Digital Financial Reporting

Several weeks ago I published pieces of the analysis which I had done on the SEC XBRL filings where were being submitted to the SEC.

I am doing a similar analysis for the second quarter of SEC XBRL filings and you can find information on that here on my blog.  I am doing this a little differently this time, learning from the past analysis.  You can go look at the information, it is all summarized on that link above and you can drill into detail if you want.  I will provide some information below to help you figure out how to navigate and read this information, see that below.  I do want to thank XBRL Cloud for the base of my analysis.  Without that list of all the filings and without some of the heavy lifting which is being done there, I would not be able to do as much as I can.  So thank you to XBRL Cloud.

If you are looking for summaries, this is what you want to check out the following items on this page, which is the same link as above:

• (A). Analysis Comments: Summary of analysis by filing. Shows interesting observations, issues, and specific errors identified within a set of 403 SEC XBRL filing. This is a complete list of SEC XBRL filings analyzed. (Note that this is updated periodically, so check back.)
• (B). Reported Calculation Inconsistency Summary:  Of 403 filings analysed, only 90 produced XBRL calculations inconsistencies. This shows a list of each SEC XBRL filing which has calculation inconsistencies reported by XBRL Cloud. This does NOT necessarily mean that the calculation are not valid, but rather point to filings which are being investigated further to determine if calculations are valid. See the analysis comments for a list of any confirmed calculation inconsistencies.
• (C). Reported Test XBRL Formula Issues Summary: Of 403 filings analyzed, only 55 produced XBRL Formula validation results which were different than the expected results. This shows a list of each SEC XBRL filing which had an unexpected result for one XBRL Formula which was used to test the cash flow statement roll forward. This does NOT mean that the filer had an error, but rather it identified where a filer used different concepts then were provided for this roll forward in the US GAAP Taxonomy, or they changed a computation in some manner, or the added additional concepts to the computation for some reason. See the analysis comments above for resolution of these issues.
• (D). Validation Errors Reported by XBRL CLoud Summary: Of 403 filings analyzed, only 28 produced XBRL Cloud validation errors. These errors were not detected by SEC validation upon submission for a number possible reasons including different interpretations of the EFM by XBRL Cloud and the SEC validator, different interpretations by a software vendor and XBRL Cloud, and other such issues. These issues should eventually be resolved as the SEC validation conformance suite continues to be built out, software vendors resolve these interoperability issues, etc. This list does NOT mean that the filer had an error, but rather it identifies possible software interoperability issues which should be resolved. See the analysis comments above for resolution of these issues.
• (E). Information Model Summary: Of 403 filings analyzed, a hand full appear to have used the [Table], [Axis], [Line Items] concepts consistently with the way the US GAAP Taxonomy was created and consistent with the US GAAP Taxonomy Architecture (see section 4.5 Implementation of Tables, page 38). There appears to be no guidance coming from the SEC as to how to properly model [Table]s, thus the variety. This analysis is making no judgment as to what is correct or incorrect, only pointing out the wide variety that [Table]s are being used. It is likely there are similar issues relating to the [Roll Forward] and other patterns within the US GAAP Taxonomy.
• (F). Excel Data Analysis Demo: This Excel spreadsheet allows someone to extract information from the set of 403 SEC filings. The macros used provide examples of how to get at the information in an SEC XBRL filing without using an XBRL processor. (Clearly you can do vastly more with an XBRL processor, but the point of this is to see what you can do without an XBRL processor.)
• (G). Excel spreadsheet with XBRL Cloud Error Information Sliced and Diced: This Excel spreadsheet slices and dices the information reported by XBRL Cloud. It focuses on errors and calculation inconsistencies. No informational messages, warnings, and best practices.

I am thinking about taking this information, condensing it, and providing it in the form of a high level summary of this detailed information.  Not sure if I will, or will not, undertake that task.  If you have an opinion, let me know.