XBRL API Quarterly Data Call

As explained in our Getting Started guide, We have set up an Excel sheet to make it really easy to start quickly pulling data back using Beryl, our API. All you have to do is fill in the coloured boxes in any of the sheets and run the query to bring back a time series for your chosen data point.

An API call for quarterly data works in much the same way as for annual values. However to bring back Quarterlies, three more boxes come into play. except this time they are black.

 Black Boxes  - these either represent fixed elements of the API path or ones that have a small set of finite values so we have rigged them up as drop downs in Excel.

 Black Box  - Annual? Default value is "yr" but you can select "q" to see quarterly values instead.

 Black Box  - Quarter. Selecting "q" brings this box into play where you can select which quarter 1,2, or 3. You can also specify "123" to get all quarterlies for a year. NOTE: "12" etc will not bring back 1st and 2nd Quarters. Only "123" works for multiple quarters in a year. If this is set to "4", and the next box is set to "ytd", it will bring back the annual figures.

 Black Box  - YTD. Setting this to "ytd" as opposed to blank will bring back cumulative figures for the year - the Year To Date.

Orange Boxes work just like they do for annual amounts. So if you set the date to 2019, it will bring back the quarter you selected (e.g. 2) for the reporting year ending in that year. And if you set Years to 5, you will get a times series of quarter 2's going back 5 years.

And Finally: Quarterlies. Accessing Quarterly XBRL in Excel

A bit later than planned but finally you can now select XBRL 10Q filing data in XBRL to XL and analyse it in Excel.

I have created a new template for quarterly data, which automatically gets selected for download if the 1st filing you choose is a 10Q. This has been designed to make the most of both the values for the most recent quarter and the Year To Date (YTD) numbers.

In a quarterly report, a company will in effect report 5 periods worth of data: latest & previous quarter; latest YTD & previous YTD and comparable balance sheet numbers for the start of the year to which the quarter belongs. In the 1st quarter 10Q, the YTD's won't appear.

So in an XBRL quarterly filing, there are in theory up to 5 principal periods but XBRL has two types of concept (or context to use the XBRL parlance) for any given period: one for duration elements (e.g. income statement items) and one for instant elements (e.g. balance sheet items) so that might lead you to think that a quarterly filing has 10 of these things, except that it doesn't because a quarter and a corresponding YTD share the same instant balance sheet date.

This makes lining up periods for comparison tricky. especially the latest YTD which shares the same balance sheet numbers as the quarter. In XBRL to XL, we have duplicated these numbers to create fully comparable columns of data, regardless of whether you are looking at quarter or YTD figures.

In the "Filing" sheets (above), containing the data laid out as it appears in the filed document, 5 columns of data are downloaded: latest & previous quarter; start of year balance sheet; latest & previous YTD. Be aware that generally, no comparable balance sheet figures are included for the previous quarter - you will need to include the filing for the previous quarter for that.

And in the "Standard" sheet, we have created a new control allowing you to toggle between the quarter and YTD values.

Set it to true to see the YTD numbers.

"Control" is a rather over blown description for it - it's just a cell in which you type either true or false! And the item value formulas use this to determine which columns to use in the calculation.

Comparing XBRL: What happened to Step 1?

If you read my last post, you might be wondering what happened to Step 1! Well Step 1 in comparing XBRL is about actually accessing the stuff in the first place in a way that enables you to do comparisons, which is what I've been droning on about in most of my previous posts and what XBRL to XL is all about.

So it would be a bit rubbish if you couldn't actually access all the data, like in XBRL to XL where you can't currently download quarterlies. So rubbish in fact it's time to change this. As from Monday quarterly data will be available and I will talk here about the issues of accessing quarterly data in XBRL and how we have combated them to maximise comparability and transparency.