Issued: March 30, 2012
Impact: All US GAAP

Issue

EFM 6.6.1 and EFM 6.6.2 require non-numeric facts containing texts to be tagged using the current reporting period. Since the durationItemType data type is used to represent non-numeric facts, these rules would begin to apply.

Given this, how should a filer best distinguish the facts highlighted below (14 years as of 6/30/11 and 16 years as of 6/30/10)?

Non-Numeric Items in Multiple Periods

Recommendation

In this case, the values of 14 and 16, which represent the useful lives, should have separate date contexts to represent the periods for which they are applicable. These items were decimals and were changed to durations to reflect the fact they were durations.  Given the facts are identical and only the datatype changed, this should not change the period context of the fact.  EFM 6.6.1 and 6.6.2 apply to non-numeric facts containing text.  Given the values tagged do not contain text, then these EFM rules will not apply in the case of the durationItemTypes.

In a number of cases, vendors have implemented this check in a way that durationItemTypes are considered non-numeric.  These messages should be ignored.