Auditing an XBRL Instance Document:
The Case of United Technologies Corp.
A discussion and extension
Clinton E. White, Jr
Professor of Accounting & MIS
Lerner College of Business
University of Delaware
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Boritz and No
• A mock audit of the UTX filing for the 3rd
Quarter of 2005
– A thought provoking and important research
project
– Exposes a number of issues that an auditor or 3rd
party reviewer would face when collecting
evidence to provide assurance that an XBRL
instance document reports completely and
accurately what it is purported to report
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Boritz and No
• Audit procedures:
– Applied the available audit guidance
materials in planning & conducting their
audit
– Did a 100% substantive audit
– Used primarily manual techniques
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Understanding context
• Understanding context:
– <xbrli:context id="Context94">
–
<xbrli:entity>
–
<xbrli:identifier scheme=
–
"http://www.nyse.com">UTX</xbrli:identifier>
–
</xbrli:entity>
–
<xbrli:period>
–
<xbrli:startDate>2005-09-01</xbrli:startDate>
–
<xbrli:endDate>2005-09-30</xbrli:endDate>
–
</xbrli:period>
– </xbrli:context>
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Understanding context
• At least one context element is required in
every XBRL instance document
– A context element must have at least:
• An entity element containing an identifier element
• A period element containing either a startDate/endDate
combination or an instant element (or a forever
element)
– A context element may also contain:
• A segment element in the entity element
• A scenario element
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Understanding context
• 7 key context elements for consolidated
reporting:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
contextRef
Context1
Context2
Context3
Context5
Context8
Context9
Context17
instant/startDate
2005-01-01
2005-07-01
2005-04-01
2005-09-30
2004-12-31
2004-01-01
2004-07-01
endDate
2005-09-30
2005-09-30
2004-09-30
2004-09-30
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The Business Reporting Supply Chain
Processes
XML Specs
Business
Operations
XBRL External Reporting
XBRL GL
Internal
Business
Reporting
External
Business
Reporting
Investment
Lending
Regulation
Economic
Policymaking
Participants
Companies
Trading
Partners
Financial
Publishers &
Data aggregators
Management
accountants
Auditors
Investors
Central
Banks
Regulators
Software Vendors
Source:Mike Willis, PWC & XBRL
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Resources
• Boritz, Efrim and Won Gyun No, Auditing
and XBRL Instance Document: The Case of
United Technologies Corporation
• Dreyer, Christian and Mike Willis, Cheaper,
smarter, faster: benefits to analysts from
XBRL, Professional Investor (September
2006)
• Kay, Michael, XSLT 2.0 (3rd edition), Wrox –
Wiley Publishing (2004)
• XSLT Tutorial, www.w3schools.com/xsl/
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