vrijdag 15 juli 2011

XBRL (2)

Today offered a new opportunity to dive into XBRL. This time I concentrated on Taxonomies. What are taxonomies?

1. What is a taxonomy?
Basically, a taxonomy defines [u]what[/u/ should be in a report. The taxonomy is not the report itself, and it does not define the layout. It does define the elements that should be reported.

2. What about the layout of a report?
For the layout you can define a stylesheet.

3. What are the properties of elements in a taxonomy?
- data type:
- period
- balance
- nillable
That does not include any relations between elements, for that we have links.

4. What are the properties of links?
- references
- labels
- presentation
- versioning
- definition
The term presentation is slightly misleading, as it suggests it defines the way an element is shown. Actually it defines the place and sequence in which elements should be shown.

4. What is a linkbase?
A linkbase is simply a collection of links.

An element without links is called an unbound element.

Short descriptions:

  • A reference link describes the relation between an element and the reporting standard such as IFRS
  • A label link describes a link to a humanly readable description. For example, machines may not have trouble in using ifrs-ci_CashCashEquivalents, humans usually prefer something like Current Assets Label links may depend on the role of a link. One of the usages of role is to provide description in different languages. Another is to make a difference in description depending on value, for example loss for negative values and profit for positive values.
  • A presentation link can not be used for layout, but can be used for defining relations between elements. Examples are Parent-child, or Order-Orderline. Another usage is to define the requirements that the presence of element A requires the presence of element B.
  • The versioning link is used to define the changes in a taxonomy over time.
  • The Calculation link describe show values of elements should be added or subtracted. It creates a relation between a summation element and a contributing element. It can be used as the base for the Formula linkbase.
    An example of a calculation link:
    <link:calculationLink xlink:type="simple" xlink:role="http://www.example.com/">
    <link:documentation>string
    </link:calculationLink>


5. What is a dimensional taxonomy?
A dimensional taxonomy allows the user to group data according to different dimensions. Examples are reporting by product (group), by geographic region, and by period.
Defining such taxonomies is not easy and may lead to high implementation costs.

vrijdag 8 juli 2011

XBRL (1)

Just this week I heard that I might be assigned to an XBRL projecty, so time to have a look at it.
A fellow worker, Paul Diddnes, was kind enough to lend me "XBRL 4 dummies", by Charles Hoffman. This post contains the gist of what looks most important to me. In addition, I read some other stuff, mentioned at the end of this post.

1. What is XBRL?
Basically, XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) is a data interchange format, based on XML, and used in financial / business information. It is used widely by US SEC, and is also used by governments in the Netherlands (mainly Belastingdienst), Australia, Japan, India, China, and so on.
You may also think of XBRL as a reporting language, and the language defines meaning to its elements through something called taxonomies.

2. What are the advantages?
Current IT systems do exchange information, over a variety of protocols, in many different formats. XML is on the rise, but there are still many systems around that use apis and system specific formats.

3.Is it a fad? After all, it has been around for a while, and i don't hear any real success stories.
The book does not go into this, but I don't think this will go away soon. Many IT systems still use their own couplings: use tables directly, or views on its tables, export .csv files, exchange xls files, or any commons file format, or exchange custom handshake formats, apis, and are barely making the step to webservices and xml. This is the current step, and using XBRL is an extra step. Companies are not yet up to this step. Also, the early adoption by regulatory institutions, does not add to its popularity. It is perceived as an obligation, not as an opportunity.

4. What is a taxonomy?
A taxonomy can be regarded as a dictionary, and defines the meaning of the concepts. Examples of concepts are Net income, Sales, and so on.

5, Can you give an example?
Sure.
<gaap:NetIncomeOrLoss
contextRef="Period-2011"
unitRef="Euros"
decimals="Infinite">12345
</gaap:NetIncomeOrLoss>

<gaap:NetIncomeOrLoss : Gives a concept from the taxonomy gaap
contextRef: gives some context of the value 12345, in this case the period.
12345: the NetIncomeOrLoss
</gaap:NetIncomeOrLoss> : closing of the tag. Like in XML, every tag should be opened and closed.
unitRef: the currency of the value.

6. Are there any success stories?
Actually, yes. US Federal Deposit Insurance Company was an early adopter, and took time to collect and communicate information about its XBRL implementation.
They realized:
* TCO down from $65M to $39M, saving $26M
* Reduce time for making information available from 45 days to 2 days

7. Whats that about semantics?
We have syntax and semantics. Syntax is about form, semantics is about meaning. The example above shows form: 1 atom, one tag with data. Semantics is about meaning. That is why XBRL has context. Of course the example above still does not give you all the context you would like, without taxonomy available, you don't know it its expected or realized, and from which company or organization.
The taxonomy does allow rules: Assets MUST equal total liabilities PLUS total equity.