Insights on validation from CoreFiling
Our (many!) readers concerned with data quality, and the processes involved in validation, may be interested in a new blog series on validity in XBRL from CoreFiling, from Executive Chairman Philip Allen. The success of XBRL as a standard is built on interoperability – ensuring that a report created in one tool opens, and is correctly understood, in any other. Validation – making sure documents conform to the specifications – is key to this interoperability. By checking that reports follow any business rules defined in the relevant taxonomy, validation also helps maintain data quality.
The first post in the series, on ‘Schemas and XBRL’ discussed how schema validation made it possible to automate handling of increasing quantities of data. It also looked at validation as the five rungs of a ladder. “If the lower rungs (well-formedness, schema-validity) aren’t in place, we can’t reach the higher rungs (business rule compliance). As a general principle, any rule should be defined as low as possible in the ladder. Lower levels are easier and cheaper to enforce.”
The second post, published this week, on ‘The Inline XBRL Validation Stack’ goes into more detail on each of those rungs of the ladder.
Find the blog here.
