Adios! Airways: An Assignment on Mapping Financial Statements to the U.S. GAAP XBRL Taxonomy

2010 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 465-488 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Debreceny ◽  
Stephanie Farewell
Keyword(s):  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Financial Statements ◽  
Securities And Exchange Commission ◽  
Financial Statement ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
Business Reporting ◽  
Instructional Resource ◽  
Mapping Process ◽  
Interactive Data ◽  
The U.S

ABSTRACT: XBRL, based on XML, is an Internet language for disclosure of business reporting language. XBRL is the technological foundation for the interactive data mandate by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The mandate requires corporate filers to disclose data in quarterly and annual reports in XBL. A key building block supporting the mandate is a substantial U.S. GAAP XBRL taxonomy that encapsulates most of the reporting concepts found in financial reporting. Filers must align their existing reports to the taxonomy. The accuracy of mapping financial statement line items to the U.S. GAAP taxonomy is of fundamental importance. Mapping errors may be as simple as mapping to an incorrect taxonomy concept, which should be discovered during review. Ineffective mapping may lead to unnecessary extensions, which hinders comparability. This instructional resource guides students through the steps in mapping financial statement line items to the taxonomy. While the case does not require students to create an extended taxonomy, it does require completion of a spreadsheet detailing the mapping process that is typical of practice. In addition, the resource provides a checklist that users can refer to during the mapping process.

SEC XBRL Filing Requirements: An Instructional Case on Tagging Financial Statement Disclosures

2010 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 489-511 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernest Capozzoli ◽  
Stephanie Farewell
Keyword(s):  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Financial Statements ◽  
Securities And Exchange Commission ◽  
Financial Statement ◽  
Publicly Traded ◽  
Item Level ◽  
Interactive Data ◽  
The U.S

ABSTRACT: On January 20, 2009, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released Rule 33-9002 for the phase-in of interactive data (SEC 2009a). An important component of this rule is the phase-in of detailed tagging of financial statement note disclosures. Tagging is the process of associating a taxonomy element with a financial statement concept for a particular context. While some of the filers have participated in the SEC Voluntary Filing Project and prepared instance documents tagged at the line item level most have not prepared detail-tagged notes to accompany the financial statements (SEC 2005; Choi et al. 2008). This case discusses the structure of disclosures, as they exist in the 2009 U.S. GAAP Taxonomy, followed by a discussion of dimensional extensions and concludes with an example of block and detailed disclosure tagging using Rivet Software’s Dragon Tag (Rivet 2009). The example uses the capitalized costs disclosure for Anadarko Petroleum, a publicly traded company. Following the example, the case requires students to block and detail tag the capitalized costs disclosure for Dig Deep, a hypothetical oil and gas company. By completing the case, students develop an understanding of the current U.S. GAAP taxonomy, skills relating to mapping and tagging processes, and make use of a commonly used XBRL taxonomy and instance document creation program.

IFRS, U.S. GAAP, and XBRL Financial Statements: An Introduction and Case Study

2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kamile Asli Basoglu ◽  
Christopher T. Edmonds ◽  
Clinton E. White
Keyword(s):  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Financial Statements ◽  
Financial Statement ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
Income Statement ◽  
Interactive Data

ABSTRACT Given (a) the mandate to fully comply with “Interactive Data to Improve Financial Reporting,” (Rule 33-2009; SEC 2009b) which requires all SEC registered companies to include financial statements in XBRL format as exhibits with their quarterly or annual reports on a phased-in schedule, and (b) initiations to converge U.S. GAAP and IFRS, it is crucial for students to understand the methodological differences between XBRL financial reporting for these two standards. Therefore, the goal of this case is to expose students to the IFRS and U.S. GAAP XBRL taxonomies. We use the case of a hypothetical company to first illustrate some of the differences between IFRS and U.S. GAAP reporting at the financial statement level, then map its Income Statement line items into respective XBRL taxonomies, and finally create an XBRL instance document. The case provides two exercises to explain the steps in creating an XBRL instance document for different taxonomies, i.e., accessing and then mapping line items into the IFRS and U.S. GAAP taxonomies (Exercise 1) and creating the actual XBRL instance document for U.S. GAAP and IFRS (Exercise 2).

Reporting Technologies and Textual Readability: Evidence from the XBRL Mandate

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xitong Li ◽  
Hongwei Zhu ◽  
Luo Zuo
Keyword(s):  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Financial Statements ◽  
Securities And Exchange Commission ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
Financial Reports ◽  
Public Firms ◽  
Business Reporting ◽  
Perceived Benefit ◽  
Research Opportunity ◽  
Negative Effect

The eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) can standardize numerical disclosures and make it easier for computers to process and compare financial reports. This perceived benefit of XBRL has prompted the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to mandate that public firms must submit financial statements in the XBRL format as part of their financial reports. Leveraging the research opportunity created by the XBRL mandate, we examine whether financial reporting technologies affect how firms construct textual disclosures. We find that the initial adopters’ HTML-formatted annual reports become harder to read after the XBRL mandate. Further analysis reveals that this effect is concentrated among adopters with more quantitative disclosures, a smaller firm size, or a higher level of financial complexity. Importantly, we show that managers’ reduced attention to preparing HTML-formatted annual reports, rather than increased disclosures, is likely the explanation for this decrease in textual readability. We also find that the negative effect on textual readability persists at least in the subsequent year. Our findings suggest that the XBRL adopters need to pay attention to process optimization and technology enablement to mitigate the possible negative effect of XBRL adoption on the readability of financial reports.

