Accessing XBRL Data
The European Securities and Markets Authority implemented an XBRL reporting requirement for public utilities in 2021. As part of the regulator’s transition, they migrated and published an archive of over 10 years of quarterly and annual financial data in XBRL, as well as continuing to publish reports as they are submitted.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission implemented an XBRL reporting requirement for public utilities in 2021. As part of the regulator’s transition, they migrated and published an archive of over 10 years of quarterly and annual financial data in XBRL, as well as continuing to publish reports as they are submitted.
The public can access XBRL for free via SEC EDGAR Financial Statements Data Sets and Financial Statements and Notes Datasets. Quarterly datasets can be downloaded through 2023 Q1, with monthly datasets available beginning in April of 2023. Note that the datasets are very large and may require additional computing power.
In addition to getting data directly from a regulator, XBRL US Members offer analytical tools, and XBRL US has freely-available APIs, spreadsheet templates and code resources connected to its Public Filings Database of more than 10 years of SEC, FERC and ESMA reports.
Essentials
The mission of XBRL US, Inc. is to support the implementation of digital reporting standards for business and government through the development of taxonomies for use by U.S. public and private sectors, with a goal of interoperability between sectors, and by promoting XBRL adoption through marketplace collaboration. Brief History The XBRL technology standard for business […more]
Not yet a Member? Get started today(Learn more) Your school’s XBRL US Membership offers a number of significant benefits – timely communication, tools and resources, and networking with faculty and other segments of our diverse membership – to help you with research and introduce your students to the wealth of standardized data available for educational […more]
Experience from Being a Visiting Scholar at the SEC (requires login) This January 2023 webinar covers relevant insights related to teaching and research that were gained during Christine Cheng’s time as a visiting scholar with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The insights range from gathering publicly available data, to data analytics, and the ability […more]
The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) recognizes and appreciates the academic community’s critical role in accounting education and research. The FASB is committed to educating the academic community about using XBRL data and structured data more broadly.
For Academic Research
XBRL data is being used to examine financial statement and disclosure properties. This page features a growing set of links to recommended academic papers utilizing XBRL data.
Spotlight Paper: eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL): A Review and Implications for Future Research
Authors: Rani Hoitash (Bentley University), Udi Hoitash (Northeastern University) , Landi Morris (Northern Arizona University)
This paper contains a review of the XBRL literature and provides helpful information on how academics are using XBRL data to study financial statement disclosures. Table 2 (XBRL Literature) and Table 4 (Sources of XBRL Data) should be useful to new users of XBRL data.
Elizabeth Blankespoor from the University of Washington explains how to use financial statement and footnote XBRL data for academic research.
In the Classroom
XBRL US has created online modules designed to help learners get acquainted with the basics of the global standard for reporting. In addition to the freely available resources for anyone, faculty and students at XBRL US Academic Institutional Members can enroll in XBRL US Member-only courses in the complete collection to improve understanding.
Learn more about XBRL here. This page highlights essential XBRL information. Additionally, the links on the right hand navigation panel provide additional information and resources for those interested in learning how to get started using XBRL data.
XBRL is the established standard for business reporting used in 184 regulatory programs worldwide. Understanding XBRL is crucial for every data scientist, accountant, and financial analyst, offering significant career benefits to students as they prepare for future endeavors.
XBRL data is volumous, which is both a benefit, but also a hurdle for students who are newer to data extraction. You can overcome this hurdle by providing students with a highly structured case, like the two spotlight cases below.
Spotlight Case: XBRL Case Study: Are Big Companies Paying their Fair Share?
Authors: Christine Cheng (University of Mississippi) and Campbell Pryde (President and CEO, XBRL US)
In this case, students are asked to conduct an ETR analysis using both commercially available data and as-reported XBRL data. This case illustrates that the “normalization” process of commercial datasets – where data is structured according to standardized forms by data aggregators to enhance consistency – can lead to a loss of information, impacting their utility in certain types of data modeling. Extracting as-reported data directly from company financial reports would be more advantageous for ETR analysis, but historically has been labor-intensive and time-consuming. However, XBRL data allows for the extraction of as-reported financial statement data in machine-readable format at scale.This case serves as an excellent introduction for students to XBRL data and its value. Students will discover that as-reported data enables them to address more questions compared to commercial data. Moreover, students will learn about the consistency of underlying XBRL tags, which remain uniform across companies despite variations in company-assigned line item labels, ensuring ease of comparison. Furthermore, through inline XBRL (iXBRL) documents, students will gain insight into how to view and interact with metadata associated with each reported fact. Ultimately, this case equips students with knowledge of XBRL.
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