SEC filers, investors, XBRL providers encouraged to review and comment
The XBRL US Data Quality Committee (DQC) has published its 11th Ruleset for a 45-day public review and comment period, which closes on January 3, 2020. DQC rules aid issuers in preparing consistent, error-free financials, by providing automated checks that test an XBRL-formatted financial statement prior to SEC submission. Issuers that use the rules can find and correct errors, to ensure that regulators and investors are provided with good quality data and the most accurate view of corporate financial health. Access the public review: https://xbrl.us/data-quality/rules-guidance/public-review/
The latest Ruleset contains automated checks that help users identify the correct tagging for deferred tax information and operating leases, two topics that have been impacted by new accounting standards that are now effective for most filers. In addition, IFRS elements that have been newly added for the 2019 taxonomy, are proposed to be added for the negative value rule.
“We strongly encourage SEC filers, using either US GAAP or IFRS, to review the individual rules and test them against their own XBRL financials to see if any of these errors are triggered,” said Joan Berg, Chair of the XBRL US DQC; and Director, XBRL Services at Toppan Merrill, “Let us know about your experience. Do you agree with an error that was triggered? Is the message you received understandable, and did it provide sufficient information to correct? This type of input is critical to help us improve the usability of the rules for issuers.”
The DQC has also finalized approved Ruleset 10, which contains rules related to variable interest entities as well as inconsistencies when filers tag the same element from period to period.
The XBRL US Filing Results & Quality Checks application allows SEC Filers or other interested parties to check EDGAR submissions for DQC errors for any company here: https://xbrl.us/data-quality/filing-results/
Graphical depictions of historical DQC error count, categorized by rule type, can be seen here: https://xbrl.us/data-quality/filing-results/dqc-results/
The DQC, which is funded through the XBRL US Center for Data Quality, is responsible for developing guidance and validation rules that can prevent or detect inconsistencies or errors in XBRL data filed with the SEC, and focuses on data quality issues that adversely affect data analysis. All approved rules and guidance are free and publicly available. A webinar will be held on December 2 to review the 11th ruleset and discuss the impact of the errors. Register to attend the free webinar: https://xbrl.us/events/20191202/
Filers have immediate access to all final approved rules as well as the 11th Ruleset in public review so that they can check their filings prior to SEC submission. There are several options available to filers:
- Through software that has been certified to run with the ruleset: https://xbrl.us/certification
- Through the XBRL US checking tool: https://xbrl.us/check
- By downloading the Approved Rules and using them with Arelle – the open source version of the SEC’s EDGAR Renderer/Previewer: https://xbrl.us/dqc-releases
To access the approved rules and guidance, go to: https://xbrl.us/rules-guidance
Members of the XBRL US Center for Data Quality include Altova, the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA), Broadridge Financial Solutions, Certent, DataTracks, Donnelley Financial Solutions (DFIN), P3 Data Systems, RDG Filings, Toppan Merrill, and Workiva. Toppan Merrill is a founding member of the Center for Data Quality.
