SEC commits to human- and machine-readable format that could fix agency’s open data problems by Justin Duncan.
The gist of the story is that the SEC has, unfortunately, been accepting both plain text and XBRL filings since 2009. Since XBRL results in open data, you can imagine the effort put into that data by filers.
At the urging of Congress, the SEC has stated in writing:
SEC staff is currently developing recommendations for the Commission’s consideration to allow filers to submit XBRL data inline as part of their core filings, rather than filing XBRL data in an exhibit.
Before you celebrate too much, note that the SEC didn’t offer any dates for acceptance of inline XBRL filings.
Still, better an empty promise than no promise at all.
If you are interested in making sure that inline XBRL data does result in meaningful disclosure, if and when it is used for SEC filings, consult the following:
An Integrator’s Guide to Inline XBRL
Plus you may want to consider how you would use XQuery to harvest and combine XBRL data with other data sources. It’s not too early be thinking about “enhanced” results.