Embodiments are disclosed for the preparation, validation, and dissemination of XBRL based documents and reports. An embodiment system includes a user input device, an editing system, a data store, a validation system, and a publishing system. The user input device is configured to accept numerical and textual input from existing spreadsheet and word processing systems. The editing system provides functionality to generate a first XBRL based document including numerical and textual data, and, based on user input, to generate one or more additional XBRL based documents from the first document. The data store is configured to store source files associated with the corresponding XBRL based documents. The validation system is configured to validate, identify, and correct errors in XBRL based documents. The publishing system is configured to provide access to XBRL based documents over the internet and generate a reference locator to be used to access the documents.