Newsletter for the Reporting Standard of Business and Government

May, 2025

XBRL US responded to an SEC Request for Comment on Interactive Data. The Securities and Exchange Commission Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Extension: Interactive Data is a standard notice, pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act, seeking input on whether the collection of data is necessary, on the accuracy of the Commission burden estimate, on how to enhance the utility and quality of data, and on ways to minimize reporting burden.

To address the questions related to issuer impact, we conducted a short survey among 26 issuers which found that the majority (62%) prepare their data in-house (many get some vendor assistance) and 37% outsource completely to a vendor.

Of those who prepare in-house, 13% spend between 0 and 5 hours on XBRL preparation; 31% spend between 6 and 20 hours; 31% between 21 and 40 hours; 19% between 41 to 60 hours; and 6% said they spend more than 60 hours. Of those outsourcing, 60% spend between 6 and 20 hours; 10% spend between 21 and 40 hours; and 30% between zero and 5 hours. Based on the survey feedback, we believe that the Commission's burden estimate of 53.1111 burden hours per filing is high; a more accurate estimate would be 22 hours spent by an issuer on a single filing.

Our comment letter went on to note that structured (XBRL) data is more useful, accessible, granular, and consistent than data in unstructured format for regulators, investors, researchers, and other data consumers. We also pointed out that the quality of XBRL data has improved since issuers have begun using Data Quality Rules.

XBRL US sent a letter to members of the 119th Congress involved in the FDTA, to emphasize the importance of open data standards as a proven method to meet government efficiency goals. The letter was sent to Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee Mike Crapo (R-ID), Senator Mark Warner (D-VA), Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee French Hill (R-AK), and House Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Maxine Waters (D-CA), to draw attention to the importance of legislation supporting data standards and to urge Congress to ensure that the Financial Data Transparency Act (FDTA) moves forward successfully.

The aim of the FDTA and other laws like the Open Government Data Act, the Grants Reporting Efficiency and Agreements Transparency (GREAT) Act and the FDTA is to make data collected by regulatory bodies machine-understandable, more timely, accessible, and interoperable. And yet, some legislation like the GREAT Act, has not been transformed into successful regulations. Federal agencies continue to operate in silos when they could gain greater efficiency through collaboration and adopting a single semantic data model.

Our letter urged Congress to encourage the regulatory agencies to meet the spirit of the laws set by Congress by adopting open, standardized data for regulatory collection. The payoff will be significant in terms of reducing the costs of IT support and software, collecting better quality, more timely data, and will provide regulators and the market better tools to take advantage of new technologies at lower cost.

XBRL US welcomed incoming Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Paul S. Atkins in a letter that addressed the role of data standards to help federal government agencies like the SEC. We noted that standardization supports the goals of modernization, efficiency, and productivity improvement. Machine-understandable data produced through data standards programs results in better, more efficient outcomes on artificial intelligence platforms. Open data standards like XBRL serve as the cornerstone of Standard Business Reporting (SBR), a program that vastly increases the efficiency of statutory reporting from business to government.

Chair Atkins previously served at the SEC as a Commissioner in 2008 when then Chairman Christopher Cox, the Commissioners, and staff began the implementation of XBRL requirements for public companies and mutual funds.

The SEC analysis of public company custom tag rates shows a slight decline in 2024 across all company categories. The SEC analysis of public company custom tag rates for 2022 through 2024 shows that the use of custom tags across all filers declined from 18% in 2023 to 17% in 2024. All categories of filers experienced a decline except large accelerated filers; the custom tag rate for this category of filers was flat versus year-ago.

The SEC announced plans for a June 26, 2025, roundtable discussion on executive compensation disclosure requirements. The program will center on the usefulness of executive compensation disclosures and will be held at the SEC’s headquarters at 100 F Street, N.E., Washington, D.C. In-person participation will be limited, however the discussion will be streamed live on SEC.gov, and a recording will be posted at a later date. The SEC is accepting comments before the roundtable which can be submitted electronically in the SEC’s online submission form or by sending an email to rule-comments@sec.gov with "4-855" included in the subject line.

In a published statement, SEC Chair Paul Atkins said, "When the Commission instituted tabular executive compensation disclosure in 1992, then-Chairman Richard C. Breeden championed an easily comprehensible disclosure regime centered around a graphical presentation of total executive compensation with comparisons against compensation of executives in peer firms and against the issuer’s performance. In the intervening years, disclosure requirements have been expanded to focus more and more on variations of components of compensation, rather than on total compensation. While it is undisputed that these requirements, and the resulting disclosure, have become increasingly complex and lengthy, it is less clear if the increased complexity and length have provided investors with additional information that is material to their investment and voting decisions.

It is important for the Commission to engage in retrospective reviews of its rules to ensure that they continue to be cost-effective and result in disclosure of material information without an overload of immaterial information."

XBRL US Events

Webinar Replay: 2025 Meta Model Improvements

The Meta Model incorporates expressive relationships that help preparers identify the appropriate elements for tagging in their filings, support data users in consuming data, and facilitate the creation of business rules. By conveying attribute information and illustrating how elements relate to one another, the Meta Model enhances data usability and interpretation.

Join the FASB and XBRL US for this 60-minute session to explore these relationships and the latest enhancements introduced in the 2025 Meta Model. Accountants, developers, technologists, and data/analytics providers should attend. Speakers include Campbell Pryde, President and CEO, XBRL US, and David Shaw, Senior Project Manager, XBRL, Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). Watch/listen to replay: https://xbrl.us/events/250521/

XBRL US Meetings

The Data Quality Committee (DQC) will meet on Wednesday, June 18; get details and register: https://xbrl.us/dqc

The Domain Steering Committee will meet Tuesday, June 17, at 2 PM ET. https://xbrl.us/events/dsc-250617 - all XBRL US Members are invited to attend

The Communications Steering Committee will meet Tuesday, June 17, at 3 PM ET. https://xbrl.us/events/csc-250617 - all XBRL US Members are invited to attend

The Regulatory Modernization Working Group will meet Tuesday, June 10, at 3 PM ET. (membership@xbrl.us for details)

The Standard Government Reporting Working Group will meet Tuesday, June 24, at 12:30 PM ET. (membership@xbrl.us for details)

The Technical Advisory Committee (XTAC) will meet on Wednesday, June 11, at 4 PM ET. (membership@xbrl.us for details)

The Academic Subcommittee will meet Monday, June 16, at 1 PM ET. (membership@xbrl.us for details)

XBRL US Articles, White Papers, and Blogs

Blog Post: Why Normalize Data?
David Tauriello, Vice President of Operations at XBRL US, discusses how normalizing XBRL-filed SEC data improves comparability and transparency. The XBRL US Standardized Statement Taxonomy enables the creation of normalized core concepts for commercial and industrial company balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow statements. The new taxonomy was developed in large part to assist in the data quality rule process. Reviewing normalized data uncovers outliers and leads to improved understanding of issues related to how data is reported. Read more to learn how you can leverage the normalization process, available courtesy of the XULE open-source processing language, to build your own custom standardized datasets. Read more: https://xbrl.us/why-normalize-data

XBRL US Members are committed to engaging and collaborating with other members, contributing to the standard through involvement of their teams, and striving to build awareness and educate the market. Members of XBRL US represent the full range of the business reporting supply chain.

Not yet an XBRL US member? Maybe it's time to consider joining XBRL US for yourself ($55 - $500/ year) or your organization (fees vary). Find out more about the benefits of membership and how to become involved by visiting https://xbrl.us/benefits.