Tag Archives: XBRL

Cybersecurity’s “Evilution”

In our tech involved world the risk of cyber attack is constantly transmogrifying into ever more complex and evil modes. From phishing to ransomware to who knows what next, this risk is constantly changing.

 

To help you keep up-to-date with regulatory issues concerning this risk and to help make appropriate disclosures PLI is presenting a new One-Hour Briefing: Cybersecurity in the Age Of Regulators Gone Wild

 

You can read all about the briefing at:

 

http://www.pli.edu/Content/Seminar/Cybersecurity_in_the_Age_of_Regulators_Gone/_/N-4kZ1z10qbc?Ns=sort_date%7c0&ID=286898

 

 

As always, your thoughts and comments are welcome!

 

SEC Non-GAAP Concerns Ratchet Up

We discuss non-GAAP measures frequently in our blog. We also did a One-Hour Briefing “Non-GAAP Measures and Metrics: Getting it Right” on April 1 which you can find at:

www.pli.edu/Content/Non_GAAP_Measures_and_Metrics_Getting_it/_/N-1z10vnyZ4n?ID=282910

 

While we try to avoid being “preachy” we do see some real problems in how companies are using non-GAAP measures. Our most recent blog post about these non-GAAP measure problems is at:

seciblog.pli.edu/?p=615

 

To reinforce these issues from the SEC’s perspective Deputy Chief Accountant Wesley Bricker and OCA Chief Accountant Mark Kronforst both addressed the use of non-GAAP measures at a recent conference.

 

You can read Mr. Bricker’s speech at:

www.sec.gov/news/speech/speech-bricker-05-05-16.html

 

In his speech he outlines four major areas where the SEC believes that companies may not be using non-GAAP measures appropriately. He even makes the comment that if a company uses a non-GAAP revenue measure they can expect a comment from the staff.

While Mr. Kronforst’s speech is not on the SEC web page, he reportedly used the words “crack down” when talking about how the SEC will be reviewing the use of non-GAAP measures.

The message is clear, be thoughtful and careful with non-GAAP measures!

 

As always, your thoughts and comments are welcome!

Some XBRL News and A Few Tidbits

XBRL has not really been in the news much lately, but on March 29, 2016 the SEC released a second DERA study about tagging processes. The study, titled “Staff Observations of Custom Axis Tags” is at:

www.sec.gov/structureddata/reportspubs/osd_assessment_custom-axis-tags.html

Here is an excerpt from the introduction of the report:

As part of our ongoing process to monitor registrant compliance with the requirements to report their financial information in their eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) exhibits, staff in the SEC Division of Economic and Risk Analysis recently assessed certain aspects of the XBRL exhibits that affect the data quality of the disclosures provided. Specifically, the staff examined the use of custom axis tags in XBRL exhibits that reporting companies submitted with their annual reports on Form 10-K. An axis tag in XBRL allows a filer to divide reported elements into different dimensions (e.g., revenue by geographical area, fair value measurement levels, components of total equity (e.g., common, preferred)) while also showing the relationships between separately reported elements.

……………

The staff’s analysis resulted in a few key observations. First, unlike our previous staff observations that revealed a lower average rate of custom line item tags among large filers, staff observed a higher average use of custom axis tags as filer size increased, with the rate of custom axis tags highest for large accelerated filers. Second, for a random sample of filings that staff reviewed, staff observed instances of filers creating custom axis tags unnecessarily when an appropriate standard axis tag existed in the U.S. GAAP taxonomy.

 

This is an interesting development, and clearly demonstrates the SEC’s work to help make XBRL information more reliable and useful.

The earlier information the SEC has issued about XBRL include:

A “Dear CFO” letter about calculation structures that is at:

www.sec.gov/divisions/corpfin/guidance/xbrl-calculation-0714.htm

This earlier DERA study of extension use at:

www.sec.gov/dera/reportspubs/assessment-custom-tag-rates-xbrl.html

 

Getting XBRL Right

Next, here is a good reminder to make sure that your XBRL submissions are prepared properly and tagging is done appropriately. While XBRL is not subject to ICFR and there is no requirement for any sort of auditor review, XBRL submissions are subject to your disclosure controls and procedures. As a result you should have appropriate controls to assure that your XBRL submission:

“is recorded, processed, summarized and reported, within the time periods specified in the Commission’s rules and forms.”

