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Early this year, the
SEC mandated the phased implementation of XBRL [eXtensible Business
Reporting Language] for all public reporting. Our work on XBRL will
begin on October 27th, for which you should read the following:
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pp. 571 - 577 in Hall [which you should have read for
10/22 anyway]
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Farewell, Stephanie M. "An Introduction to XBRL
through the use of Research and
Technical Assignments," Journal of
Information Systems, Vol. 20, No. 1, Spring 2006, pp. 161 - 185;
available at EBSCOhost Business Source Premier; access is through the
Article Databases page
on the Mortvedt Library Website. Special note: This article
contains a mix of "information for instructors" and material for student
assignments. You can skip pages 161 - 164; pay special attention to pages
165 to the middle of p. 172. The remainder of the article is devoted to a
discussion of the assignments we will be doing for November 5th and 10th.
You can skip the section on research assignments, but read the section on
technical assignments to get a general sense of what we will be doing.
Additional instructions on both the research and technical assignments are
provided below.
XBRL Research
Assignment:
Each of you will
participate with a team of your choosing in a research project on XBRL.
Team size is somewhat dependent on the focus of the specific project
involved--bigger projects require more people. Each project will be the
subject of a formal class presentation on November 5th. I will be
inviting professionals and other School of Business faculty to join us
for the presentations. I have identified a number of projects [see
below] from which you and your team can choose on a first-come,
first-served basis.
A given project MAY require additional knowledge or
understanding of XBRL-related issues beyond that which is available in the
immediate Website[s] listed here. Development of sufficient background is your
responsibility. Do not get into material that is over your head and risk looking
foolish at the time of the presentation. However, "easier" should not be
interpreted to mean "less work." Rigorous professional analyses are expected for
all projects.
Depending on the complexity of the project you choose and
your own schedule, you may want to get started early. In order to encourage
early progress on these, I am requiring that everyone have a project selected no
later than October 8th. Please give me a single sheet with [1] your names, [2]
your topic, and [3] your "rules of engagement"--the policies and procedures
[e.g., cooperativeness, attendance at meetings, division of work, etc.] that you
agree to use to ensure timely completion of the project no later than the end of
class on October 8th.
| Project Number |
Project Description |
Potential
team size |
| 1 |
XBRL Taxonomies--go to
XBRL.org [and whatever other sites you find useful or
interesting] and develop your understanding of XBRL taxonomies.
What are they? Which ones are approved? Which ones are
acknowledged? What does it mean to be approved [or
acknowledged]? What is the current status of other taxonomy
development projects in the U.S. or internationally? |
2 people |
| 2 |
Will XBRL facilitate
compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley and other regulatory requirements
[e.g., Regulation FD]? if so, how? |
2 people |
| 3 |
Comparison and evaluation of XBRL initiatives,
publications and educational/training materials of the "Big 4" accounting firms [E & Y, PwC,
Deloitte, and KPMG]. |
4 people [1
for each firm] |
| 4 |
Go to
http://www.xbrleducation.com/competitions.htm and review the
project winners in the Global XBRL Academic Competition. Others
are available at
http://www.emporia.edu/business/xbrl.php. Be prepared to
demonstrate the projects and discuss their potential usefulness
to practitioners and/or auditors. Some demos require
installation of executable files. Bring a laptop with the files
installed or be sure to have Josh page
[pagejw@plu.edu] install
whatever software you need in advance of the presentation.
Be sure to TRY the software on the machine
you will use for the class presentation.
Failed demos are a real no-no
[and have a decidedly negative impact on your grade]. |
2 - 3 people |
| 5 |
XBRL in use--go to
http://www.xbrl.org/CaseStudies/ and review the case studies
cited there. What commonalities are there among the
organizations cited? What is particularly interesting about the
XBRL applications noted? What have you learned about XBRL in
action? What advice can you give to others about things to do or
not do? |
2 - 3 people |
| 6 |
Software evaluation--a
number of software vendors have developed XBRL applications.
Locate at least 3 software vendors which sell comparable XBRL-related
software packages . Prepare an analysis and recommendations.
Download and install trial software [this will probably require
your own laptop computer, although we MAY be able to install the
software on school-owned machines. Be sure to TRY the software
on the machine you will use for the class presentation. Once
again, failed demos are a real no-no. |
2 - 3 people |
| 7 |
Go to the Website for the
presentation materials for the 19th International XBRL Conference in Paris.
Use the "sort by track" window to locate all the presentations
on "How XBRL Will Change the Accounting and Auditing
Profession: Challenges and Opportunities." Look through
the presentations and develop your own summary of the impact
that XBRL will have on the profession. There are 10
presentations for this track, so you will not be able to go into
detail on all of them. Pick the ones that seem the most
interesting, relevant, or important. Some may require additional
research.
You may NOT simply show us the slides that
other folks used [other than those for complex diagrams or
illustrations]. Note also that these require some study and
research on your own. You have the slides used by the presenter,
but you do not have the narrative that went with the slides. You
have to fill in the gaps, which means that you really have to
develop an understanding of the issues that are being addressed
and express those in your own words. |
2 - 3 people |
| 8 |
Go to the Website for the
presentation materials for the 19th International XBRL Conference in Paris.
Use the "sort by track" window to locate all the presentations
on "Reducing the
Reporting Burden in the Regulatory Environment."
Look through the presentations and develop your own summary of
the impact that XBRL will have on the reporting burden. There
are between 15 and 20 presentations for this track, so you will
not be able to go into detail on all of them. Pick the ones that
seem the most interesting, relevant, or important. Some may
require additional research. YOU may NOT simply show us the
slides that other folks used [other than those for complex
diagrams or illustrations]. Note also that these require some
study and research on your own. You have the slides used by the
presenter, but you do not have the narrative that went with the
slides. You have to fill in the gaps, which means that you
really have to develop an understanding of the issues that are
being addressed and express those in your own words. |
2 - 3 people |
| 9 |
Another project that you
identify as worthwhile and relevant. For such a project, you
MUST provide me with a one page abstract of the focus of the
project and what you will do with it. Your proposal must also
include a listing of the names of the team members and a
justification for the size of the team. |
?? |
XBRL Technical
Assignment:
The groups for the technical assignments are the same as
for the research assignments. Here are some notes on technical assignments
[refer to pp. 173 - 184 in the Farewell article cited above]; the technical
assignments are due no later than the start of class on November 10th
[submission via email only; use a team members last name in the filename;
subject line is technical assignment.
The technical assignments requires the creation of an XML
document and a stylesheet. Follow Professor Farewell's instruction VERY
carefully, proceeding EXACTLY as she directs. Since I do not believe there is
particular benefit in tedious data entry, I have used my scanner to do the data
entry in Table 1 [p. 174] and Table 2 [p. 176] for you. Download the MS Notepad
files here: Table 1
Table 2
A special note about the instructions for Step 2
on page 175: the second line ends with <?xml-stylesheet and the
next line begins with type="text/xsl" href="inventorystylesheet.xsl"?>.
There is a space between stylesheet and type.
Review Power Point slides on XBRL technical assignments:
download here
then watch Prof. Farewell's
video on the use of the
Fujitsu tool. |
