XBRL Taxonomy and Edgar Filer Manual Updates

Posted by Richard D. Turnquist

On April 22, 2013 the SEC© staff announced that the release date of the new EDGAR© release is Monday, May 20, 2013 at which time the SEC© will start accepting submissions in the 2013 US GAAP Taxonomy.

While the SEC© will continue to accept submissions in the 2012 US GAAP Taxonomy, after May 20 they will no longer accept submissions using the 2011 or earlier versions of the US GAAP Taxonomy.

Calendar year filers will be able to file Q1 2013 with the 2011 taxonomy, but those who have not converted yet should discuss the conversion of their taxonomy with their service provider or filing agent to ensure that they will be able to file after May 20, 2013.

The SEC© has also made another round of changes to chapter 6 of the Edgar Filer Manual, mostly relating to the abandonment of the “LC3 rule”. This rule required that labels for presentation purposes adhere to Camel Case Concatenation, which means that the first letter of words combined to create a label be capitalized (e.g. “CashMarketableSecurities”).

With the relaxation of paragraph 6.3.3, filers no longer need to use the ticker symbol, and the date no longer needs to be the same for all files in the submission. While this proposed change may allow greater latitude in naming files, SecureX Filings recommends that filers continue to use the ticker symbol and report date in order to promote consistency across filings and periods.

The removal of paragraph 6.5.18 just deletes some technical language regarding footnote amounts.

The changes to paragraph 6.7.6 removes the restriction on having the version date be later than the calendar date in the document name, and is related to the change in 6.3.3.

The changes to and removals of paragraphs 6.7.9, 6.8.5, and 6.8.7 all deal with the abandonment of the LC3 rule discussed above.  It is this writer’s belief that these changes were made to allow for enhanced comparability in filings using the “Robocop” data tool currently under development.