Interoperability of XBRL Financial Statements in the U.S.

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 19-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongwei Zhu ◽  
Harris Wu

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.

Author(s):  
Hongwei Zhu ◽  
Harris Wu

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.


2011 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 631-657 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger S. Debreceny ◽  
Stephanie M. Farewell ◽  
Maciej Piechocki ◽  
Carsten Felden ◽  
Andre Gräning ◽  
...  

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.


2010 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 465-488 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Debreceny ◽  
Stephanie Farewell

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.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Hendra Tanjung

Various countries globally have widely used eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) technology for the financial reporting of public companies. However, studies on the sophistication of XBRL technology and its potential for improving the quality of disclosure have not been widely reviewed. This paper examines this matter with the literature review method, and conclusions are prepared based on qualitative analysis. The XBRL-based reporting system has many advantages compared to the previous reporting system, including faster data transfer, efficiency, and others. In addition, the tag system in XBRL allows users to know more details about the information conveyed. The tag system allows users to search for relevant information and easily compare with different companies. Therefore, the management practice of disclosing financial statements and financial statements is presented explicitly to users of financial statements. Thus, the sophistication of a reporting system based on information technology XBRL can increase transparency and better disclosure.


2002 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Bovee ◽  
Michael L. Ettredge ◽  
Rajendra P. Srivastava ◽  
Miklos A. Vasarhelyi

XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) is an application of XML (eXtensible Markup Language) intended for use in digital business reporting. Observers predict XBRL will provide benefits to firms that adopt it, such as enhancing information use, facilitating comparability and consistency, and providing technological capability for near-continuous financial reporting through the Web. However, questions arise regarding how well the proposed taxonomy for financial statements corresponds to firms' preferred reporting practices. We argue that a poor fit may lead to information loss and to subsequent resistance to use or general adoption of the taxonomy. A lack of fit could therefore negate anticipated firm or information-user benefits. To address this issue, we assess how well the year 2000 version, for financial reporting by commercial and industrial (C&I) firms under U.S. GAAP, accommodates current financial-reporting practices of public companies. We attempt to match each line item in the 1999 annual financial statements of 67 companies with an XBRL taxonomy “tag,” employing two measures of the frequency of “special attention” (difficult-to-match) items as indicators of the quality of “fit” between the taxonomy and firms' reporting practices. Analyses show a good fit on average, but also indicate significant differences in the number and proportion of exceptions across financial statements and industries. In light of these results, we suggest modifications to the taxonomy and discuss the need for industry-specific taxonomies.


2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-169
Author(s):  
Alberto Fuertes ◽  
Jose María Serena

Purpose This paper aims to investigate how firms from emerging economies choose among different international bond markets: global, US144A and Eurobond markets. The authors explore if the ranking in regulatory stringency –global bonds have the most stringent regulations and Eurobonds have the most lenient regulations – leads to a segmentation of borrowers. Design/methodology/approach The authors use a novel data set from emerging economy firms, treating them as consolidated entities. The authors also obtain descriptive evidence and perform univariate non-parametric analyses, conditional and multinomial logit analyses to study firms’ marginal debt choice decisions. Findings The authors show that firms with poorer credit quality, less ability to absorb flotation costs and more informational asymmetries issue debt in US144A and Eurobond markets. On the contrary, firms issuing global bonds – subject to full Securities and Exchange Commission requirements – are financially sounder and larger. This exercise also shows that following the global crisis, firms from emerging economies are more likely to tap less regulated debt markets. Originality/value This is, to the authors’ knowledge, the first study that examines if the ranking in stringency of regulation – global bonds have the most stringent regulations and Eurobonds have the most lenient regulations – is consistent with an ordinal choice by firms. The authors also explore if this ranking is monotonic in all determinants or there are firm-specific features which make firms unlikely to borrow in a given market. Finally, the authors analyze if there are any changes in the debt-choice behavior of firms after the global financial crisis.


