XBRL Inside Training: What Is XBRL — Really?

Leveraging XBRL to cut costs, streamline operations, and boost ROI

Three 90 minutes virtual training classes led by Gianluca Garbellotto that will change the way in which you look at XBRL — and will introduce you to an innovative and powerful way to access, integrate and report on corporate information by leveraging data standardization.

XBRL is not just about compliance to a regulatory mandate. It is primarily about reducing costs and increasing efficiency in internal and external reporting processes, which commonly rely heavily on manual activities and represent a significant investment of time and money for businesses and organizations, large and small. XBRL helps automate these processes, without adding to or replacing anything in the current information system — but making its various components more accessible and interoperable. Examples include:

  • Bringing together data from different accounting and operational applications in one report, customized to your requirements, without writing one line of code
  • Automatically populating dashboards and Key Performance Indicator (KPI) systems from disparate internal data stores, as the Maryland Association of CPAs (MACPA) has done
  • Generating financial statements from your QuickBooks trial balance – or any other accounting software trial balance, for a single company or managing the consolidation process – like XBRL International did for their 2011 financials
  • Using Excel to access, analyze and report on data, no matter in what software application it is stored in, again as MACPA and many others are doing

XBRL Inside is the first and only training course that focuses on XBRL as the enabler of internal data-related process benefits and cost savings, brought to you by the globally recognized thought leaders on the subject. It provides theoretical foundations on the XBRL Specifications and on XBRL taxonomy architecture, with a pragmatic bias towards the use of XBRL within the firewall. It demonstrates how to leverage existing taxonomies internally and why and how to build custom ones for corporate use. It shows how to use XBRL Global Ledger (XBRL GL) and broadly available software tools to bring it all together and achieve total transparency and accessibility of internal data.

Whether your organization is a global corporation or a small not-for-profit, and whether it is subject to or exempt from an XBRL mandate, these classes will provide you with practical, actionable knowledge, along with the tools to apply it immediately in your day-to-day operations — with a minimal investment in software tools, or none at all.

Who Should Attend?

  • CPAs, auditors, management accountants
  • CFOs, controllers, business owners
  • Other users of business, accounting and financial information for internal or external reporting
  • IT people who are serious about providing immediately actionable value to their internal clients on the business side

There are no formal pre-requisites to attend each of the four classes. They are designed as a progressive learning path, so if you are approaching XBRL for the first time you would benefit from attending all three – and you will get a discount for that too. But if you are already familiar with the content of one class, you can skip it and move on to the next.

Why Should You Attend?

Each class is designed for business users who want to understand what XBRL is and how they can use it for immediate benefit.  If your organization:

  • Is a small/medium business, and is looking for ways to take control of its internal data aggregation, monitoring and reporting processes — rather than living with the inefficiencies related to software applications that make data difficult to access, or paying the price tag to customize it
  • Is a CPA or auditing firm, and wants to provide innovative ways for its clients to achieve advanced business intelligence and internal and external reporting capabilities normally available to larger corporations, easily and at a fraction of the cost
  • Is subject to an XBRL regulatory mandate, and desires to cut costs and enhance compliance by bringing the preparation of XBRL reports in-house — and then leverage the XBRL investment for external reporting by using it in everyday business activities

these classes will give you the knowledge and the tools that you need to successfully drive or contribute to your organization’s or your clients’ XBRL initiatives. You will gain expertise in an innovative way to reduce costs and increase efficiencies in internal and external data-related processes.

Format and Technical Information

Classes will be interactive – questions and audience participation are permitted and encouraged, and will be managed so that they do not interfere with the flow of the discussion.

The first two classes consist primarily of presentations, while the other two include practical demonstrations of how to work with XBRL data and software tools. The materials provided for these classes will include “cheat sheets” that will enable attendees to reproduce those practical demonstrations after taking the class. Course instructor Gianluca Garbellotto will also be available to answer questions from registered participants via email after the completion of each class.

