Energy firms will quickly begin reporting quarterly and annual financial and operational information in XBRL format to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The XBRL format isn’t new for public corporations which were submitting stories with XBRL tags to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for years, however the taxonomy for tagging FERC varieties will be completely different.
TIME TO EVALUATE YOUR OPTIONS
In many respects, the burden ought to be lighter for FERC filers than SEC filers. Both will rely on the XBRL 2.1 Specification (which defines the fundamental building blocks of XBRL implementation in enterprise reporting) and the Arelle open-source XBRL validation engine. And a “fact” in each reports is represented by a price (numeric or non-numeric), parts, date, unit, and accuracy.
But, as we element under, you’ll discover quite a quantity of differences with FERC’s XBRL necessities.
SIMPLIFIED ELEMENT SELECTION
Standard schedules permit for extremely prescriptive tag assignments. That means no more tagging from scratch. For instance, the Workiva answer for FERC reporting supplies users with pre-tagged types. These standardized pre-tagged forms not only scale back preparation efforts considerably, in addition they minimize tagging inconsistencies—you can achieve larger data quality with less effort.
Also, you are not required to tag every number. เกจวัดอาร์กอน to financial statements require block tags solely. For example, if disclosure notes are pasted into FERC Form 1 from the 10-K you file with the SEC, those would be tagged with a single textual content block for FERC. A bonus for customers of the Workiva solution for SEC reporting and the Workiva resolution for FERC reporting: You will have the power to link information in your 10-K to your pre-tagged Form 1 for consistency and efficiency.
If no applicable XBRL idea is available, the data is to not be tagged. However, if an relevant concept exists, FERC requires the knowledge to be tagged (both numeric and nonnumeric). Note that some required info may be reported within footnotes for schedules.
Additionally, no extensions are allowed. Besides concepts, axes and members are additionally to be used as supplied. So, how do you report company-specific information, corresponding to officer names? In order to help reporting of company-specific info, FERC makes use of the typed dimension.
The bonus for Workiva users? Although FERC uses a special technical specification, you will notice the Workiva FERC reporting resolution presents the identical feel and appear as axis/member software in the Workiva answer for SEC reporting.
NO OUTLINE MANAGEMENT OR CUSTOM DATES
For FERC reporting, no custom labels or label roles are wanted. Labels are auto-assigned by the official FERC renderer primarily based on kind locations. Also, there aren’t any calculation to define. In reality, customized calculations are not permitted. Validation rules will handle consistency checks.
Since FERC taxonomy assigns particular hypercube to every schedule, there is no define structure to build. For users of Workiva for FERC reporting, that is mechanically managed by the Workiva platform.
Plus, truth ordering is not controlled by the outline and is not required. FERC makes use of a numeric factor “OrderNumber” to control sequencing of company-specific data. Users of the Workiva resolution for FERC reporting can easily assign row numbers in the form schedules as “OrderNumber” in the Workiva platform. Lastly, there aren’t any customized dates as you’re limited to a small record of allowable values.
SUBMISSION OF DATA AS INSTANCE DOCUMENT ONLY
Going forward, there is not a digital kind to submit. Machine-readable information is the key focus. Although not in iXBRL format, FERC’s official kind renderer will present standardized viewing for the submitted XBRL information.
SUPPORTS REQUEST FOR CONFIDENTIAL DATA
Since most filing data to the SEC is public document, the SEC doesn’t offer this, however FERC does. Whether FERC will truly approve a request for confidential information is another question! If you’ve an XBRL vendor for SEC reporting, ensure your vendor additionally helps FERC compliance, because the FERC taxonomy will not be the identical because the SEC reporting taxonomy.
PREPARE FOR YOUR NEEDS
Whether you outsource XBRL tagging, select an XBRL software vendor, or invest the money and time to construct and keep an in-house answer for FERC compliance, understanding the similarities and differences between XBRL filings for FERC and for the SEC might be essential when evaluating your choices.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Percy Hung is director of structured information initiatives and Peter Larison is manager of structured knowledge initiatives at Workiva. Workiva, Inc. is a worldwide software-as-a-service company. It offers a cloud-based connected and reporting compliance platform that allows using linked knowledge and automation of reporting across finance, accounting, threat, and compliance. For extra information, go to www.workiva.com
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