Road Map
We are building out support for using XBRL to assure validation control of corporate financial information in organizations of all sizes. This document reviews the road map for our current and future work so the benefits of XBRL can be applied to internal management reporting not just regulatory reporting.
The current core code supports analysing and reporting data made available in XBRL instance documents and interrogating taxonomies that conform to the XBRL 2.1 and XBRL Dimensions 1.0 specifications. It is able to support all taxonomies and provides examples of accessing data in documents created to adhere to the rules of the US and UK GAAP taxonomies.
This code is not only focused on providing a competent and robust implementation of the XBRL specifications. XBRL has been created with the aim making sure the financial data and its interrelationships can be described accurately to facilitate sharing and validation. However, XBRL has not been created with the thought about the need organizations have to process data efficiently as well. So a focus of the core is to optimise the performance when processing XBRL taxonomy and instance documents (the name of the files containing the actual financial data values).
The XBRL process includes support for Formulas. This includes the Variables and Generics specifications.
Rendering*
It is now possible to generate renderings of instance documents and taxonomies. Renderings are produced based on information in instance documents, along with presentation and definition linkbases. Rendering of the structure of any presentation linkbases is also provided.
Wordpress plugin
Currently the project can be installed using Composer. However, to do anything this approach requires the ability to program using PHP. Wouldn't it be better if prospective users can begin using this project on a web site without the need to know about PHP? Yes, it would.
The WordPress plugin will allow the XBRL processor to be used within any WordPress site just by adding a plugin like any other WordPress plugin. The plugin will allow users to display a UI that allows a user to work with taxonomies and instance documents. In subsequent versions it will also allow users to create reports and generate pivot tables.
National regulators such as HMRC in the UK or the US SEC have created manuals documenting the rules the data submitted by companies must follow. These are in addition to the rules embedded in the taxonomies but which take advantage of the rich and unambiguous labels provided in each taxonomy. Examples of these additional rules include the Global Filing Manual (GFM), the Edgar Filing Manual, the European Banking Authority Data Point Model and so on.
Organizations may also need additional validation checks performed against internal data to ensure consistency and accuracy. The extensible nature of the validation system will ensure companies can use all or some of the publicly available additional validation rules or create their own private validation rules. For example, these rules might check numbers for consistency and that disclosures exists but also enforce corporate governance rules or technical standards for sharing data.
Table linkbase
XBRL is a collection of specifications built around the base XBRL 2.1 such as the Dimensions 1.0 specification.
One of the specification is that for table linkbases that allows control over the rendering of tables (reports).
Database schema generation
Once facts in instance documents can be accessed in context then recording those facts in a database is technically simple. However, the target database may not include the same rich context that is available making the data less reliable for the consumers. A goal is to generate relational database schemas for any taxonomy so not only can facts be recorded in a normalized relational format but the metadata contained in the taxonomy can be recorded as well. This will make it possible for database queries to retrieve facts with the same rich context.
Taxonomy authoring
A benefit of using XBRL is giving corporate controllers the ability to define taxonomies that are specific to the business needs of their organizations. The publicly available taxonomies such as that created by the US FASB for SEC submissions may be suitable for some US companies but its focus is on the needs of external, regulatory reporting by any public US companies. It may be overkill for most internal reporting needs on one hand but too generic on another.
This goal is to allow controllers the ability to define their own taxonomies. Building from an existing, perhaps public, taxonomy if one exists or creating one from a template. In this way, controllers will be able to create taxonomies for budgeting, forecasting, cash control, etc. that are specific to the needs of their business. Group controllers will be able to specify a core taxonomy that can be used and extended by controllers in subsidiary businesses.
For example, controllers in a group investment company will be able to define, in the form of an XBRL taxonomy, the financial and other information required from investee or joint venture companies. The group controllers will be able to validate the data provided to ensure those investment companies are providing the correct set of information. Those companies, which will already have a process to produce XBRL instance documents for their own regulatory reporting, will be able to use that process to produce specific instance documents for the group company.
Instance document generation
An instance document is a collection of related facts. In public regulatory filings instance documents are files, specifically, files that use an XML format. But an instance document does not need to be a file. It is a collection of data surrounded by an agreed set of facts and may be the result of a database query that has only brief existence in the memory of a computer for the purposes of performing a series of validation checks.