The eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) is the future of financial reporting. XBRL is a computer language that “tags” each item and specifies what that item is. XBRL reporting has also been adopted for use in Australia, Japan, and the United Kingdom. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires that U.S. companies submit financial reports to the SEC in XBRL format. XBRL reporting allows investors to quickly download financial statements for analysis. One problem with XBRL is that it is not easily readable for humans. As a result, in 2018, the SEC voted to adopt the Inline eXtensible Business Reporting Language (iXBRL), which is machine-readable, as well as human-readable.

For this assignment, go to the SEC website at www.sec.gov. Once there, look up the financials for a company. Next to the 10-Q (quarterly) and 10-K (annual) reports, you should notice a link that says “iXBRL.” Click on the most recent 10-Q or 10-K and download all of the financial statements in one Excel document. Use these financial statements to calculate the ratios in the next worksheet. Do you notice any changes in these ratios that might indicate further investigation?