Enhancing and Structuring the MD&A to Aid Investors when Using Interactive Data

2012 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve G. Sutton ◽  
Vicky Arnold ◽  
Jean C. Bedard ◽  
Jillian R. Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Focus Groups ◽  
Voluntary Disclosure ◽  
Systems Design ◽  
Financial Statements ◽  
Data Availability ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
Public Companies ◽  
Nonprofessional Investors ◽  
Business Reporting ◽  
Interactive Data

ABSTRACT In 2008, the SEC issued a mandate requiring the use of interactive tagged data (i.e., eXtensible Business Reporting Language, or XBRL) for all public companies' filings of their annual financial statements. However, the SEC put the mandates in place only for the financial statements and accompanying notes. The SEC specifically excluded the use of interactive tagged data for most narrative aspects of annual reports, including Management's Discussion and Analysis (MD&A), deeming current taxonomies for interactive data tagging inadequate. This study leverages upon the efforts of the Enhanced Business Reporting Consortium (EBRC) to develop a more robust taxonomy for the MD&A. The EBRC effort consists of two parts: (1) expanding the scope of qualitative disclosures, and (2) integrating all of the interactive data tags used by companies during the voluntary disclosure period predating the SEC mandate into a comprehensive set of tags for existing MD&A disclosures. Of particular interest in this research is the first aspect of the EBRC effort—an analysis of professional and nonprofessional investors' perspectives on the value of proposed qualitative disclosures and areas in which such investors would desire additional disclosures. We conducted nine focus groups with professional and nonprofessional investors to elicit their information preferences, applying procedures consistent with the “information requirements definition” phase of systems design. Results show that participants are supportive of the EBRC's proposed 31 categories of qualitative disclosures, but also identify 15 additional categories as useful. We augment the focus groups with a survey of 286 investors to assess the relative value of the combined 46 categories. All 46 items appear to be desirable across investor participants. The results have implications for ongoing efforts to expand taxonomies for qualitative data disclosure and for standard-setters considering extensions to MD&A reporting requirements. Data Availability: Contact the corresponding author.

Interoperability of XBRL Financial Statements in the U.S.

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 19-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongwei Zhu ◽  
Harris Wu
Keyword(s):  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Financial Statements ◽  
Securities And Exchange Commission ◽  
Public Companies ◽  
Generally Accepted Accounting Principles ◽  
Business Reporting ◽  
Data Elements ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis ◽  
The U.S

In the wake of the global financial crisis, a pressing need exists for improving investor friendliness, especially the transparency and interoperability of the financial statements of public companies. eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) and XBRL taxonomies can accomplish this objective. In the U.S., the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has mandated that all public companies must file their financial statements using XBRL and the U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) taxonomy according to a phased-in schedule. Are the XBRL-based financial statements interoperable? This question is addressed by analyzing all of the annual XBRL financial statements filed to the SEC as of February 26, 2010. On average, 63% of data elements are not comparable between a pair of statements. The incomparability is partly caused by issues related to the GAAP taxonomy and misuse of the taxonomy by companies. The results have practical implications that will help improve the quality of financial data.

XBRL Mandate: Thousands of Filing Errors and So What?

2013 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hui Du ◽  
Miklos A. Vasarhelyi ◽  
Xiaochuan Zheng
Keyword(s):  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Securities And Exchange Commission ◽  
Data Availability ◽  
Regulatory Body ◽  
Data Reporting ◽  
Interactive Data ◽  
Disclosure Requirement ◽  
A Company ◽  
The U.S

ABSTRACT Since the mandate by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to begin interactive data reporting in June 2009, according to XBRL Cloud, an XBRL product and service provider, more than 4,000 filing errors have been identified. We examine the overall changing pattern of the errors to understand whether the large number of errors may hamper the transition to interactive data reporting. Using a sample of 4,532 filings that contain 4,260 errors, we document a significant learning curve exhibited by the XBRL filers. Specifically, we find that the number of errors per filing is significantly decreasing when a company files more times, suggesting that the company filers or the filing agents many companies use learn from their experiences and therefore the future filings are improved. Our findings provide evidence to encourage the regulatory body, the filers, and the XBRL technology supporting community to embrace the new disclosure requirement in financial reporting. The significantly decreased error pattern also helps address the information users' concerns regarding the data quality of XBRL filings. Data Availability: Data are publicly available from the sources identified in the study.

