Most of the people that I talk with about leveraging the data filed at the SEC are unaware of the amount of data available today and more importantly, how much will be available as the remaining public filers hit the deadlines to file their Qs and Ks. With that in mind, I will try to set the stage for many of the posts to come since they will be about the data and not about XBRL.
The posts will focus on using the data to derive insights, which was one of the main objectives of the SEC mandating it in the first place. Have you ever wanted to know how much your favorite company was spending on R&D in whole dollars and as a percentage of revenue? Do those numbers trend up or down when the company is cutting costs elsewhere or reducing the workforce? How is this trending against the companies you put in the peer group?
Plug in your example here and let’s see if the data filed will make it easier and faster to come up with the answer.
Consider this post a foundation piece to get a better feel for the amount and type of data that is available for you to perform deep analysis of financial statements for a company, or a group of companies or across every company at a macro level or at a line item level.
Interactive Data Available:
- Today over 1,400 filings are available.
- By the end of May 2010, there will be just shy of 2,000 filings available. The vast majority of the largest of the Large Accelerated filers will have 4 filings completed.
- By the end of August 2010, there will be roughly 3,700 filings available. The rest of the Large Accelerated filers will start filing with the June 30, 2010 quarter end. Estimates vary but 1,200 is number I am using.
- By the end of September 2011, there will be over 10,000 filings. By that date, the first filing, of the balance of public companies is required.
- Starting in January 2011, every mutual fund is required to file their Risk and Return as interactive data.
XBRL Primer:
The idea behind XBRL, eXtensible Business Reporting Language, is simple. Instead of treating financial information as a block of text – as in a standard internet page or a printed document – it provides an identifying tag for each individual item of data. This is computer readable. For example, company net profit has its own unique tag.
One comparison would be to think of these tags as you would a barcode on an item you purchase. Together the tags, like a unique barcode, make each line item usable.
For the SEC filings, companies use the US GAAP taxonomy. The taxonomy defines the specific tags that are used for individual items of data (such as “net profit”), their attributes and their interrelationships.
Even with a large taxonomy, there are occasions where a filer needs to add a tag for their specific presentation known as an extension.
As of Today over 490 companies have filed – Rivet Software has each of the 1,400 plus filings in the Crossfire platform.
Every line item and value in every statement is now available for use in applications for analysis, as filed.
Now and then, the data available at a line item level:
- By the end of May 2010 there will be approximately 600,000 balances (500~ Companies x 120~ line items x 10 ~ periods)
- By the end of August 2010 there could be over 1,300,000 items
- By this time next year there could be over 2,500,000 items + the mutual fund filings
Detail Tagging of data in the notes to the financials makes this even more interesting:
Starting with the 2nd year of filing for each company, the information in the notes to the financials must be tagged (known as detailed tagging).
The initial group of filers is required to provide detail tagged notes to the financials starting with the quarter ending June 30, 2010.
But enough on that topic for this post. We will dive into the projected numbers in a later post.
Rivet Software has each of the 1,400 plus filings in the Crossfire platform allowing analysis of the data directly in Microsoft Excel.
With the data now available and the tools to leverage the standard, I think we have reached a tipping point on value of interactive data. The tail is no longer wagging the dog!
The data available today is just the tip of the iceberg. What is forming below is a massive amount of data that will be available with further adoption of the standard.
What do you think?
In my next post, I will do a simple analysis across some companies leveraging interactive data.
Have you ever wondered what companies spend on R&D in gross dollars and as a percentage of Net Revenue? And can you get this data in a matter of minutes? It’s time to realize the value of XBRL.
*Notes for the 10K and 10Q averages chart:
- 34 Fs, 6Ks and 8Ks are included in the 10K and 10Q rows.
- The average # of tags do not include abstracts (e.g. the header Current Assets in the graphic above).
- The amended filings did not have a material effect on the averages so they are included in the totals and averages.
- Most line items have more than one period.
- The numbers above include block tagging which assigns a single tag to a financial statement note.
Arnon,
I couldn’t agree more.
Data to drive insights. Your are spot on with that target. Using the Data from the XBRL filings to move to information and then knowledge is key to orgs and people being able to make ‘better’ decisions. This is just the start of the discovery process and hopefully better decisions. Certainly decisions made with more transparency. Good start.
Making informed decisions is crucial in today’s market. This is definitely a step towards making this a reality for everyone.
Thanks for posting !