The winner of the XBRL Challenge contest to promote new applications for using XBRL data is Calcbench, an open-source application that consumes corporate XBRL data and performs comparative analytics.

Calcbench enables instant, online retrieval of XBRL data organized by company, industry and size. It provides comparability across time and companies, with benchmarking to sector and industry, and it enables data to be analyzed and shared. The judges chose Calcbench because it features a strong user interface and analytics, allowing users to perform multi-company comparisons annually and quarter-to-quarter. The judges also liked that the tool allows users to add their own notes and formulas, export to Excel, and share the work with others.

"Among a very strong pool of applications, the judges chose Calcbench because it offers the broadest appeal and the most comprehensive use of data with XBRL and other sources, all within a simple interface that's easy to use,” said Paul Ratnaraj, director of advanced initiatives at Wharton Research Data Services and a judge for the contest. “It also offers a good framework on which to build other analytical tools."

XBRL US launched the XBRL Challenge in July 2011 to raise awareness of XBRL, especially among prospective users, and to inspire the creation of a new generation of tools that would promote adoption and help make XBRL as useful as possible. The contest drew 84 applicants, which ultimately led to 15 submissions.

Calcbench was co-founded by Pranav Ghai in New York and Alex Rapp in Cambridge, Mass., both with backgrounds in financial services. "The best moment in the development process for us was when we realized we'd created a tool we suddenly couldn't live without," said Ghai.

In addition to the $20,000 grand prize for Calcbench, the judges also acknowledged another entry, Dynamic Earnings Model, with a “People’s Choice” designation. It is an application that automatically generates a valuation model from XBRL data, allowing analysts to flexibly define a more sophisticated model using any element in the XBRL Taxonomy without requiring programming knowledge.

Other finalists included:

·                     Advanced XBRL Processing by OXIDE Solutions – an open-source, cloud-based or locally installed set of services that process XBRL filings and provide a platform to view, design and publish analytical reports from the XBRL data and external sources.

·                     Arelle® – an open-source XBRL platform that supports full XBRL 2.1, dimensions, formula, versioning, and table linkbase extensions.

·                     XBRL to XL – which enables downloads of "analyst ready" XBRL data into Excel via the web for multi-filing comparisons across companies or over time; and

·                     XBurble – a desktop application that allows comparison over multiple filings across companies.