Comment letters on annual reports: Evidence from an emerging market

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuo Yang
Keyword(s):  
Propensity Score ◽  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Emerging Market ◽  
Securities And Exchange Commission ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
Matched Sample ◽  
Disclosure Quality ◽  
Weak Institutions ◽  
Comment Letters ◽  
The U.S

This paper examines comment letters on firms’ annual reports in an emerging market. The literature primarily focuses on comment letters issued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), although many other market regulators also use SEC-style comment letters. Comment letters can potentially be very impactful in emerging markets due to weak institutions and low disclosure quality in these markets. Using comment letters in China from 2015 to 2019, I find that the market response to the receipt of comment letters is significantly negative and associated with the severity of the comment letters. The receipt (severity) of comment letters is associated with adverse regulatory consequences, CEO turnover, corrective actions to remedy financial reporting, and poor future financial performance in the propensity score matched sample (recipient sample). Overall disclosure quality in the post-review year does not increase, but some comment letter topics prompt topic-specific financial reporting changes.

Flex or Break? Extensions in XBRL Disclosures to the SEC

2011 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 631-657 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger S. Debreceny ◽  
Stephanie M. Farewell ◽  
Maciej Piechocki ◽  
Carsten Felden ◽  
Andre Gräning ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Financial Statements ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Securities And Exchange Commission ◽  
Reporting Practices ◽  
Business Reporting ◽  
Disclosure Requirements ◽  
New Concepts ◽  
Information Consumers ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Made In

SYNOPSIS The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has adopted the eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) in a multi-year program to enhance the functionality of the Commission's EDGAR database. Filers tag their financial statements with elements from a taxonomy that defines the reporting concepts so that the XBRL files can be understood by information consumers. The U.S. GAAP taxonomy was designed to represent common reporting practices and support the disclosure requirements of U.S. GAAP. If taxonomy elements for each disclosure concept are not present, the filer creates an extension element. Extensions, when used appropriately, provide decision-relevant information. When used inappropriately, particularly when a semantically equivalent element already exists in the foundation taxonomy, extensions add no information content. This research analyzes extensions made in a subset of XBRL filings made to the SEC between April 2009 and June 2010. Forty percent of these extensions were unnecessary, as semantically equivalent elements were already in the U.S. GAAP taxonomy. Extensions that aggregated or disaggregated existing elements comprised 21 percent of the extensions. New concepts accounted for 30 percent of the extensions, although many were variants of existing elements, rather than significantly new concepts.

scholarly journals Users’ Perspective of Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) in India

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Raghavendra Raju ◽  
B. Mahadevappa
Keyword(s):  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Electronic Communication ◽  
Financial Statements ◽  
Financial Data ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Business Reporting ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Qualitative Characteristics

There has been a paradigm shift in financial reporting after the introduction of Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL). XBRL is a language for electronic communication of business and financial data. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs of Government of India has mandated e-filing of annual reports for certain class of companies in XBRL format from April 1, 2011. Now, more than 1 lakh companies are filing their financial statements through XBRL. The purpose of this paper is to know the users’ awareness about XBRL. The sample for the study includes 76 users. Research instrument was constructed to collect the primary data from the respondents. Hypothesis was tested to know the difference in the users’ perspective about XBRL. The results of the study were presented in five qualitative characteristics: understandability, reliability, relevance, comparability, and timeliness. The results of the paper indicate that there is more understandability, reliability, and relevance of financial statements among the users along with easier comparison of XBRL reports across companies.

Do Quarterly and Annual Financial Statements Reflect Similar Financial Statement Error in the Post-SOX Era?

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-31
Author(s):  
Erik S. Boyle ◽  
Melissa F. Lewis-Western ◽  
Timothy A. Seidel
Keyword(s):  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Financial Statements ◽  
Data Availability ◽  
Financial Statement ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
Fiscal Year ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Financial Reports ◽  
Quality Reporting ◽  
Public Company

ABSTRACT The U.S. has invested substantial resources into the regulation and oversight of public-company financial reporting. While these investments should incentivize high-quality reporting among quarterly and annual financial statements, the sharp rise in public company auditor oversight may disproportionately benefit annual reports given the fiscal year-centric nature of audits. We compare the within company-year difference in financial statement error between quarterly and annual financial reports and examine how any difference changed following SOX. We find that pre-SOX error is lower for audited financial statements than for reviewed financial statements and that this difference increases following SOX. Additional tests suggest that elevated auditor oversight, rather than managerial incentives, is the impetus for the change. Despite regulatory investment designed to incentivize the production of high-quality quarterly and annual financial statements, the post-SOX difference in error between quarterly and annual financial statements appears to have increased. Data Availability: Data are available from public sources cited in the text. JEL Classifications: M41; M42.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document