Common XBRL terms are defined below:
Table 42. XBRL Terminology and Definitions
| Terminology | Description |
|---|---|
| Abstract | Identifies the attribute of a concept that shows that the concept is only used in a hierarchy to group related elements together. An abstract concept cannot be used to map data in an instance document. |
| Arc | Arcs are referred to as “summation-item” arcs. Summation-item arcs MUST represent relationships only between concepts that are in the item substitution group and whose type is numeric They represent aggregation relationships between concepts. Each of these relationships is between one concept, referred to as the summation concept, and another concept, referred to as the contributing concept. |
| Attributes | Properties of concepts/elements |
| Axis | In the instance document, an axis classifies facts and how facts are reported. For example, in a given time period, Gross Profit may be classified on a sales region axis or a business unit axis. |
| Calculation Linkbase | The calculation linkbase is designed to enable basic operations to be defined for sets of items in a taxonomy schema document. These calculations can then be used to check that these operations have been calculated correctly in an XBRL instance document. Calculation linkbases provide for basic summations and some multiplication. |
| Calculation Trace | Organizes the results of all of the calculations of an XBRL document into the same tree view. It sorts the data by extended links and units hyperlinked to extended links and units (at bottom) and noting discrepancies where the addition differs from instance values representing sums. |
| Data Type (Type) | Identifies the data storage format that can hold a specific type of data or range of values for the concept. Examples of data types include: decimal and string. |
| Document Data | Refers to data that resides within a Microsoft Office document. For the first release, supported Office documents include Microsoft Excel or Word. The generic “document data” term can mean one cell in Microsoft Excel, one word in Word or and one paragraph in Word. It is used throughout to mean data that is or can be mapped by the Disclosure Management Mapping Tool. |
| Document Identifier | Every Office document that has Disclosure Management non-data source mappings is assigned a document identifier (also known as the documentName. This property is used to identify an Office document within the Mapping Repository. The value for this property is stored as custom XML within the Office document. Note that the documentName property is not required or used for data source mappings. |
| Domain | Domains are members of an XBRL dimension. A domain is similar to a domain member except that it has one or more child elements. A domain member may be a child of another domain (that is, embedded domain). However, as long as a domain member has one or more children, it is considered to be a domain. Another distinction between domains and domain members is that domains are always considered to be “aggregations ” of its members. You can calculate the value of the domain by aggregating its members (that is, children). Within a taxonomy, domains are identified with the xbrli:item substitution group attribute. Because they are not abstract elements, they can be mapped. For example, in the “Region” dimension, “North America”, “USA”, and “Europe” may all be domain members. |
| Fact Value | Refers to data that has XBRL concepts associated to it. It is important to differentiate the term “document data” versus a “fact value”. Document data is part of an Office document, whereas a fact value is typically part of an XBRL instance document. During the mapping phase, you can use document data and fact values interchangeably. However, a key differentiator is that a fact value contains all the necessary XBRL mappings (that is, a concept, context and unit), whereas document data can have incomplete mappings. The document data originates from an Office file; it is subsequently copied (without any formatting) to an XBRL instance document. |
| Financial Statements | Financial Reports containing corporate periodic financial (quarterly, annual and so on) |
| Formula Trace | A formula trace organizes the results of all formulas in an XBRL document into the same tree view. It sorts the data by extended links and units hyperlinked to extended links and units (at bottom) and records the failure of a formula at the bottom. |
| Hypercube | The topmost container of XBRL dimensions. xbrldt:hypercubeItem substitution group attribute. Because they are always abstract elements, they cannot be mapped. In Disclosure Management, hypercubes are shown in the “Definition View” from the Taxonomy pane. |
| Mapping | Correlation of taxonomy items to column and lines financial statement data and those items that must be created by extension. |
| Namespace | An XML term. It provides a mechanism to uniquely identify XML concepts. This is known has a Universal Resource Identifier (URI). XBRL uses namespaces to identify the organization that defines taxonomies and their element definitions. For example, namespaces for the US GAAP Taxonomy have the prefix: http://xbrl.us/us-gaap/. Note that a namespace prefix is not the namespace. |
| Nillable | A property that applies to all taxonomy concepts. Nillable indicate whether the concept must have a nonempty value. |
| Period Type | An attribute of a concept that shows whether the concept is reported as an instant or duration time period. |
| Presentation Relationship View | Arranges concepts within the taxonomy in parent-child hierarchies. |
| Relation | A connection between two concepts, accomplished using the xlink standard. The relation is always from one concept to another. It is directional, based on xlink, with “from” and “to” as the endpoints. The name of the relation is its role. A concept may participate in many relations, such as a concept having multiple labels by language. |
| Scheme | A reference to the naming authority for the entity ID. For example, you could specify that the context references the US GAAP framework. |
| Taxonomy Extension (XLink) | An extension is an addition to a base taxonomy. When you add or extend a taxonomy, you overlay the structure of the base taxonomy. Extensions might include the addition of concept relationships, calculations or linkbases, or business rules enabling you to add items as needed based on your own reporting requirements. The Disclosure Management XBRL Taxonomy Designer provides the ability to extend your base taxonomy. |
| Validation | Method of ensuring that instance documents and taxonomies correlate to the requirements of the XBRL specification. |
| XBRL Concept/Element | Components (items, tuples, dimensions, domains) defined in a taxonomy. |
| XBRL Context | Defines information about the business entity, a reporting period and an optional Scenario. This set of metadata interprets the facts in financial statements:
|
| XBRL Dimension | A dimension is a “slice” or axis of a hypercube. An XBRL dimension contains one or more domains. XBRL defines two types of dimensions explicit and typed. Within a taxonomy, dimensions are identified with the xbrldt:dimensionItem substitution group attribute. Because they are always abstract elements, they cannot be mapped. For example, “Regions”, “Accounts”, “Scenarios”, and “Products” could all be defined as dimensions within a hypercube. In Disclosure Management, hypercubes are shown in the “Definition View” from the Taxonomy pane. |
| XBRL Instance Documents | XML files that contains financial business reporting information, using mappings from one or more XBRL taxonomies |
| XBRL Schema | XML Schema is the World Wide Web Consortium standard for the specification of XML instance documents and vocabularies. Using an XML Schema to define an XML instance document, developers can use the validating properties of standard XML parsers to machine validate data against the document definition. All schemas written to the XML Schema standard should validate against the World Wide Web Consortium’s Schema for schemas. The XML Schema standard is defined at: http://www.w3.org/XML/Schema. |
| XBRL Specification | Descriptions and guidelines of XML semantics, syntax, and frameworks used for XBRL construction. |
| XBRL Taxonomies | XML-based dictionaries of concepts, labels, calculations, and instructions used to create XBRL Instance Documents. You can view an entire taxonomy in the Disclosure Management Taxonomy Designer, but view the concept structure in the Disclosure Management Mapping Tool available in Microsoft Word, Excel, or Oracle Hyperion Financial Reporting. |
| XBRL Tuple | Tuples are facts containing multiple values and are identified by a single XML concept holding nested items. A tuple member by itself may not provide enough relevant information; however, a group of tuple members provide the information needed. For example, the tuple concept “company address” may consist of the following tuple members: “Name”, “Street”, “City”, “State”, “Postal Code”, and “Country”. One tuple member by itself (such as “City”), is not sufficient to describe the concept “company address”. Only when all tuple members are provided does the concept become useful. The Disclosure Management Mapping Tool provides a “tuple view” under the Concept tab that shows all existing tuples defined within a taxonomy. |
| XBRL Unit | The units in which numeric values are measured. Examples of units are dollars or shares. |