Executive Summary

The Seattle Method attempts to clarify, simplify, formalize, popularize, and systematize digital financial reporting which will potentially be used worldwide. The Seattle Method's contribution is in the codification of digital financial reporting; turning scattered ideas into a rigorous, elegant, teachable, repeatable methodology which can be reliably used to create industrial processes. This can result in industry norms for digital financial reporting using the XBRL global open industry standard.

The Seattle Method is a proven, rigorously tested, pragmatic, global open industry standards based framework for producing high quality precise machine interpretable digital business reports. Accounting is a deeply understood knowledge system now undergoing a major transformation as digitization enables industrialization of reporting, auditing, and analysis. Model-driven digital accounting, reporting, auditing, and analysis artifacts are the next evolutionary step, a step that replaces ad hoc “craft” based processes which rely on individual skills, judgements, and memory into best practices based, standardized, scalable, repeatable, efficient industrial processes.  This can occur because digital machine interpretable business reports can be created using global open industry standards such as XBRL International’s Open Information Model (OIM) and the Object Management Group’s Standard Business Report Model (SBRM).

Digital financial reporting is not about standardizing forms but about enabling controlled customization through well defined business report models. This controlled flexibility allows computers to reliably interpret meaning, enabling automation of tedious accounting tasks and freeing professionals to focus on higher value work. Business report logic can be expressed using multiple technical formats including Semantic Web technologies, labeled property graphs, or logic programming with each different approach preserving the underlying conceptual logical model. This interoperability allows knowledge to flow between systems, agents, and applications, forming a new medium for exchanging meaning in both financial and non financial reporting contexts.

The Seattle Method, OIM, and SBRM are a foundation for a new era of human–machine teaming. By enabling precise information exchange and reducing epistemic risk, it supports Lean Six Sigma–level improvements in accuracy and efficiency. Accounting, auditing, and analysis will shift from manual “data janitor” work toward augmented, collaborative processes where machines handle repetitive tasks and humans apply judgment. This transition requires a new mental model, a model suited to the logic of digital information exchange rather than analog-era assumptions and promises substantial productivity gains, higher quality, and more reliable decision making.

For more information, please see the Seattle Method Overview.

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