No specific software is required to attend the classes. Both the visual and the audio portion will be delivered through a browser-based system, and no client software will be installed on the participant’s computer. In-person delivery as a one full-day session can be arranged on request,  at our facilities in the Washington DC metro area or at your facilities.

No pre-requisites are needed for any of these classes but should you be interested in registering for more than one of them, we offer discounted package deals for two, three or four classes.

The xbrl 2.1 and xbrl Dimensions 1.0 Specifications / 2012–3001

Understanding the key components of the XBRL specifications – and in particular the semantic tools and resources that they provide – will help you understand what is possible to do with XBRL and how to make it work for you in more than just regulatory compliance. Topics include:

  • What is XBRL, why is it important, and what is its value proposition
  • Beyond XBRL as an eFiling format: the integration of the Business Reporting Supply Chain and its benefits for businesses and organizations
  • XBRL implementation vs. generic XML implementation: benefits and trade-offs
  • Overview of the XBRL 2.1 Specification
  • Overview of the XBRL Dimensions 1.0 Specification

Upcoming dates: Tuesday June 26, 2012 at 16:00 UTC/12:00pm EDT  and 22:00 UTC/6:00pm EDT

Duration: 90 minutes

Price: US$ 149.00

 


XBRL Taxonomy Architecture Primer / 2012–3002

Understand the different taxonomy architecture choices made in key global XBRL initiatives and the reasons that determined them. This will make using those taxonomies easier if you have to, but more importantly it will give you the insight to make the right architectural choices in the taxonomies that your organization will develop for its own internal use. Topics include:

  • The basic components of a taxonomy architecture
  • The Interoperable Taxonomy Architecture project: IFRS, US-GAAP and EDINET taxonomies
  • The Standard Business Reporting (SBR) taxonomies architecture
  • The FINREP/COREP taxonomies

Upcoming dates: Thursday June 28, 2012 at 16:00 UTC/12:00pm EDT  and 22:00 UTC/6:00pm EDT

Duration: 90 minutes

Price: US$ 149.00


A step-by-step guide to creating and using your first xbrl taxonomy / 2012–3003

No better way to solidify what you know about XBRL – whether you have taken the first two classes or you have learned it in some other way – than getting your hands dirty with a prototype. In this session you will learn the steps necessary to go from a sample internal report to a complete XBRL taxonomy that represents that report. Topics include:

  • Analysis of the source report
  • Contextualization
  • Definition of the taxonomy structure
  • Creation of the report: presentation, definition, labels and references
  • Your taxonomy in action: mapping sample data and generating the XBRL instance document

Upcoming dates: Tuesday July 10, 2012 at 16:00 UTC/12:00pm EDT  and 22:00 UTC/6:00pm EDT

Duration: 90 minutes

Price: US$ 149.00


Deeply Embedded XBRL in Action / 2012–3004

Embedding XBRL deeply within the corporate information system enables data producers (businesses and organizations) to leverage XBRL internally and achieve the same benefits that prompt the global adoption of XBRL by data consumers (primarily governments and regulators). This session will introduce XBRL Global Ledger (XBRL GL), the key enabler of the internal use of XBRL, and will demonstrate how it can be used, alone or in conjunction with other XBRL taxonomies, to achieve immediate, tangible internal process benefits with little or no investment in additional software. Topics include:

  • An overview of XBRL Global Ledger, why and how it is used
  • Taking ownership of corporate data with the Deeply Embedded XBRL approach
  • Leveraging a highly reusable application– and purpose-independent platform to create, populate and reconcile internal and external reports
  • Using Microsoft Excel as-is (no XBRL specific add-ons) and XBRL GL to access, filter, analyze and report on data from any internal data repository
  • It’s not just about accounting and financial data: Deeply Embedded XBRL for integrated reporting and sustainability

Upcoming dates: Thursday July 12, 2012 at 16:00 UTC/12:00pm EDT and 22:00 UTC/6:00pm EDT

Duration: 90 minutes

Price: US$ 149.00