XBRL US and an alliance of member companies have formed the XBRL US Center for Data Quality (the Center)  to improve the quality of XBRL financial data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The Center is dedicated  to improving the usability and effectiveness of XBRL data.  Specifically, the Center has funded the creation and implementation of the Data Quality Committee that develops guidance and validation standards (freely available to all public companies) to prevent or detect inconsistencies and errors in the XBRL data. Find out about joining the Center.

The Current Problem

The full benefits of using XBRL data filed with the SEC have not been reached due to errors and inconsistencies in data tagging that in large part result from:

  • Absence of unambiguous guidance for using the US GAAP taxonomy;
  • Lack of corporate awareness of errors in their filings.

Data users cannot use the data easily.  Inconsistent or incorrect data tagging, including the use of custom tags in lieu of standard tags and input mistakes, causes translation errors, which make automated analysis of the data unduly difficult.

View company-specific data quality filing results and aggregated quarterly results for selected rules.

The Solution

Data users cannot realize the full potential and overarching benefits of XBRL unless:

  • Companies are offered unambiguous guidance to eliminate data tagging options;
  • Uniform validation rules are used to verify compliance with the guidance and prevent or detect tagging errors; and
  • A zero tolerance approach is applied to errors and inconsistencies as the only acceptable standard for XBRL data filed with the SEC.

Comment

Center for Data Quality