XBRL-based Digital Financial Reporting

There are few who are further out into the frontier of  XBRL-based digital financial reporting than I am.  Maybe some are that I am not aware of.  And I am not talking about "bolt on" reporting to regulators that mandate the use of XBRL-based financial reports. What I am talking about is XBRL-based digital financial reporting that accountants want to use because it is better, faster, and cheaper than other approaches. We are not there yet, but we are getting closer. The way you learn truly useful information is to explore, experiment, and evolve. On Wikipedia, in the article Financial Statement ; there is an image of a financial statement of Wachovia National Bank from January 29th, 1906. As a basic example of an XBRL-based digital financial statement, I represented that report using XBRL: I used Pacioli.ai's Luca Suite to create this working prototype example of an XBRL-based digital financial report.  Here are all the technical artifacts: Basic report viewer provi...

An association refers to a relationship or connection between different pieces of information or concepts, things . An association is a fundamental building block of knowledge . Associations all tend to fall into one of the following categories defined below, a specialization of one of these general categories of associations: Association between primitive things or complex things (a.k.a. assemblies of privative things) Categorization association (is-a, type-subtype, wider-narrower, class-subclass) Compositional association (has-a, part-of, whole-part) Aggregational association (summation, mathematical) Navigational association (parent-child) Simile (things that possess similar qualities but are not the same) Equivalence  (one thing is EXACTLY the same as another thing) Property (thing possesses some quality or trait) The following screen shot shows associations represented in the form of a knowledge graph. ( Click here for a larger view ) Additional Information: Theory of Ty...

A reasoner (a.k.a. semantic reasoner , reasoning engine, rules engine, business rules engine , solver) is a special type of software application that is build to infer logical consequences from a set of asserted facts or axioms or rules. To understand what a reasoner is, it helps to understand the difference between imperative programming   and declarative programming . You can understand the difference between imperative and declarative by, say, thinking of how a self driving car might work.  There are perhaps two approaches to giving instructions to a self driving car to, say, get to the airport: Using an imperative approach you're telling the car "Turn right at the next light, then go straight for two miles, then turn left..." You're giving step-by-step instructions, the algorithm , to get from where you are to the airport. Using a declarative approach you're telling the car "Take me to the airport." The car figures out the best route, handles the t...

This blog post is brainstorming the notion of "information packaging" and tries to help technical people understand the underlying business intent when it comes to the notion of what I refer to as a "block". How is information formally packaged within a block or information block. First, as I understand it; there are a number of different ways that information can be provided.  The following is a summary, a spectrum, of those approaches information can be provided and please note that the focus is on providing information , not data.: Fact : Individual piece of information. A fact is one piece of information. List : A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. Table : A table  is an arrangement of information or data, typically in rows and columns, or possibly in a more complex structure. Note that there are two views of tables.  One view is that a table can NOT BE NESTED wit...

An algorithm is a set of steps or instructions or procedures or tasks for solving a problem or accomplishing some goal or objective. A set of steps in an algorithm has a sequence that follows some sort of logical order. Algorithms are good for explaining, understanding, directing, managing.  By breaking down a much larger problem down into smaller, manageable steps you can better understand the problem and create an easier to understand systematic approach to solving that problem or achieving that goal or objective. An algorithm can be implemented in two different ways: (a) write software code called imperative programming, (b) write declarative rules and use a rules engine (a.k.a. reasoner, semantic reasoner , reasoning engine, business rules engine) to process the declarative rules. Understanding the difference between imperative and declarative is important.  You can understand the difference between imperative and declarative by, say, thinking of how a self driving car m...

Information is something that has the power to inform.  Information theory is the scientific study of the quantification, storage, and exchange of information . In his book, Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI , the author Yuval Noah Harari provides a comprehensive explanation of information.  He begins with "stories" and how people first exchanged information by word of mouth.  Then he explains how "lists" and the first " spreadsheets on clay tablets " supplemented stories. Then "documents" created by scribes, how the "printing press" changed things.  Eventually Harari gets to artificial intelligence. Many people tend to use the terms "data" and "information" almost interchangeably. But this era is called the information age and not the data age for a reason.  To communicate more precisely it is important to understand which you are actually talking about. There is a difference ...

Machines and humans interact with information in different ways. Being able to distinguish between the two effectively will help you understand artificial intelligence capabilities more precisely. Machines interpret information according to predefined rules.  Those rules are defined by things like schemas, ontologies,  theories, and rules that have been represented in some sort of machine-readable form.  Machines interpret, they don't actually understand what they are doing. Humans understand information based on context, skills, experience, research, observation, and reasoning. Humans actually know the meaning of something. Humans may even comprehend something which is to understand something completely.  Humans bring meaning to their ability to understand beyond information that is actually provided in the form of intuition and common knowledge that machines simply don't have.  Humans can understand implications, "deeper meaning" from context, experience, sk...

Modern accountancy is both inevitable and imminent. However, it is not predetermined. Instead, modern accountancy will be shaped by the decisions made in the coming years. By making informed choices, we can avoid and prevent undesirable outcomes concerning the needs of business professionals such as accountants, auditors, and analysts. This information contributes to helping you making those informed choices. That is my current best synthesis of my work from the past 26 years. That overview and the few connected pages, about 10 pages, is the best that I can put together at this point in time.  Perhaps you can do better. Traditional spreadsheets like Excel have served accountants well for the past 44+ years.  And traditional spreadsheets will continue to serve professional accountants for years to come for certain specific tasks and processes.  But given the increased volume and complexity of information new tools are necessary and because of technologies such as struct...

In simple terms, intersubjectivity refers to the shared cognitive understanding and mutual knowledge that people have when they communicate information and interact with each other. Intersubjective things exist in the exchange of information. Things like laws, financial reporting rules, the idea of the "corporation", the idea of "countries", the idea of "money" are all intersubjective things that do not exist in nature, but you need that intersubjectivity in order to achieve mutual cognitive agreement and understanding. So if you think of a financial statement. Imagine an "Investor" looking at the notion of "assets" on the financial statement of "Entity A" and also on the financial statement of "Entity B". This system can only be effective if the cognitive understanding of "assets" is the same for all three parties. Mutual understandings of agreement or disagreement. This shared understanding helps people...