01878nas a2200181   4500008004100000245008700041210006900128260002300197520123400220653001501454653000801469100002001477700002401497700001601521700001701537700002101554856012101575       2009                        eng d00aVisualizing basic accounting flows: does XBRL + model + animation = understanding?0 aVisualizing basic accounting flows does XBRL model animation und  aNew York, NYc20093 aThe usefulness of XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) in facilitating efficient data sharing is clear, but widespread use of XBRL also promises to support more effective analysis processes. Representing traditional financial statements in this electronic and interoperable format should allow managers, investors, regulators, and importantly students to aggregate, compare and analyze financial information. Processing such data requires an understanding of the underlying paradigms embedded in consolidated sets of financial statements. This work explores the feasibility and effectiveness of an XBRL-based visualization tool, presenting an organizational framework, mapping that framework to financial statements and the XBRL formalism, and demonstrating a visual representation that organizes, depicts, and animates financial data. We show that our tool integrates and presents profitability, liquidity, financing, and market value data in a manner recognizable to business students in introductory financial accounting classes. This preliminary finding suggests the promise of XBRL-based visualization tools both in helping students grasp basic accounting concepts and in facilitating financial analysis in general.10aAccounting10aBIS1 aMarshall, Byron1 aMortenson, Kristian1 aBourne, Amy1 aPrice, Kevin1 aMarshall, Andrew  u/biblio/visualizing-basic-accounting-flows-does-xbrl-model-animation-understanding-4