Digital Financial Reporting

What technical syntax do you use to implement process automation? Roll-your-own proprietary syntax?  OK, so you define your syntax; what about specifying the semantics?  You could use the semantic web stack; but that is only a syntax and you still have to define your semantics.

What if there was a better way?  I used XBRL to implement accounting process automation and financial report creation automation.  Basically, I stole all the best ideas I could find and added a few pieces that no one else provided.

In the document Accounting Process Automation Using XBRL I point out that XBRL is a well-thought-out flexible global standard syntax for representing facts and describing relations between facts. XBRL can handle financial and non-financial facts. XBRL excels at handling complex sets of facts such as an entire financial report. But XBRL can also be used for smaller sets of facts, binding information together in a tidy package, bound together with the strong “steel wires” of business logic.

Check it out and let me know what you think.