Energy corporations will soon start reporting quarterly and annual financial and operational data in XBRL format to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The XBRL format isn’t new for public firms which were submitting reviews with XBRL tags to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for years, but the taxonomy for tagging FERC types might 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 basic constructing blocks of XBRL implementation in enterprise reporting) and the Arelle open-source XBRL validation engine. And a “fact” in both stories is represented by a worth (numeric or non-numeric), elements, date, unit, and accuracy.
But, as we detail below, you’ll notice quite a number 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 instance, the Workiva solution for FERC reporting offers users with pre-tagged varieties. These standardized pre-tagged types not only reduce preparation efforts significantly, additionally they minimize tagging inconsistencies—you can achieve higher information quality with much less effort.
Also, you are not required to tag every number. Notes 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, these would be tagged with a single text block for FERC. A bonus for customers of the Workiva answer for SEC reporting and the Workiva solution for FERC reporting: You will be capable of link info in your 10-K to your pre-tagged Form 1 for consistency and efficiency.
If pressure gauge 10 bar is on the market, the data is not to be tagged. However, if an relevant concept exists, FERC requires the data to be tagged (both numeric and nonnumeric). Note that some required info may be reported inside footnotes for schedules.
Additionally, no extensions are allowed. Besides ideas, axes and members are additionally for use as provided. So, how do you report company-specific data, similar to officer names? In order to assist reporting of company-specific info, FERC makes use of the typed dimension.
The bonus for Workiva users? Although FERC makes use of a special technical specification, you will see the Workiva FERC reporting solution presents the same appear and feel as axis/member application in the Workiva solution for SEC reporting.
NO OUTLINE MANAGEMENT OR CUSTOM DATES
For FERC reporting, no customized labels or label roles are needed. Labels are auto-assigned by the official FERC renderer based on form locations. Also, there are no calculation to define. In fact, custom calculations are not permitted. Validation rules will deal with consistency checks.
Since FERC taxonomy assigns specific hypercube to each schedule, there is not any define structure to build. For customers of Workiva for FERC reporting, that is mechanically managed by the Workiva platform.
Plus, reality ordering is not managed by the outline and is not required. FERC makes use of a numeric factor “OrderNumber” to regulate sequencing of company-specific data. Users of the Workiva resolution for FERC reporting can easily assign row numbers within the form schedules as “OrderNumber” in the Workiva platform. Lastly, there are not any custom dates as you’re restricted to a small record of allowable values.
SUBMISSION OF DATA AS INSTANCE DOCUMENT ONLY
Going forward, there isn’t a digital kind to submit. Machine-readable information is the key focus. Although not in iXBRL format, FERC’s official kind renderer will provide standardized viewing for the submitted XBRL information.
SUPPORTS REQUEST FOR CONFIDENTIAL DATA
Since most filing data to the SEC is public report, the SEC doesn’t offer this, however FERC does. Whether FERC will actually approve a request for confidential information is one other question! If you’ve an XBRL vendor for SEC reporting, make sure your vendor additionally helps FERC compliance, because the FERC taxonomy is not going to be the identical as the SEC reporting taxonomy.
PREPARE FOR YOUR NEEDS
Whether you outsource XBRL tagging, select an XBRL software program vendor, or make investments the money and time to build and preserve an in-house solution for FERC compliance, understanding the similarities and differences between XBRL filings for FERC and for the SEC might be crucial when evaluating your options.
pressure gauge octa is director of structured knowledge initiatives and Peter Larison is manager of structured data initiatives at Workiva. Workiva, Inc. is a worldwide software-as-a-service company. It provides a cloud-based related and reporting compliance platform that permits using connected knowledge and automation of reporting throughout finance, accounting, risk, and compliance. For extra data, visit www.workiva.com
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