Observation

Instances of the class [[Observation]] are used to specify observations about an entity at a particular time. The principal properties of an [[Observation]] are [[observationAbout]], [[measuredProperty]], [[statType]], [[value] and [[observationDate]] and [[measuredProperty]]. Some but not all Observations represent a [[QuantitativeValue]]. Quantitative observations can be about a [[StatisticalVariable]], which is an abstract specification about which we can make observations that are grounded at a particular location and time. Observations can also encode a subset of simple RDF-like statements (its observationAbout, a StatisticalVariable, defining the measuredPoperty; its observationAbout property indicating the entity the statement is about, and [[value]] ) In the context of a quantitative knowledge graph, typical properties could include [[measuredProperty]], [[observationAbout]], [[observationDate]], [[value]], [[unitCode]], [[unitText]], [[measurementMethod]].

via schema.org — CC-BY-SA 3.0

Related terms

parent Intangible
parent Quantitative Value

Source	License	Entries	Why we use it
FIBO	MIT	3,330 classes	Canonical financial ontology from the EDM Council — banking, securities, debt, corporate structure.
Lexicon extension (`lex:` / `dr:`)	MIT	39 classes	Curated M&A terms (Quality of Earnings, SDE, LOI, DSCR, BBS grade, Earnest Money, Purchase Agreement, Working Capital, Customer Concentration) plus Person / Dossier / Evidence / Collector (PROV-O subclasses) that FIBO doesn't cover.
XBRL US-GAAP 2026	FAF royalty-free	17,182 elements (14,760 with documentation)	Every element FASB ships in its 2026 financial-reporting taxonomy — line-item names, abstract groupings, axes, members, types — pulled from `xbrl.fasb.org/us-gaap/2026/us-gaap-2026.zip`. Standard labels become pref labels; documentation linkbase prose becomes definitions; terse / total / period-start / period-end labels join as alt labels.
Plaid PFC Taxonomy	Published spec	120 categories (16 primary + 104 detail)	Plaid's transaction-categorization taxonomy. `INCOME_WAGES` survives as alt-label so downstream Plaid integrations can lookup canonically; pref label is the humanized leaf ("Wages"); detail rows are `rdfs:subClassOf` their primary.
GnuCash chart of accounts	MIT (paraphrased)	100 accounts (13 with definitions)	Account names + types from the GnuCash US chart templates (common + business). Names + type enums treated as facts; the GPL-tainted `act:description` strings are dropped and replaced with hand-paraphrased one-line definitions for ~30 well-known accounts (Cash, Accounts Receivable, Cost of Goods Sold, Depreciation, Retained Earnings, etc.) at `data/coa_definitions.jsonl`.
Wikidata — finance classes	CC0 1.0	752 classes	Pulled via SPARQL from `wdt:P279*` under `wd:Q43015` (finance) + `wd:Q650241` (financial institution). CC0 — no attribution burden.
schema.org	CC-BY-SA 3.0	1,007 classes	General business concepts (Organization, Product, LocalBusiness, Offer) — used across the open web, matches common consumer vocabulary.
NAICS 2022	US public domain	2,122 codes	The full Census NAICS hierarchy, sector through 6-digit industry — same codes brokers see on Schedule C. Each code links `rdfs:subClassOf` the level above; the numeric code doubles as an alt-label so `541211` matches "Offices of Certified Public Accountants".
Tryton account_us	GPLv3+ (paraphrased)	1,201 entries	The most US-GAAP-native account hierarchy in the OSS ecosystem — balance-sheet vs income-statement classification baked into account types. Names + types ingested as facts; no GPL-tainted prose mirrored.
BEA Glossary	US public domain	200 entries	Bureau of Economic Analysis terminology — national-accounts vocabulary (GDP components, NIPA structure, BEA-specific aggregates). Federal complement to BLS labor-market vocabulary.
FRED Categories	US public domain	669 categories	St. Louis Fed FRED API category taxonomy, top 3 levels — 8 top-level economic domains (Money/Banking/Finance, National Accounts, Prices, etc.) and their sub-categories down to specific measurement areas. Each category links `rdfs:subClassOf` its parent.
ERPNext charts	GPLv3 (paraphrased)	95 entries	Adds `account_number` ranges (1xxx Asset, 2xxx Liability, 4xxx Income, 5xxx Expense) and `account_category` labels that GnuCash and Tryton don't expose explicitly.
OFX 2.x TRNTYPE	Spec (facts)	17 enum values	The bank-statement transaction-type enumeration every U.S. bank-feed downloader uses — CREDIT / DEBIT / INT / DIV / FEE / DEP / ATM / POS / XFER / CHECK / PAYMENT / DIRECTDEP / DIRECTDEBIT / etc. Underneath Plaid's consumer categorization layer.
LKIF-Core	CC-BY 4.0	255 classes	Core legal concepts (roles, norms, actions, processes) from the EU ESTRELLA project — the most-cited open legal ontology.
U.S. Code Title 26 (Internal Revenue Code)	US public domain	1,143 definitions	Explicit "the term X means Y" definitions extracted from the USLM XML feed at uscode.house.gov — §7701 General Definitions plus 1,000+ scattered in-line definitions. Source-linked to Cornell LII.
IRS Publications 334 / 463 / 583	US public domain	21 definitions (hand-triaged from 75 candidates)	SMB-relevant terms inline-defined in the published HTML of IRS Pubs (Trade or business, Sole proprietor, Cash method, Accrual method, Section 179 deduction, Per diem rates, etc.). Triage rules + re-run instructions at `data/irs_triage_notes.md`.
W3C PROV-O	W3C Document License	49 classes (parents only)	Provenance ontology — used as the parent class hierarchy for the dealright-ext Person / Dossier / Evidence / Collector classes. No own page bucket; rendered as parent classes inside dealright-ext term pages.
Wikipedia — supplements	CC-BY-SA 3.0	586 hits	Encyclopedia-length summaries via the REST `/page/summary/` endpoint for richer context on complex concepts (CDOs, derivatives, etc.).
Wikidata — supplements	CC0 1.0	724 hits	One-line structured descriptions attached as an additional block on FIBO pages.
Wiktionary	CC-BY-SA 4.0	322 hits	Plain-language dictionary senses, appended as a supplement where FIBO's formal definition is too terse.
Investor.gov · CFTC · Federal Reserve	US public domain	1,205 entries (82 hits)	Authoritative US regulatory + banking glossaries scraped once into JSONL. Public domain — zero licensing friction.