Foundation (Understanding of XBRL)

This is a summary of information and resources for someone just getting started with XBRL or who wants to refactor their understanding of XBRL.  Be sure to have read about the need for digital proficiency and about Informatics of Accountancy before you think about XBRL.

Recognize that XBRL is just an extra fancy approach to representing a knowledge graph. Once you have that knowledge represented, you have to be able to process that knowledge in the knowledge graph if you want to do anything useful. Moving properly articulated logic from one technical format to some other technical format is trivial.

Foundation:

As a starting point, have a look at the information in this zip archive, Foundation.zip.

Empty XBRL: (99.61-TestCase-empty-xbrl.xml)

A first thing to understand is the core "stuff" in an XBRL file.  That can be best understood by looking at an "empty" report model and report. Here are all those files for an empty XBRL report model and report. One key point here is that a totally empty XBRL-based report (no facts, no report elements defined, no labels, no references, no relations, no XBRL formulas) is perfectly legal XBRL.  Start your mental trip there.  This step helps you understand the puzzle pieces.

Hello World: (81-TestCase-helloworld.xml)

Here is a Hello World example of an XBRL-based report. It has all the basic moving parts of XBRL and it helps you get your hands dirty with a small report model and small report. This report has one structure.

SFAC 6: (71-TestCase-sfac6-BS1-IS1.xml)

Here is the SFAC 6 example of an XBRL-based report which has three structures.

Other High Quality Examples (index.xml)

This is an ultra high quality set of example XBRL-based report models and reports.  This is effectively a conformance suite of XBRL-based reports that are correct, demonstrating all the different capabilities of the XBRL technical syntax.  The Showcase of Reports is another excellent source of examples.

Repository of Reports (Dashboard.html)

This is a prototype repository of XBRL-based reports.  You can read a list of reports and extract information from those reports.  This repository is small, but it gets several important points across when it comes to making use of XBRL-based information.

Very Basic XBRL Technical Primer:

This is a Very Basic XBRL Technical Primer that gets you going with the XBRL technical syntax should you be interested in those details.

Essentials of XBRL-based Digital Financial Reporting:

This is the best version of Essentials of XBRL-based Digital Financial Reporting (Platinum) This is the first step on your journey to mastery of XBRL-based reporting.

Understanding the Seattle Method:

This is the best information for understanding the Seattle Method. Here is the full set of resources. The PROOF is the best approach to understanding the technical details.  If you want the SUPER PROOF, please contact me.

Mastering XBRL-based Digital Financial Reporting:

This set of documents, Mastering XBRL-based Digital Financial Reporting, is the best collection of information and resources regarding XBRL-based digital financial reporting that I have, organized and synthesized into one set of documents and links.

Multiple Technology Stacks:

Multiple technology stacks are a fact of life.  XBRL is an information exchange format (syntax); one of many.  Each technical format has a set of PROS and a set of CONS.  No technical format is perfect. Being able to move bidirectionally between technical formats is useful.

Additional Information:

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