Reference+Model

=Reference Model= A reference model(per Wikipedia) is "something that embodies the basic goal or idea of something and can then be looked at as a reference for various purposes. Other terms for reference model which I have heard are logical model or conceptual model.

A reference model is an abstract model which defines the entities, the relations between the entities, within an environment, and is technology agnostic.

Entities and Relations
The entities (report elements) and relations (report element relations) for digital financial reporting are from the SEC XBRL financial reporting logical model.

Environment
The environment in which digital financial reporting operates includes:

The system involves multiple stakeholders who seek different characteristics, sometimes conflicting. The list of stakeholders includes:
 * Domain Stakeholders**
 * Financial reporting standards setters
 * Regulators
 * Financial institutions
 * Preparers of financial reports
 * Auditors
 * Software vendors
 * Data aggregators
 * Investors and analysts (corporate, individual)

The system involves the following workflow:
 * Domain Workflow**
 * Standards setters create financial reporting standards.
 * Regulators may also create financial reporting standards.
 * Creators of financial reports use financial reporting standards and common practices.
 * Third party auditors may express an opinion on a financial report.
 * A data aggregator aggregates financial information which has been reported from one or more sources.
 * An investor (corporate or individual) obtains information from: a regulator, one or more preparers, one or more data aggregators, pulled from an RSS feed, pushed from a search engine, an application programming interface (API) provided by a software application
 * A software vendor provides software (internal to analyst, external to analyst).

The system context indicates a variety of users and processes. This section provides a summary of that system or environment.
 * System requirements**
 * **Standards setters** (such as the FASB and GASB) set financial reporting standards. Common practices and specific industry practices of reporting entities also add to the body of reporting standards. A subset of such financial reporting standards are directly related to financial reporting using those standards and such metadata can be expressed in the form of an ontology. An ontology is a set of well-defined elements which describes a specific domain. (A taxonomy is a classification system which does have a hierarchy, but the hierarchy tends to be less formal.)
 * Ontologies contain facts which might be reported, characteristics which contextualize the reported facts. Ontologies might exist for the entire domain, at the industry/activity level which is a sub group with the entire domain, and **Financial report creators** leverage domain level and industry/activity level ontologies but might additionally extend such domain level and industry/activity level ontologies with their own metadata (characteristics and relations).
 * The accounting information (characteristics, relations; i.e. metadata) within the base taxonomy can be changed (extended) by **Financial report creators**. A **Financial report creator** creates an extension. The extension taxonomy created should be consistent with the base taxonomy.
 * A **Financial report creator** creates a financial report using the base taxonomy and extension taxonomy. A Software vendor provides software for the financial report creator.
 * The **Financial report creator** must be sure that they created a "true and fair" representation of their financial information (i.e. complete, correct, consistent, accurate; with fidelity, with integrity).
 * An **Auditor** may express an opinion on the financial report, issuing an audit report. An Auditor must verify that the financial report is presented fairly. A **Software vendor** provides software to the auditor.
 * **Financial report creators** express facts within a financial report. A fact defines a single, observable, reportable piece of information contained within a financial report, or fact value, contextualized for unambiguous interpretation or analysis by one or more characteristics. Facts may have zero or many parenthetical explanations which provide additional descriptive information related to the fact. **Financial analysts**, **regulators**, **software vendors**, and **data aggregators** as well as the **financial report creators** should have the same unambiguous interpretation of such reported facts.
 * A financial report represents a stream of information, or reported facts, consisting business related disclosures expressed as a set of technical objects (such as instances, schemas, and linkbases that reference each other) which communicate business information, business meaning (i.e. tells a story). The story told could be expressed using the medium paper, the medium PDF or HTML or Word which is an electronic form of what amounts to paper, or a semantic, structured medium such as XBRL. Regardless of the medium, the "story which the financial report communicates" is the same. Business Users create business reports. A **Software Vendor** creates software to help business user report creators create their financial report.
 * Financial report information can be used from a single financial report, information of one reporting entity might be used across multiple financial reports for that reporting entity (i.e. time series), or information might be compared across reporting entities (entity comparison). A **Software Vendor** provides software for such report use or comparisons.
 * A **Regulator** (such as IRS or Census Bureau) receives a financial report and analyzes information within that financial report. A **Software Vendor** provides software for the **regulator**.
 * A **Analyst** obtains information from: (a) the **Regulator**, (b) the **Financial report creator**, or (c) a **Data Aggregator**. A **Software Vendor** provides software to the analyst.
 * Other paths of communication between different actors (e.g. between the **Standards Setters** and **Regulator**) are not in scope.