The above quote is from the definition of Disclosure Controls and Procedures in Exchange Act Rule 13a-15 which is at:

www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=8e0ed509ccc65e983f9eca72ceb26753&node=17:4.0.1.1.1&rgn=div5#se17.4.240_113a_615

This requirement is highlighted in a recent Form 10-K/A filed by Goldman Sachs to make some corrections in their XBRL submission. Goldman filed their original 10-K on February 19, 2016 and on March 1, 2016 filed a Form 10-K/A. As is required by the Exchange Act Rules for amendments, Goldman included this explanatory note:

EXPLANATORY NOTE

Due to an error by our external financial printer, our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2015 (Original Form 10-K) was filed with an incorrect version of Exhibit 101, which provides items from our Original Form 10-K formatted in eXtensible Business Reporting Language.

This Amendment No. 1 on Form 10-K/A (Amendment) to our Original Form 10-K, filed on February 19, 2016, is being filed in accordance with Rule 12b-15 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 for the sole purpose of including the correct version of Exhibit 101.

This Amendment does not amend or otherwise update any other information in the Original Form 10-K and does not reflect events occurring after the date of the Original Form 10-K.

Goldman was perhaps doing something that is appropriate, which we discuss in our workshops. After the filing someone likely double checked the XBRL submission and found the problem, and they fixed it as soon as possible. This is an example of disclosure controls in action on a detective basis, and again, while the SEC has not really indicated that they will do a lot of review of XBRL submissions, we need to make sure they are done appropriately. And, who knows, it is possible the SEC pointed this out to Goldman.

 

Taxonomy Update

On March 7, 2016 the SEC updated the EDGAR system to accept the 2016 XBRL taxonomies previously released by the FASB. The announcement is at:

www.sec.gov/structureddata/announcement/osd-announcement-030716—xbrl-taxonomy-update.html

 

Using XBRL Information

While we still don’t hear a lot about users taking advantage of all the information in the XBRL database, user tools are continuing to evolve. One tool that provides a nice way to access and use XBRL data comes from a company called Calcbench. If you do peer group analysis or are searching for comparable disclosures, this is a very useful tool. You can learn more at:

www.calcbench.com

 

As usual your thoughts and comments, including any insights you have about people using XBRL or XBRL user tools, is welcome!

Ever Been to an SEC Event? Mark out April 13 for a webcast!

In our workshops we sometimes joke (a bit) about how fun it is to listen to a webcast of an SEC meeting. And yes, we do say the same thing about FASB meetings. (Total Geek-Out For Sure!)

These meetings are interesting in that you can observe the process the SEC Commissioners and the FASB follow. The depth of the discussions and their careful consideration of the issues is always fascinating to observe.

These meetings generally do not tell you what might happen in the short-term, but do provide a longer-term glimpse into the directions of policy-making and standard setting.

Disclosure effectiveness is a major longer-term initiative at the SEC right now. On April 13, 2016 the SEC is going to discuss “whether to issue a concept release seeking comment on modernizing certain business and financial disclosure requirements in Regulation S-K.”

As you know, this kind of change is something the SEC staff has wanted to do for years. In addition, provisions of both the JOBS Act and the FAST Act focused on disclosure effectiveness. And here is the logical next step – this meeting will likely help illuminate the future direction of disclosure effectiveness.

 

In addition, this meeting may offer ideas that you can implement now to help make your disclosure more direct and useful to investors.

 

So, perhaps this is the time to listen to one of the meetings? You could play it on your computer, have the sound coming out of your speakers, and think how many of your colleagues would join you and listen! SEC Party time perhaps? If you can’t make the live webcast, you can find all of the archived meetings at http://www.sec.gov/news/openmeetings.shtml

 

You can learn more at:

sec.gov/news/openmeetings/2016/ssamtg033016.htm

 

where the original meeting was announced and at:

www.sec.gov/news/openmeetings/2016/ssamtg041316.htm

where the date was changed from March 30 to April 13, 2016.

 

As always, your thoughts and comments are welcome!

XBRL US Publishes Proposal to Improve XBRL Filings and a Few Reminders

The SEC requirement to provide XBRL submissions with filings that include registrants’ financial statements (including of course Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K’s that include full financial statements) is one of the issues we discuss in all our workshops. Most of these discussions are about “problems” and “issues” companies have with XBRL. Some of the most frequently raised issues are inconsistency in tagging and creating unnecessary extensions.

Few would question the need for addressing these issues in tagging to make XBRL data more usable. XBRL US and the FASB, (FASB maintains the taxonomies for US GAAP), have both been working on projects to improve tagging.

