US GAAP XBRL Taxonomy Exemplars (Prototype)

An exemplar is an “undisputed example”. It is a model or pattern or example intended to be copied or imitated. This is a set of exemplars of the pieces of the US GAAP Taxonomy (select networks, not all networks, this is intended to be a prototype).

This set of exemplars provides examples for select sections of the US GAAP Taxonomy (i.e. not the entire taxonomy). The modeling of the exemplars follows the logical model of the US GAAP Taxonomy Architecture consistently. Exemplars are created for common reporting situations. Everything exemplar is modeled as explicitly as possible.

This resource is intended to be readable by humans, but also readable by computer applications. The following information is used to read these examples from a computer application. This information is made available using RDF so that this information can be supplemented by others.

Meta data in RDF:

Imagine if all these things were tied together using meta data.  Below are prototype versions of RDF/OWL meta data relating to financial reporting for the networks, tables, components, and exemplars.  This meta data is readable by computer software applications which can leverage this meta data. This Excel application is a sample/prototype and can be used to grab individual components and other information.

· Networks: RDF-Networks.xml

· Tables: RDF-Tables.xml

· Components: RDF-Components.xml

· Exemplars: RDF-Exemplars.xml

Meta data is OK if it is readable by a human, but even better readable by a computer.  Here is an example of meta data: http://cpaclass.com/gaap/sfac/gaap-sfac-6.htm  Here is additional computer readable meta data which will eventually be mapped to the networks, tables, components, concepts, and relations which make up the US GAAP Taxonomy:

· Elements of financial statements: http://www.xbrlsite.com/Demos/Ontologies/2011-04-15/US-GAAP-elements.xml

· Key ratios: http://www.xbrlsite.com/Demos/Ontologies/2011-04-15/US-GAAP-KeyRatios.xml

(NOTE: RSS is another approach to getting at this meta data, here is an RSS feed to the XML Info Set version of Networks: rss.xml. RDF/OWL is more flexible in my view. This is an older prototype of various RDF/OWL ontologies relating to financial reporting: http://www.xbrlsite.com/Demos/Ontologies/2009-12-24/.

Framework:

This is an upper level framework under which the pieces of the taxonomy, the [Table]s, can be organized:  http://www.xbrlsite.com/US-GAAP-2011/Exemplars/Framework/MapToTables_Relations.html

Objects:

These web pages show how you can get information from the US GAAP taxonomy and not actually interface with the taxonomy.  This information is pulled from a database which is vastly easier to program against that the US GAAP taxonomy in its XBRL format, particularly if you do not have an XBRL processor.

· List of Objects: That list provides the collections of objects in the US GAAP Taxonomy in a flat list. The objects are a little better than XBRL terminology.

· HTML Information for an Object: This, which you can get to from the list above by clicking on the HTML link, is simply a listing of information about an object. This is a rendering of information, no XBRL involved.

· XML Information for an Object: This is just like the link above, except rather than providing the information to you in HTML so you can read it, this provides the information in XML so that a computer application can read it.  This is a pseudo-web service, WSDL. Not sure I have the syntax perfectly correct.  This is not XBRL either.

· Relations infoset: This is a portion of the taxonomy expressed as a BRLM (Business Reporting Logical Model) infoset.