| EDGAR: XBRL |
XBRL stand for eXtensible Business Reporting Language. It's the new reporting requirement mandated by the United States Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) to allow the data reported in your financial statements to be easily accessed, and compared with other companies financial data, etc.
Note, that filing in XBRL is not a replacement with the current SEC standard of filing in HTML, it's an additional filing requirement. All filings posted on the SEC website that have an XBRL component, will be displayed next to the HTML filing.
The SEC has a section of their website on XBRL.
| Requirements: When you have to File? |
(Source of quotes below: sec.gov: Interactive Data Rules for Operating Companies (January 30, 2009) (.pdf)
1) Large Accelerated Filers: with stock equity above $5 billion, your requirement to file began June 15, 2009:
Quote: "Domestic and foreign large accelerated filers that use U.S. GAAP and have a worldwide public common equity float above $5 billion as of the end of the second fiscal quarter of their most recently completed fiscal year will provide to the Commission a new exhibit. The exhibit will be required with such filers’ Securities Act registration statements, quarterly, if applicable, and annual reports, and transition reports, as well as reports on Form 8-K or Form 6-K that contain revised or updated financial statements. The exhibit will contain the financial statements and any applicable financial statement schedules in interactive data format. The requirement will apply beginning with a periodic report on Form 10-Q, Form 20-F or Form 40-F containing financial statements for a fiscal period ending on or after June 15, 2009."
2) All other Large Accelerated Filers: your requirement to file begins June 15, 2010.
Quote: "All other domestic and foreign large accelerated filers using U.S. GAAP will be subject to the same interactive data reporting requirements the following year, beginning with a periodic report on Form 10-Q, Form 20-F or Form 40-F containing financial statements for a fiscal period ending on or after June 15, 2010."
3) Smaller Reporting Companies: your requirement to file begins June 15, 2011.
Quote: "All remaining filers using U.S. GAAP, including smaller reporting companies, and all foreign private issuers that prepare their financial statements in accordance with IFRS as issued by the IASB, will be subject to the same interactive data reporting requirements beginning with a periodic report on Form 10-Q, Form 20-F or Form 40-F containing financial statements for a fiscal period ending on or after June 15, 2011."
| Requirements: After you File? |
All companies that have submitted an XBRL component to their filings on the SEC's EDGAR system, and currently have a website, have to post their XBRL files on that website within 24 hours, and has to remain there for 12 months. The set of XBRL files consists of 5 to 6 individual files, which can be downloaded from the company's file listing on the SEC website, and can be inserted into a .zip archive, for convenience. Companies that never had a website, do not have to post these files. If a company develops a website, within 12 months of doing a XBRL filing, then the files have to be posted.