Finland shows the power of open XBRL data
A recent experiment by the Finnish Patent and Registration Office (PRH) has demonstrated the real-world potential of open XBRL data to generate financial analytics without manual effort or deep technical know-how. Using structured financial statements accessed via PRH’s open interface, the project built a fully automated analysis workflow, producing national-scale insights with freely available tools.
The experiment retrieved and parsed around 30,000 XBRL-format financial statements directly from PRH’s public API. Data was then stored in an XBRL-capable database allowing instant querying with no extra modelling. Key financial ratios, such as operating profit percentage, return on investment, and liquidity metrics, were automatically calculated based on taxonomy-defined datapoints and rendered in Power BI.
This builds on earlier work by XBRL Finland and Asiakastieto and shows that structured digital reporting enables data reuse at scale. The entire workflow, including documentation and dashboards, is freely accessible and replicable.
This is a great example of how high-quality, structured data fuels powerful reporting and analytics capabilities. Open data infrastructures are essential for transparency, efficiency, and innovation in financial ecosystems.
Explore more on the PRH experiment here.
