Retrieve EBIT from XBRL documents

Question

It appears that EBIT information is not very uniform across different XBRL documents.

Cross comparing data with other sources, such as Yahoo, I have seen some XBRL use the fact us-gaap:OperatingIncomeLoss to store it if using US-GAAP, or ifrs-full:ProfitLossBeforeTax if using IFRS.

However, sometimes it looks like they also use us-gaap:IncomeLossFromContinuingOperationsBeforeIncomeTaxesMinorityInterestAndIncomeLossFromEquityMethodInvestments or us-gaap:IncomeLossFromContinuingOperationsBeforeIncomeTaxesExtraordinaryItemsNoncontrollingInterest.

And sometimes many of those are actually filled with different values, so there is no way to know which one is correct.

Is there a more reliable way to retrieve EBIT data?

Answer 1

The use of different concepts to mean the same thing is a general problem, which is beyond the XBRL specification and usually addressed by each reporting authority.

This has been investigated notably by Charles Hoffman, CPA who suggests using his report frames. Charlie explained how to build "standardized" US GAAP balance sheets, income statements and cash flow statements with a general mapping to the original reports, in order to compare companies in the EDGAR repository.