The eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) specification has clearly become the new global standard for exchanging financial and business information. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has joined European banking regulators, UK tax authorities, and others in mandating its use. XBRL enables all accounting jurisdictions to download, codify, and analyze time-sensitive financial data.

Each jurisdiction can define its own accounting taxonomy, a set of agreed-upon, computer-readable tags for individual data items in business reports. When a company reports a figure for annual revenues, for example, that figure can be tagged in a way that enables almost any computer to immediately recognize and categorize it as annual revenues.

XBRL is a royalty-free, open specification for software that uses XML (eXtensible Mark-up Language) data tags to describe financial information for public and private companies and other organizations.

Typically, organizations adopting various XBRL taxonomies run into one or more common roadblocks. In the US, the voluntary filing period (VFP) has illustrated several errors that can occur in four key areas:

1. Mapping: The elements must be selected appropriately from the taxonomy to avoid creating new elements
2. Extensions: The elements are not defined in mathematical relationships, with relationships that cannot be traced correctly or with elements in improper locations
3. Tagging: Incorrectly assigning the improper signs to the elements, or making human errors in data entry
4. Validating: Failure to validate the documents both manually or with validation software

SAP BusinessObjects XBRL Publishing by UBmatrix addresses these common issues with XBRL reporting, as well as how to load multiple taxonomies from SAP ERP Financials, third-party systems, and even flat-file sources to produce and file compliance SEC reports according to the XBRL standards. I’ll show you how to set up XBRL taxonomies and develop XBRL reports using this solution.

Creating Taxonomies for XBRL Publishing

SAP BusinessObjects XBRL Publishing by UBmatrix works with SAP consolidation and financial reporting applications to enable financial professionals to prepare XBRL report submissions right from their desktops. Now finance and compliance teams can create, interact with, customize, and validate XBRL documents using drag-and-drop associations to their reporting taxonomy. Preparers first assemble financial reports using:

• SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation
• SAP BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation
• SAP Business Suite software
• Other financial systems and sources

To generate an XBRL-based financial statement, the financial professional selects line item tags from a regulator’s taxonomy and maps them to the corresponding financial figures. Given that a company can have thousands of data items, publishing consolidated financials as XBRL documents may be difficult, particularly in an initial filing. While SAP BusinessObjects XBRL Publishing by UBmatrix maintains standard taxonomies (e.g., Generally Accepted Accounting Principles [GAAP] and International Financial Reporting Standards [IFRS]), you can also customize it for a particular organization’s needs using the Taxonomy Designer as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1

XBRL mapping using the Taxonomy Designer

Often companies outsource XBRL tagging and document generation. SAP BusinessObjects XBRL Publishing by UBmatrix allows for greater flexibility and control over the process. Financial managers can yield and associate data from any consolidation application (or other business software) and prepare, review, and analyze data in XBRL documents. You can also add extended taxonomies and discussion notes to the XBRL documents through simple mapping and editing steps facilitated by the application.

The common interface of SAP BusinessObjects XBRL Publishing by UBmatrix is Microsoft Excel. SAP BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation has a similar data flow and XBRL authoring capability. The information flow is identified in Figure 2, allowing for the information to be sorted, tagged, and published using SAP BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation. You can present the final document to the SEC Web site for validation prior to submittal. (You can use SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation to map in the same manner.)

Figure 2

XBRL publishing via SAP BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation

Create XBRL Reports for Disclosure

XBRL reporting allows shareholders, regulators, and auditors easy access to commonly used data, information, and management discussion in standard annual and quarterly reports. It also applies to regulatory filings, such as articles of incorporation, share and compensation disclosures, and investor relations briefings.

Let’s look at how you would use SAP BusinessObjects XBRL Publishing by UBmatrix to create a financial disclosure. Figure 3 shows a typical 10-Q quarterly financial report developed using SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation. With Microsoft Excel as the interface, SAP BusinessObjects XBRL Publishing by UBmatrix exists in the same environment, making it easy (once the taxonomy is created) to extend or modify the taxonomy, as well as publish XBRL reports from the same user interface.

Figure 3

Typical 10-Q quarterly financial disclosure in SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation

Once the fields of the report are tagged, and the taxonomy is mapped, SAP BusinessObjects XBRL Publishing by UBmatrix can quickly list the hierarchy of report elements found in the document. Figure 4 illustrates the use of the XBRL mapping tree interface found in Microsoft Excel. 

Figure 4

Mapping and tagging are easily shown in the report builder hierarchy

You can check to ensure that elements either previously defined or that exist in the current document version are properly mapped. You can run an incomplete mapping report using one of the drop-down commands in the UBmatrix tab once the solution is installed.

Once the complete mapping of the report is made, select Full Mapping Report from the UBmatrix tab inside Excel. A complete mapping grid is shown in the dialogue window in Figure 5. This is a final check to ensure that all data elements are available for XBRL publishing.

Figure 5

The full mapping report confirms the context, labels, and location of the information prior to XBRL publishing

To generate reports, select the Full Mapping Report command found in the ribbon of the UBmatrix tab. The resulting display provides a system view of the mapped and tagged fields in the report. The user has several options available to create and preview the document in XBRL format. In this example, the preview selection is made using the SEC viewer (referenced earlier in this discussion). Figure 6 illustrates the options available to publish and preview the document.

Figure 6

Displaying the XBRL publishing and document preview options

To use the SEC Viewer, first save your document as an XBRL document in SAP BusinessObjects XBRL Publishing by UBmatrix. Select Save as XBRL from the menu options and define a location for your XBRL document, as shown in Figure 7. You can then go to the SEC Viewer Web site and select your saved XBRL format document. The SEC Viewer displays the document with appropriate tags, so you can be sure the important information has been successfully noted and tagged before filing.

You can also use SAP BusinessObjects XBRL Publishing by UBmatrix to load and publish your XBRL reports to your corporate investor relations or other disclosure site (either as a linked XBRL file, or in a simple Web page that loads the XBRL document). You can also tag in management discussions for commentary and other disclosures. XBRL disclosures are helpful for non-financial reports, such as corporate sustainability reporting (CSR) and other investor relations needs.

Figure 7

Save the file as an XBRL file or simple Web page

William Newman

William Newman, MBA, CMC is managing principal of Newport Consulting Group, LLC, an SAP partner focused on EPM and GRC solutions. He has over 25 years of experience in the development and management of strategy, process, and technology solutions spanning Fortune 1000, public-sector, midsized and not-for-profit organizations. He is a Certified Management Consultant (CMC) since 1995, qualified trainer by the American Society of Quality (ASQ) since 2000, and a trained Social Fingerprint consultant in social accountability since 2012. William is a recognized ASUG BusinessObjects influencer and a member of SAP’s Influencer Relations program. He holds a BS degree in aerospace engineering from the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science at UCLA and an MBA in management and international business from the Conrad L. Hilton School of Management at Loyola Marymount University. He is a member of the adjunct faculty at both Northwood University and the University of Oregon with a focus on management studies and sustainability, respectively.

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You may contact the author at wnewman@newportconsgroup.com.

If you have comments about this article or publication, or would like to submit an article idea, please contact the editor.