix Taxonomy Designer.  This can be used for creating taxonomies, validating taxonomies, validating instance documents, and creating simple instance documents.  Contact UBmatrix and ask them for a copy of the tool.  All you need to do is subscribe to xBReeze (which is free) and you can download and use the tool.  You can contact UBmatrix here.
  4. Bookmark this blog.  This will be the source of my most current information.  I will be summarizing the most current information in a new version of my book.  Until that book is available, the best information which I know about is made available here on this blog.  If you want to get early versions of the book in exchange of for some proofreading or something, please contact me.