Digital Financial Reporting

Robert Kugel of Ventana Research wrote an excellent article, Welcome to the Age of Robotic Finance.  In addition, Mr. Kugel explains this in more detail in a very informative 35 minute webinar.

Ask yourself a question, "Where is all the machine-readable structure information going to come from that these applications and 'bots' will be using."

XBRL is an excellent candidate for describing information, transporting information, and verifying the quality of information.  XBRL is a technology that enables these other technologies.  Keep this in mind as you watch the video.  If you are finding it hard to get your head around what Mr. Kugel is saying, you may want to consider reading Closing the Skills Gap.

More ambitious?  Check out Intelligent XBRL-based Digital Financial Reporting.

Coupling the ideas of robotic finance and the ideas of "lean finance" and you really have something. Another term for the process improvement piece is lean six sigma.  Most people think of lean six sigma in the area of operations.  But the ideas are very useful for processes such as the process of creating a financial report.