Ready to trade in your flip phone?
Switching to structured (XBRL) data after using HTML versions of financial filings is like trading in your flip phone for an iPhone. Wow. Suddenly you can do things you never thought possible.
Point of View is a forum for opinions and thoughts from XBRL US and the XBRL community about business, industry, finance, regulation and legislation, where data standards can play a role. We welcome your feedback on the XBRL point of view.
Earlier (2017)
Earlier (2017)
What can the solar industry learn from the grocery business?
In 1974, the first Universal Product Code (UPC) was scanned in Troy, Ohio, automating what had been a manual process for recording sales. The first item scanned was a pack of Wrigley’s chewing gum. The UPC revolutionized the retail grocery business, using technology standards to wring costs out of a process that required the collection of massive amounts of data.
Earlier (2017)
Three New Year’s resolutions for public company filers
As we begin a brand new year, it’s always good to make a few resolutions that go beyond joining a health club, eating right and losing weight. So we have three recommendations to add to your list of resolutions. The first is get involved in industry efforts to improve the usability of XBRL data submitted to the SEC. It won’t require a lot of effort and you will receive some important benefits. For a small investment of your time, you will be on the forefront of imminent, groundbreaking regulatory changes, and you will be able to reduce your workload while significantly improving the quality of your XBRL financial data submitted to the SEC.
Earlier (2017)
XML, CSV, XBRL – what’s the difference?
Formats are sometimes mistaken as financial data standards by regulators, government agencies and businesses. It’s a misunderstanding with significant consequences for comprehensive, comparable, interoperable data collection and use.
Earlier (2016)
Components of a Financial Data Standard
UPC codes. Shipping containers. Most people understand that the introduction of these kinds of standards revolutionized an existing process, making it better, faster, cheaper, by establishing a single method of doing something that is used by many. UPC codes made it possible to track purchasing habits worldwide. Shipping containers dramatically reduced the cost and time involved in shipping goods cross-country. Financial data standards can be similarly revolutionary – reducing processing costs, enabling automation and greater timeliness, providing for validation checks to improve accuracy.
