Using XBRL and Quantrix Modeler to Analyze Financial Statements – Part

XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) is a language based on XML for the electronic communication of business and financial data. This paper is intended to: (1) give a brief presentation of the XBRL language and its applicability to financial analysis; (2) define the requirements of a software application supporting financial analysis and planning capable of processing financial data in the XBRL format; (3) appreciate the potential of Quantrix Modeler, a multi-dimensional spreadsheet software, as a platform for implementing XBRL-enabled financial models. The audience for this document is end-users interested in adopting XBRL as a language for preparing, analyzing and communicating financial information. Copyright (C) December 2006, by Luca Erzegovesi. Permission to distribute or duplicate this document, in whole or part, is granted provided reference is made to the source and this copyright is included in whole copies. 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XBRL and Quantrix Modeler Luca Erzegovesi http://smefin.net 2 Summary 1 Introduction.................................................................................... 3 2 XBRL and its use in financial analysis............................................. 4 2.1 Main benefits of using XBRL...............................................................................4 2.2 The main components of the XBRL 2.1 specification .........................................5 2.3 XBRL taxonomies................................................................................................5 2.3.1 The schema document..................................................................................................................6 2.3.2 Unique identifiers used in schemata, instances and linkbases ....................................................8 2.3.3 The label linkbase........................................................................................................................9 2.3.4 The reference linkbase...............................................................................................................10 2.3.5 Presentation linkbases and the structure of reports ..................................................................11 2.3.6 Calculation linkbases and the mathematical dependencies among reported items...................13 2.3.7 Definition linkbases ...................................................................................................................17 2.4 XBRL document instances ................................................................................17 2.5 Use of XBRL taxonomy and data documents in financial analysis ...................19 2.5.1 Information contained in financial statements ..........................................................................20 2.5.2 Information contained in disclosures ........................................................................................20 3 Software tools for financial analysis and Quantrix Modeler ......... 21 3.1 Software tools for financial modeling ..............................................................21 3.2 About multi-dimensional spreadsheets and Quantrix Modeler ........................22 3.2.1 Quantrix Modeler: an end-user’s view......................................................................................23 3.2.2 Quantrix multidimensional model .............................................................................................23 4 XBRL and two-dimensional spreadsheets..................................... 25 4.1 Spreadsheet add-ins for importing and manipulating XBRL data....................25 4.2 Analyzing imported data in spreadsheets ........................................................26 5 Managing XBRL in Quantrix.......................................................... 26 5.1 Configuring the DTS..........................................................................................27 5.2 Dictionary matrices...........................................................................................28 5.3 Report matrices ................................................................................................30 5.4 Representing layout and calculations of a report in the taxo matrix...............32 5.5 Document instance information .......................................................................35 5.6 Normalizing and extending context information..............................................37 5.7 Showing a report in the data matrix ................................................................38 5.8 Adding a forecast scenario ...............................................................................40 5.9 Exporting a new version of the document instance with forecasts .................42 6 Conclusions and directions for future research ............................ 43 7 References .................................................................................... 44 XBRL and Quantrix Modeler Luca Erzegovesi http://smefin.net