Bob Schneider is a Partner in 
Wilson So is the Director of Hitachi America, Ltd. Key XBRL Information Resources
Written by Bob Schneider Posted on March 6, 2008
About a year ago I wrote My XBRL Reading List and XBRL Blogs and Forums which suggested various resources for learning more about interactive data and keeping up-to-date on XBRL developments. Since then some excellent new resources have become available, and existing sources offer much fresh content. Now is a good time to update these old posts.
Here are some of the best resources on and off the Web for XBRL information. If you know of any key sources I’ve missed, I hope you will add a Comment about them below.
Books
A search at Amazon using keyword XBRL retrieves few useful items. One excellent book missing in those records is Interactive Data - Building XBRL Into Accounting Information Systems published by and available from The Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants. Gerald Trites and his team provide an excellent introduction to the data standard; the book is particularly strong in offering an overview on how XBRL can be introduced and adopted for large organizations.
Also available is Hitachi’s XBRL for Dummies; both a preview and an order form are available online. The book is free; you pay only for shipping and handling.
Blogs and Forums
Charlie Hoffman recently started his own interactive blog Financial Reporting Using XBRL. He updates it regularly and, as you might expect, it has loads of interesting content. It well demonstrates the acumen Charlie brings to all XBRL matters.
John Turner’s Insight blog also brings a rare intelligence to the subject. One post that’s particularly worthwhile is IROs Shouldn’t Look for New Jobs Just Yet, a reply to a post by Dominic Jones at his IR Web Report blog (which should also be in your Favorites list his frequent posts on interactive data are timely and illuminating). Also be sure to read John’s white paper on Assurance Considerations for Interactive Data, in which he takes an-depth look at one of the most crucial issues in XBRL adoption.
Some other useful blogs:
The FEI Financial Reporting Blog often has posts about XBRL-related news and events.
Gerald Trites and others keep readers updated on the XBRL scene in Canada at the XBRL Canada Blog.
The CorporateCounsel.net occasionally has timely and interesting commentary on XBRL developments.
So far as forums are concerned, Yahoo’s XBRL-Public group is the most active, with over 1,200 members. Several XBRL mavens informally monitor the posts and are usually happy to entertain questions and information requests.
Financial Media
CFO.com offers the best XBRL coverage of all the financial magazines. In my year-ago tour of XBRL resources I mentioned the site’s excellent XBRL Special Report that has links to loads of interactive data articles. Unfortunately, the page is not updated for new material. But you can use the Search function at the site with keyword XBRL to find more recent articles; on your page of retrieved records, a click on the Newest First button will list the most recent articles on top. At the bottom of any XBRL story you open there will be links to Related Articles that also focus on interactive data content.
Among the big financial newspapers, look to FT.com for the most regular XBRL coverage. Here too the Search function works well for finding XBRL content. None of the articles I found in my searches required a subscription.
Websites
The XBRL Spotlight page at the SEC contains recent XBRL news, links to webcasts of the Commission’s interactive data roundtables, and recent speeches of Chairman Cox and other Commission members on XBRL subjects. The page for the Advisory Committee on Improvements to Financial Reporting has links to the so-called Pozen Committee’s reports and announcements of public meetings (by the way, the next meeting will be held March 13-14 in San Francisco). The SEC site also has a gateway page with links to the various interactive data viewers, and the Speeches and Public Statements page provides a complete archive of the various presentations of Chairman Cox and other Commission members, including of course those on XBRL.
The Archives at XBRL.org has links to the presentations of past conferences. Unfortunately, the archiving is irregular those for the most recent 15th and 16th conferences appear to include only the slides, while that for the 14th includes the full-text speeches by Chris Cox, Jeffrey Diermeier of the FEI, Kurt Ramin, Harm Jan van Burg, and other leading figures in the XBRL and financial communities. XBRL.org, XBRL-US, and the various XBRL country sites all provide useful information, including introductory materials, taxonomies, latest news, upcoming events, etc.
Finally, for those interested in XBRL-GL, the best resources are the webcasts archived at the GaLaPaGoS page. These outreach sessions of the XBRL GL Working Group cover a wide range of topics and provide an excellent introduction to the area.