IFRS for SMEs XBRL Taxonomy 2024 + Enhancements

The following is information about the IFRS for SMEs XBRL Taxonomy for 2024.

Here is a basic rendering of the officially published version of the IFRS for SMEs XBRL taxonomy for 2024. This is the web page for the taxonomy on the IFRS Foundation web site. This is a machine-readable XML infoset generated by an XBRL processor of the XBRL presentation relations.

A problem with the officially published IFRS for SMEs XBRL Taxonomy is that it tends to be an incomplete human-readable "pick list" of information (primarily for humans to read) rather than a machine-readable knowledge graph (primarily for machines to read and process).

As such, I took the officially published IFRS for SMEs XBRL taxonomy for 2024 and enhanced it.  The first step was to provide an enhanced version of the core information similar to what the IFRS Foundation provided in the officially published version but more consistently and explicitly organized.  Here is that:

Next, I supplemented the official information  provided in the official taxonomy with additional  "semantic scaffolding" that can help software interact with that XBRL taxonomy.  What I added included: (All these files are provided using the global standard XBRL and readable by software applications or read by humans using off-the-shelf software.)
  • A placeholder for adding interpretations of IFRS for SMEs (more of this will be added later).  See, commentary-ifrs-for-smes-lab.xml.
  • A complete set of mathematical relations using XBRL formula to supplement the partial set provided by the official version.  See, report-for.xml and ifrs-smes-enhanced-for.xml.
  • A machine readable list of topics covered by the XBRL taxonomy.  See, topics.xsd.
  • An explicit list of disclosure names in the XBRL taxonomy.  See, disclosures.xsd.
  • An explanation as to what topic each disclosure relates.  See, disclosures-with-topics.xml.
  • Explicit information about the high level fundamental accounting concepts found within IFRS for SMEs.  See, fac.xsd.
  • Information about the different reporting styles that can be used to create a financial statement using IFRS for SMEs (preliminary information only at this time). See, reporting-styles-cm-ref.xml.
  • Information about the types and subtypes (a.k.a. wider-narrower or general-special or classes-subclasses) of the information in the IFRS for SMEs.  See HIGHLEVEL-TYPES-def.xml and type-subtype.xsd.
  • Explicit information about disclosures and best practice information relating to how to construct a disclosure. dm.xsd.
  • Explicit information about the reportability of a disclosure, when a disclosure is required to be provided.  See, reporting-checklist-testing-def.xml. (working prototype)
  • Explicit information about the specific relationships between high-level fundamental accounting concepts and how to derive a high-level concept should a concept not be explicitly reported within the financial statement.  See this example for one reporting style, IFRS-SMEs-BSC-ISF-CF1-OCIN_schema.xsd.
  • Explicit information that explains how the XBRL report model must be configured.  See, model-structure-rules-strict-def.xml. 
The enhancements are not totally complete yet, but the above should give you a taste of where I am going with the enhancements. Keep in mind that what you see above is only scratching the surface.

But you will not have a full appreciation of the additional semantic scaffolding which I have added until you see with your own eyes what that information can help software achieve.  You can get a little bit of an idea by trying the Auditchain Labs AG Luca Suite basic report viewer.  You might get even more of an appreciation if you look  at the Auditchain Labs AG Pacioli.ai report verification technical report.

This sort of machine interpretable semantic scaffolding is a lot like software; it is created once and then it can be used many, many times.  Accountants will learn, over time, what this means.  I am providing information to accountants as best that I can using mechanisms such as this Professional Study Group for Digital Financial Reporting.

Think about what this means. These are older examples but demonstrate what you can do with the right semantic scaffolding, World's First Standards Based Expert System for Creating Financial Reports.  I am not calling this model-driven standards based semantic oriented artificial intelligence powered financial reporting.


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