Energy firms will soon begin reporting quarterly and annual financial and operational knowledge in XBRL format to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The XBRL format isn’t new for public firms that have been submitting reviews with XBRL tags to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for years, however the taxonomy for tagging FERC types might be totally different.
TIME TO EVALUATE YOUR OPTIONS
In many respects, the burden must be lighter for FERC filers than SEC filers. Both will rely on the XBRL 2.1 Specification (which defines the fundamental constructing blocks of XBRL implementation in business reporting) and the Arelle open-source XBRL validation engine. And a “fact” in each reports is represented by a value (numeric or non-numeric), elements, date, unit, and accuracy.
But, as we detail under, you’ll discover fairly a quantity of variations with FERC’s XBRL necessities.
SIMPLIFIED ELEMENT SELECTION
Standard schedules permit for extremely prescriptive tag assignments. That means no extra tagging from scratch. For example, the Workiva solution for FERC reporting supplies customers with pre-tagged types. These standardized pre-tagged types not only cut back preparation efforts significantly, in addition they reduce tagging inconsistencies—you can obtain larger information high quality with much less effort.
Also, you aren’t required to tag each quantity. Notes to financial statements require block tags solely. For instance, if disclosure notes are pasted into FERC Form 1 from the 10-K you file with the SEC, those could be tagged with a single text block for FERC. A bonus for customers of the Workiva answer for SEC reporting and the Workiva answer for FERC reporting: You will have the ability to hyperlink information in your 10-K to your pre-tagged Form 1 for consistency and efficiency.
If no relevant XBRL concept is available, the data is to not be tagged. However, if an applicable concept exists, FERC requires the knowledge to be tagged (both numeric and nonnumeric). Note that some required data may be reported within footnotes for schedules.
Additionally, no extensions are allowed. Besides ideas, axes and members are additionally for use as supplied. So, how do you report company-specific info, such as officer names? In order to support reporting of company-specific data, 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 answer presents the identical feel and appear as axis/member utility within 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 based on kind locations. Also, there are no calculation to outline. In fact, custom calculations are not permitted. Validation guidelines will deal with consistency checks.
Since FERC taxonomy assigns particular hypercube to each schedule, there isn’t any outline construction to construct. For users of Workiva for FERC reporting, this is mechanically managed by the Workiva platform.
Plus, reality ordering just isn’t managed by the define and is not required. FERC makes use of a numeric factor “OrderNumber” to control sequencing of company-specific info. Users of the Workiva solution for FERC reporting can easily assign row numbers within the form schedules as “OrderNumber” within the Workiva platform. Lastly, there are differential pressure gauge ราคา customized dates as you’re limited to a small list of allowable values.
SUBMISSION OF DATA AS INSTANCE DOCUMENT ONLY
Going ahead, there is not a digital type to submit. Machine-readable data is the key focus. Although not in iXBRL format, FERC’s official type renderer will provide standardized viewing for the submitted XBRL knowledge.
SUPPORTS REQUEST FOR CONFIDENTIAL DATA
Since most filing knowledge to the SEC is public report, the SEC doesn’t supply this, but FERC does. Whether FERC will really approve a request for confidential information is one other question! If you have an XBRL vendor for SEC reporting, make sure your vendor additionally helps FERC compliance, because the FERC taxonomy won’t 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 build and keep an in-house solution for FERC compliance, understanding the similarities and variations between XBRL filings for FERC and for the SEC will be essential when evaluating your choices.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Percy Hung is director of structured data initiatives and Peter Larison is supervisor of structured data initiatives at Workiva. Workiva, Inc. is a global software-as-a-service company. It offers a cloud-based linked and reporting compliance platform that enables using related knowledge and automation of reporting across finance, accounting, risk, and compliance. For more information, go to www.workiva.com
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