1. 1IMA’s 94th Annual Conference
© 2013 Institute of Management Accountants. All rights reserved.
Find the Accounting in XBRL
Accounting Discovery Available for Free
Presenter: Neal J. Hannon, CMA
Executive Director, WebPro Missouri Consulting

2. Three Learning Objectives
• Identify the Accounting Underlying XBRL
• Expand the Digital Perspective of Accountants
• Demonstrate Free Online Tools for Accountants
2IMA’s 94th Annual Conference
© 2013 Institute of Management Accountants. All rights reserved.

3. XBRL Committee Encouraged by SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt's Recommendation
That It be Expanded and Used by Investors and Companies
Business Wire, Oct 30, 2000
Business Editors
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 30, 2000
In remarks last week, Arthur Levitt, Chairman of the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC),
acknowledged XBRL and recommended its further development to turn financial statements
into meaningful information for investors using this new revolutionary technology.
Chairman Levitt's remarks were made at the American Institute of Certified Public
Accountants' (AICPA) Fall Council Meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 24, 2000.
First SEC Mention of XBRL

4. Fr. SEC Chief Accountant
Lynn Turner
“I support XBRL. In fact, I wrote the comment for
Chairman Levitt’s speech. But please tell
everyone you talk to about XBRL that you must
Get the Accounting Right!”

5. Accounting
Goes Digital

6. Do You Remember Vinyl Records?
Had to Play
from start to
finish
Record could be damaged if you attempted
to play a specific track.

7. Likewise , Financial statements,
notes and disclosures..
Vinyl Records And Disclosures

8. The technology dramatically changed how we relate to music
and gave us the power to select individual cuts suited to
musical tastes and preferences
Then Came Digital Music
•Individual Tracks Separated
•Choose Your Own Order for Play
•Start and Stop

9. What can digital
data do?

10. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0YifXhm-Zc

12. George Martin and the Beatles
 The task
 Collect, identify, classify the entire set of music created
by the Beatles
 Using master tapes, break out the riffs
 Re-configure music into digital sound bytes
 The results
 New Music.. The Beatles Love Album

13. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzG5O6EUSgw

14. The SEC and Interactive Data
 The task
 Collect, identify, classify the entire set of GAAP created
by US Authoritative Sources of GAAP
 Using financial statement hierarchy, break out the
elements into an XBRL taxonomy
 Re-configure accounting into digital bytes
 The results
 New Filings.. The SEC Interactive Data initiative in
XBRL

15. Digital Data Fundamentally
Changes
the paper-based
reporting paradigm

16. CAN YOU SPELL…..
XBRL
16

17. External
Financial
Reporting
Business
Operations
Internal
Financial
Reporting
Investment,
Lending,
Regulation
Processes Economic
Policymaking
Participants
Auditors
Trading
Partners
Investors
Financial
Publishers
and Data
Aggregators
Regulators
Software Vendors
Management
Accountants
Companies
Central
Banks
XBRLXBRL XBRLXBRL
XBRL for G/L
Journal Entry
Reporting
XBRL for Financial
Statements
Scope and Role of XBRL

18. Who is using XBRL ?
Kim Wallin, Controller, State of Nevada and Former
Chair, IMA
 In 2007, Wallin begin considering XBRL as a
solution to grant reporting, and when the
Department of Agriculture asked for help with
their reporting, Deloitte was brought in and two of
Agriculture's grants were selected for the XBRL
pilot.

19. "The goals were timely and accurate data,“
said Wallin, "stronger internal controls,
reduced costs, a standardized system of
seamless data exchange, business processes
and data elements. XBRL met all
of those goals."

20. US GAAP Taxonomy
Development Effort
FAF, XBRL US
GAAP,
SEC Regulations
Codification project
Audit check lists
Internal and public
testing
XBRL
protocols
Taxonomy
Release
CFO
Investor Relations
Current
Reporting Practice
Key concept:
Create a Data model
Analysts
Investors

21. Accounting.. Hidden for
Decades
EXPOSED!

25. Let’s Find Out Where the
Accounting is Hiding

26. The Touchstone SEC Verification
Suite provides independent
assurance for your XBRL filings
XBRL CLOUD’s EDGAR DASHBOARD

27. Paper Based US GAAP

28. Digitizing Accounting
1. US GAAP
2. Examples of Financial Reporting
3. External Auditor check lists
4. Expert Financial Preparers
Then chop into consumable pieces
Gather

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Standard Label
Standard label in English:
Net Revenue
Standard label in XBRL:
us-gaap:SalesRevenueServicesNet

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Definition

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Authoritative Reference

32. The Meta Data Counts
 So.. If a filing contains a label that is further described by a
definition and a reference, the computer referencing the item will
have all three pieces of information as discoverable meta data
 Label
 Definition
 Reference

33. Principles
GAAP accommodates variation in applied
accounting methods as long as the methods
generally conform to GAAP’s set of principles…..
This drives computers crazy!

