BPB White Papers
From time to time the BPB will publish white papers on matters of interest to the XBRL community. This is where you will find them.
*New* Taxonomy Quality Control - June 28, 2013
Starting with a brief introduction of definition of Taxonomy and its distinction from other knowledge
classification and organization systems, this paper takes a closer look at the XBRL taxonomy development as a
modern subject of semantic knowledge classification system.
The paper highlights three key contributing factors which influence the Quality in an XBRL Taxonomy, including:
- Project Governance Structure involving various stakeholders
- Iterative Processes for Taxonomy Development, Test and Review; and
- Skilled Resources in at least two critical areas of expertise, viz., domain experts and XBRL technology experts.
Architectural issues at the design stage, internal and external review cycles and quality control check-lists foriterative testing are included as examples of framework components. Finally, this paper provides a sample list and description of supportive documents that enable this taxonomy quality control process to become a best practice.
The paper uses the Japan EDINET and UKHMRC taxonomies as case studies.
Financial Supervision Reporting and XBRL - October 14, 2010
Financial supervision reporting requires two key enablers: data accuracy and the ability to meet various reporting requirements simultaneously. It is difficult to execute supervisory objectives effectively if the data lacks accuracy. And, needless to say, it is extremely difficult to recapture the accuracy if it is lost at the submission stage. From a reporting requirements perspective, both international and national reporting requirements need to be met and harmonized. In this paper, we discuss how XBRL can be applied to meet the needs of financial supervision reporting.
This paper has been authored by Makoto Koizumi of Fujitsu, Japan and Yoshiaki Wada of NTT Data Corporation. formerly of the Bank of Japan, Chair and Board of Directors Liaison to the Best Practices Board respectively, for XBRL International Inc..
XBRL or Customized XML? - October 14, 2010
A common decision facing organizations implementing information technology (IT) systems for business reporting is the selection of the appropriate technology standard to represent the information being reported. This discussion frequently focuses on whether to develop customized software using Extensible Markup Language (XML), or whether the project would benefit from the additional richness of information that can be expressed by using the freely available open standard Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL). XBRL is an application of XML using W3C standards to provide not only a vocabulary for business reporting but also a means of unambiguously representing the semantics, or meaning, of the information being reported.
This paper is intended for decision makers involved in the planning or approval of projects that could potentially use XBRL. It is at a high-level such that a technical understanding of XBRL and XML are not necessary. The discussion is relevant across organization types, including large (or small) for profit enterprise, all levels of government, and prudential and securities regulators. Examples illustrate the decision process used by organizations charged with prudential oversight, government regulators, corporations, and novel implementations (sustainability) in their decision to ultimately choose an XBRL solution. The paper concludes with a discussion of some of the issues involved in making the decision between XBRL and customized XML.
This paper has been authored by Dr. Stephanie Farewell, Associate Professor of Accounting at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock for the Best Practices Board of XBRL International inc.
