Anatomy of an Information Block

I have done my best to explain/describe what an information block (a.k.a. block, fact set) is and what it does.  The best summary is here at this blog post, Core Pattern. Another explanation is in the document Blocks. This Master Class in Representing Financial Statement Logic Using XBRL represents the exact same information 10 different ways using XBRL where the information itself does not change,  only the XBRL technical syntax used to represent the information changes. Why are those 10 different examples important? Because they really help you get your head around the notion of the information block.

Anything in an information block that is not made explicit is therefore implicit which means that you are allowing anyone and everyone to make whatever assumptions they choose to make. Implying something and making incorrect assumptions lead to defects in interpretation of information and the assumptions are a source and of confusion, misunderstanding, and conflicts in understanding.  As such; being implicit and making the assumptions is something that should be avoided; being explicit is preferable.

Said another way, to avoid confusion, misunderstandings, miscommunications, and the conflicts in understanding and defects that can result from such assumptions; assumptions should be avoided wherever possible.  To avoid having to make assumptions, everything should be made explicit such that users of information blocks within an XBRL-based report don’t need to make assumptions because the rules of information blocks are crystal clear.

That said, this is how information blocks work today.

An information block is a derived logical artifact.  There is nothing in XBRL that explains what an information block is or how they work.  But information blocks are there in XBRL-based reports. An analysis of 6,751 XBRL-based financial reports submitted to the SEC by public companies shows this with clarity. This analysis was repeated multiple times.  It all started with my analysis of the fundamental accounting concepts used by public companies to report their financial information. That analysis expanded and what I learned was synthesized into my Seattle Method.

That analysis resulted in the synthesis of this table which helps you understand how to identify the different types of information block models.  Every information block has an information model.  That information model is defined by the concept arrangement pattern and the member arrangement pattern.

Below you see an example of an information block.  You see the human readable rendering (a.k.a. the projection) on the LEFT and you see the structure of the model on the RIGHT.  The red box on the RIGHT is the concept arrangement pattern, in the case of this information block it is a ROLL UP.  The blue box on the RIGHT shows the member arrangement pattern which is a difference (a.k.a. variance).

Kurt Cagle, see his Substack here, provided me with the "language" that I need to explain information blocks.  An information block is what is known as a holon. A holon is a special type of knowledge graph in that it simultaneously describes a whole and the parts of that whole.  A financial statement is a holon in that it is a container of information blocks, it is a collection of information blocks, and it is a summary of information about business events represented as financial transactions aggregated/disaggregated at different levels of granularity.  You don't get to see the actual financial transactions which represent those business events unless you are (a) internal to the reporting economic entity or (b) the reporting economic entity makes that information available to you.  When you have all the information available, then you can trace or track and otherwise navigate around in the information and have a clear record of provenance indicating where information came from.

To provide this level of capability, governance of the moving puzzle pieces is essential. Epistemic risk must be managed.

Part of the governance and management of epistemic risk is minimizing the need to make assumptions.  This is achieved by being explicit, being clear. The more explicitly the anatomy of an information block is and the more clear the anatomy of a financial statement is, and the information block that financial statement contains; the better the system will work.

And so I ask; exactly why can't information blocks be made explicit and clear?

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