Study Guide on HTML, XML and XBRL PDF

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Study Guide on HTML, XML and XBRL...

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Study Guide – HTML, XML and XBRL HTML – Hypertext Markup Language HTML is a formatting language that specifies presentation of information for documents shared on the World Wide Web. Its syntax (tags and rules) focus on how information should be displayed.The initial specification for html was proposed by W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). HTML allows us to create a “web page” which may link to and include content from other web sites or web pages. Generally, formatting is applied to text between the opening and closing tags. Here are a few exemplary tags along with some information on what they do: 

, , , and enclose sections of the document. for document boundaries, for document metadata (data about the document), is displayed in the browser’s menu bar, is the main part of the document.

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Other commands control how text is shown on screen: o for bold, to specify a font size and name o header 1, header 2 up to h6 denote relative importance (mainly different text size) for headings o center aligns the content in encloses

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Tables can be defined with , (table row), and (table detail or column). tags call for images to be displayed with the page (from anywhere on the internet!) anchor tags create hyperlinks. When clicked, hyperlinks direct a browser to a different page.

XML – Extensible Markup Language XML is a standard created by W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) which allows users to describe the structure of their data by creating and formatting their own document markups or tags. Once the data has been marked up, computer software can intelligently process this data. XML focuses on what data mean rather than on how they should be displayed. XML lets organizations more easily share data across different platforms.  EDI – (Electronic Data Interchange) is increasingly done using XML. Different companies use a common document definition.  Data stored in XML format can be rendered in a variety of ways by web servers. The look and feel can be changed without changing the underlying data.  Configuration information is often stored in XML. XML is good because:  It is both human and machine readable.

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An XML document describes itself so that changes in the format are more manageable for users of the information. XML supports extensible architectures because it is easy to use with multiple platforms and frameworks.

XBRL – Extensible Business Reporting Language XBRL is a form of XML designed specifically for the financial industry to increase efficiency, productivity and transparency in financial reporting. In XBRL, user defined tags act like bar codes that can identify, describe and provide contextual information for each piece of data. These tags can be understood by a range of software applications allowing data to interface with databases, financial reporting systems and spreadsheets. A Taxonomy is a system or dictionary which contains and organizes all of the tags used to markup a document. An XBRL taxonomy is a description and classification system for the contents of financial statements and other business reporting documents. XBRL contains several taxonomies, most of which are organized around specific industry groups. XBRL International, the SEC and other organizations help in building standardized taxonomies for the different financial industries in the United States. In the U.S., they are organized under the broad title of U.S. GAAP/FRIS (U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles/Financial Reporting Instance Standards). A document, such as a balance sheet, properly formatted with XBRL tags is known as an instance document. Data for instance documents can be uploaded to and created from EDGAR (Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval ) database of the SEC. The Internet address (URL) where an XBRL taxonomy “lives” is called a namespace. Namespaces are declared at the beginning of an XBRL document so computers know where to go to find the meaning of XBRL tags. Major ERP packages like SAP and PeopleSoft support XML as a data format for data interchange across the organizations. Support of XML enables ERP packages to use the Internet to pass documents to receiving applications even if they have no prior knowledge of the data formats contained in the documents. Different user groups benefit from the use of XBRL: •

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Companies who prepare financial statements: More efficient preparation of financial statements because they will be created one time and rendered as printed reports, on Web sites, as Edgar (Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval) filings, or as other regulatory filings. Analysts, Investors, and Regulators: Enhanced distribution and usability of existing financial statement information. Automated analysis, significantly less re-keying of financial information from one form into another form, receiving information in the format you prefer for your specific style of analysis.

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Financial publishers and data aggregators: More efficient data collection lowers operating costs associated with custom, idiosyncratic data feeds and reducing errors while concentrating on adding value to the data and increasing transaction capacity. Independent Software Vendors: Virtually any software product that manages financial information could use XBRL for its data export and import formats, thereby increasing its potential for full-interoperability with other financial and analytical applications.

To learn more about XBRL, visit: https://www.xbrl.org/ http://www.aicpa.org/interestareas/frc/accountingfinancialreporting/xbrl/pages/howxbrlworks.aspx Accountant's Guide To XBRL...