XBRL US Proposed Guidance and Validation Rules

XBRL US, the non-profit group that has as its mission:

“to support the implementation of XML business reporting standards through the development of taxonomies for use by U.S. public and private sectors, with a goal of interoperability between sectors, and by promoting XBRL adoption through marketplace collaboration”,

has proposed several rules relating to the use of XBRL. These rules are being exposed for public comment through September 14, 2015. You can review the proposed rules which deal with topics such as “element values are equal” and “negative values” at:

xbrl.us/home/data-quality/public-review/

If you have not read about the history and development of XBRL, you could also check out this part of the XBRL US web page:

xbrl.us/home/about/

FASB Simplification Project and Related Improvement Projects

We have blogged before about this FASB project to make the taxonomies easier to use and hence improve the quality of information. The staff has made progress in some areas such as removing unused tags. The latest update on the simplification project for the US GAAP taxonomies is at:

www.fasb.org/cs/ContentServer?c=Page&pagename=FASB%2FPage%2FSectionPage&cid=1176164417675#taxonomy_simplification

If you scroll around the page linked to above, you can also read about projects where the FASB is focusing on improving the taxonomy in targeted areas such as fair value disclosures and pensions.

FASB Implementation Guides

The FASB XBRL Staff has also issued a significant number of Implementation and Reference guides to use in XBRL tagging. You can find all of them, ranging from topics such as segment reporting to subsequent events, at:

www.fasb.org/jsp/FASB/Page/SectionPage&cid=1176160665046

SEC XBRL Documents

Lastly, in the XBRL world, just in case you haven’t heard about them, the SEC has issued two documents about the use of XBRL, a “Dear CFO Letter” about calculation structures and a DERA study about the use of extensions. We blogged about them a while back and you can review them by looking back to our post of September 2, 2014.

As always, your thoughts and considerations are welcome!

 

 

 

 

 

XBRL Next Steps

As we blogged about during the summer, the SEC has started to issue documents concerning XBRL issues. Two of our earlier posts dealt with the special study about the use of extensions and the “Dear CFO” letter about calculation relationships (links are below).

Another event that may elevate the visibility of XBRL issues in the reporting community is going to happen on September 9 at 1pm – the FASB is hosting a 90 minute XBRL webcast to discuss the 2015 Taxonomy, which was just released for public comment today, September 2.

The title of the webcast is:

IN FOCUS: Proposed 2015 GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy, ASU Taxonomy Changes, Taxonomy Implementation Guides, Taxonomy Simplification

Interestingly, SEC Staff from the Office of Interactive Date will be speaking.

How may of us are hoping the simplification topic is a major theme?

You can register for the webcast at:

http://www.fasb.org/cs/ContentServer?c=FASBContent_C&pagename=FASB%2FFASBContent_C%2FNewsPage&cid=1176164317486

And, just in case you want to find them again:

The special study by DERA, the Division of Economics and Risk Analysis about the use of custom tags, aka extensions, is at:

http://www.sec.gov/dera/reportspubs/assessment-custom-tag-rates-xbrl.html#.VAXPt0stnGk

The Dear CFO letter about calculation relationships is at:

http://www.sec.gov/divisions/corpfin/guidance/xbrl-calculation-0714.htm

 

XBRL Starting to Bubble-Up to the Comment Letter Surface?

One of the questions that SEC reporting companies have asked about XBRL (among the many questions we ask about XBRL!) is when will the SEC start to write comments about XBRL submissions?

Very few companies have ever seen a comment letter include any mention of their XBRL submissions.

It appears that comments may be starting to be issued about XBRL.  One of the ways the SEC sends messages in in a kind of generic comment letter that they call a “Sample Letter Sent to Public Companies”, which we refer to as a “Dear CFO Letter”.

While this seems to lack the impact of a comment letter sent directly to a company, the Dear CFO Letter is actually just as important as a directly received comment letter.  It is a message to a broad group of companies about an issue that the SEC thinks is pervasive, and is, in essence, a broadly transmitted comment letter.

The most recent Dear CFO Letter actually deals with XBRL!  You can find it at:

http://www.sec.gov/divisions/corpfin/guidance/xbrl-calculation-0714.htm

The letter reminds registrants to be sure to include all calculation relationships.

It also includes this language:

“Acceptance of your filing by EDGAR does not mean that your filing is complete or in compliance with the Commission’s requirements.”

This Dear CFO letter coupled with the XBRL report we blogged about last week could be the start of a greater emphasis on XBRL matters in filings.

We would love to hear your comments!  Leave them here or email Carol or George.