XBRL – Covered Forms
The last time I wrote about XBRL was related to the 2018 adoption of Inline XBRL which is now fully effective for all companies (see HERE). Although I gave an overview of Inline XBRL, that blog did not cover exactly what SEC forms need to be edgarized using XBRL. I’ll cover that now.
XBRL Requirements
XBRL requirements currently apply to operating companies that prepare their financial statements in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“U.S. GAAP”) or in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (“IFRS”). Operating companies (as opposed to a new initial public offering) are required to submit financial statements and any applicable financial statement schedules in XBRL with certain Exchange Act reports and Securities Act registration statements. The 2018 adoption of inline XBRL allowed companies to embed XBRL data directly into an HTML document, eliminating the need to tag a copy of the information in a separate XBRL exhibit. Inline XBRL is both human-readable and machine-readable
SEC Adopts Inline XBRL
On June 28, 2018, the SEC adopted amendments to the XBRL requirements to require the use of Inline XBRL for financial statement information and fund risk/return summaries. Inline XBRL involves embedding XBRL data directly into the filing so that the disclosure document is both human-readable and machine-readable. Accordingly, no separate XBRL filings are required. The amendments also eliminate the requirement for companies to post XBRL data on their websites.
In 2009 the SEC adopted rules requiring companies to provide the information from the financial statements accompanying their registration statements and periodic and current reports in machine-readable format using XBRL by submitting it to the SEC as exhibits to their filings and posting it on their websites, if any. Since that time, however, many industry participants have expressed concerns regarding the quality of, extent of use of, and cost to create XBRL data. In fact, the SEC itself has discovered quality issues with the data in XBRL. As with all