2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 1161-1184
Author(s):  
Josimar Pires Da Silva ◽  
Mariana Pereira Bonfim ◽  
Rafael Martins Noriller ◽  
Carlos Vicente Berner

AbstractThe objective of this research is to verify the level of relationship between the mechanisms of corporate governance and the performance of the companies of the public subsector, listed on BM&FBovespa. The research was based on the financial statements from 2010 to 2014, obtained on the BM&FBovespa website, resulting in a sample of 63 companies with 315 observations. In order to calculate the performance proxy of the company, the ROA was used, and for the calculation of the proxies of the corporate governance mechanisms were used for the quality of the audit, the concentration of ownership in common shares and preferred shares, participation in the levels of governance of BM&FBovespa, number of shares held by the government and number of directors in the Board, adapted from the Mollah and Zaman (2015) survey. Convergence with national and international research, the findings of the study showed that such variables as quality of profit, concentration of ownership in preferred shares, participation in governance levels and size of the Board are positively related to the performance of the company; already a concentration of ownership in common shares and number of shares held by the government are negatively related to performance. For future reference, it is recommended to expand other sectors of the market as well as to use other mechanisms of corporate governance, presented in the literature.Keywords: Corporate Governance. Performance. Public Subsector.Mecanismos de governança corporativa e desempenho: análise das companhias do subsetor de utilidade pública listadas na BM&FBovespa Resumo O objetivo da pesquisa foi o de verificar o nível de relação entre os mecanismos de governança corporativa e o desempenho das empresas do subsetor de utilidade pública, listadas na BM&FBovespa. A pesquisa teve como base os dados das demonstrações financeiras de 2010 a 2014, obtidas no sítio eletrônico da BM&FBovespa, resultando assim, em uma amostra de 63 empresas, com 315 observações. Para o cálculo da proxy de desempenho da empresa foi utilizado o ROA, e para o cálculo das proxies dos mecanismos de governança corporativa foram utilizadas a qualidade da auditoria, concentração de propriedade em ações ordinárias e em ações preferenciais, participação nos níveis de governança da BM&FBovespa, número de ações mantidas pelo governo e número de diretores no Conselho, adaptado da pesquisa de Mollah e Zaman (2015). Convergente com pesquisas nacionais e internacionais, os achados desse estudo evidenciaram que as variáveis qualidade do lucro, concentração de propriedade em ações preferenciais, participação nos níveis de governança e tamanho do Conselho são positivamente relacionados com o desempenho da empresa; já a concentração de propriedade em ações ordinárias e o número de ações mantidas pelo governo são negativamente relacionadas com o desempenho. Para pesquisas futuras, recomenda-se ampliar a outros setores do mercado bem como utilizar outros mecanismos de governança corporativa, presentes na literatura.Palavras-chave: Governança Corporativa. Desempenho. Utilidade Pública.


2018 ◽  
pp. 28-35
Author(s):  
ELGUJA MEKVABISHVILI

The global financial crisis has brought a new impulse to the discussion of the problem of economic crisis. Economists have divided into two groups - one group believes the main reason for the crisis is the failure of economic theory. The second group thinks that economists have not been charged in the formation of economic crisis. The most problematic aspect of the economic crisis is their prediction. Mainstream neoclassical economic theory completely excludes the possibility of predicting crises. In the analysis of this issue, we use the concepts: “point prediction”, “prediction corridor”, “stationary regime” of economy functioning, and N. Kondratiev’s Great Cycles Conjunction Theory. There is possible to define the “prediction’s corridors” within the stationary regimes of economy functioning. In these periods the economy is characterized with high quality of volatility. By observing the main economic indicators in these periods, we think, it is possible to predict the approximate date of the economic crisis.


Author(s):  
Costas Meghir ◽  
Christopher A. Pissarides ◽  
Dimitri Vayanos ◽  
Nikolaos Vettas

This chapter reviews the performance of the Greek economy before and during the global financial crisis. It also presents policy options for Greece going forward, drawing to a significant extent on the conclusions of subsequent chapters. The chapter first studies Greece's economic performance in the decades before the crisis. It discusses the evolution of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and productivity, debt, consumption, investment, wages and prices. The chapter then turns to the quality of the institutions pertaining to the business environment (product market regulation, justice system, access to finance, and labor market regulation), and to social protection and public good provision (pensions, welfare system, health care, and education). It also identifies interconnections between institutional quality and macroeconomic outcomes.


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