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Let’s Look at Accounting!
Accounting can be found in the taxonomy
• Accounting structure is in the linkbases
• Definitions are explicit, not implied
• Authoritative literature is linked
• Taxonomy elements are highly vetted by FASB, SEC,
Public reviews

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•XBRL Cloud’s EDGAR Dashboard: Features a quick
guide to recent SEC filings including and in-depth look at
the accounting definitions and authoritative literature
backing each element chosen. Use the interactive viewer
to see the accounting. All company filings are visible
which allows you to see how companies are mapping
actual reporting to the official US GAAP taxonomy.
•WebFiling’s Taxonomy Analyzer: Type in an accounting
concept and you will see all the XBRL elements
associated with the concept, a view of where it appears
in financial statements and a method for seeing what
other elements in the taxonomy are closely related. In
the comparative mode, the taxonomy analyzer allows
you to view the accounting treatments of up to five
companies side by side.
Free Accounting Tools!

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•The BRIX Project app for the IPhone. This tool can be
used to do some very cool things. First, you can look up
accounting concepts, and then you can ask the app to
find companies that are using the concept in actual
filings. Pull out your smart phone and dial up the
accounting treatment of your choice.
•ASKaRef is an online tool for accountants to discover
the link between an accounting concept and the XBRL
definition and the ASC. This very easy to use tool has
the US GAAP 2012 taxonomy as the base for finding
the accounting linkage. The beauty of the tool is how
quickly you can find the ASC that backs up the
taxonomy. Straight forward link from accounting
concept to taxonomy element to ASC. No actual
financial reporting can be seen with this tool.
More Accounting tools!

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•XBRL.US’s taxonomy viewer was developed by
CoreFilings and features a pre-load of the world’s most
popular taxonomies. Curious about IFRS reporting?
The Yeti tool will allow you to load the IFRS taxonomy
and explore concepts. A preview of the new XBRL US
GAAP taxonomy (SEC pending) is now available.
•FASB’s Implementation guides and reference guide:
From the FASB.org website, “The objective of the U.S.
GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy (UGT)
Implementation and Reference Guides is to provide
preparers with additional insight and supplemental
guidance for utilizing the UGT as they create their
XBRL documents.” The guide can also be used by non-
taxonomy accountants to discover how to implement
new ASC pronouncements.
•XBRL.US XBRL Challenge entries. For the past three
years, XBRL US and sponsors have offered a challenge
to the financial community to create innovative tools
using XBRL. The results can be found on the link
above. An example of a winning entry is the 2012
winner CalcBench, a free online benchmarking and
industry analysis tool.
Even More Tools!

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US GAAP Taxonomy 2013

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FASB’s XBRL

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Path to the Taxonomy's Accounting
•FASB.org; click on FASB XBRL
•Click on “taxonomy view”, then
‘Entire 2013 US GAAP Financial
Reporting Taxonomy’
Once there, type “cash” into search
box

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Yeti – A Taxonomy Reader

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SEC’s Interactive Data Site

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XBRL US Site

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XBRL Cloud’s ClearScore Verification

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WebFilings Taxonomy Analyzer

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The Codification of US GAAP
US GAAP was contained in over 12
publications of official and semi-
official GAAP prior to the 2005-7
effort to place all US GAAP into an
electronic index called ACS.
Access to the ACS is either public
or professional. Professional
access is a paid service.

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Accounting Standards Codification

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FASB Implementation Guides

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OCI Guide – Taxonomy Elements

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Ask A Ref.com

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XBRL US Smart Phone App

55. I Would like to thank…
Mike Willis, Eric Cohen PWC
Glen Gray Cal State Northridge
Liv Watson WebFilings, XBRL.org
Roger Debreceny U of Hawaii
Charlie Hoffman Consultant
Paul Penler E&Y
Zane Swanson University of Central Oklahoma
Walter Hamscher S.E.C.
56

56. Three Key Takeaways
• Accounting is the Foundation for Digital Business Reporting
• Every Accountant Can Take Advantage of the Accounting in
XBRL
• Free Tools are Available, Use Them!
57IMA’s 94th Annual Conference
© 2013 Institute of Management Accountants. All rights reserved.

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Questions?
Thank You
nhannon@gmail.com