Energy corporations will soon start reporting quarterly and annual monetary and operational information in XBRL format to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The XBRL format isn’t new for public corporations that have been submitting stories with XBRL tags to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for years, but the taxonomy for tagging FERC varieties shall be completely different.
TIME TO EVALUATE YOUR OPTIONS
In many respects, the burden must be lighter for FERC filers than SEC filers. Both will depend on the XBRL 2.1 Specification (which defines the basic building blocks of XBRL implementation in business reporting) and the Arelle open-source XBRL validation engine. And a “fact” in both reviews is represented by a price (numeric or non-numeric), elements, date, unit, and accuracy.
But, as we detail below, you’ll notice quite a few differences with FERC’s XBRL necessities.
SIMPLIFIED ELEMENT SELECTION
Standard schedules enable for highly prescriptive tag assignments. That means no more tagging from scratch. For instance, the Workiva resolution for FERC reporting supplies users with pre-tagged types. These standardized pre-tagged varieties not only scale back preparation efforts significantly, they also reduce tagging inconsistencies—you can obtain higher data quality with less effort.
Also, you are not required to tag every quantity. Notes to monetary statements require block tags only. For instance, if disclosure notes are pasted into FERC Form 1 from the 10-K you file with the SEC, these can be tagged with a single text block for FERC. A bonus for users of the Workiva answer 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 concept is out there, the knowledge is to not be tagged. However, if an relevant idea exists, FERC requires the data to be tagged (both numeric and nonnumeric). Note that some required information could additionally be reported inside footnotes for schedules.
Additionally, no extensions are allowed. Besides concepts, axes and members are also to be used as provided. So, how do you report company-specific information, such as 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 unique technical specification, you will notice the Workiva FERC reporting answer provides the identical look and feel as axis/member utility within the Workiva solution 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 areas. Also, there aren’t any calculation to outline. In truth, custom calculations aren’t permitted. Validation guidelines will handle consistency checks.
Since FERC taxonomy assigns particular hypercube to every schedule, there isn’t a outline structure to construct. For customers of Workiva for FERC reporting, that is automatically managed by the Workiva platform.
Plus, reality ordering is not controlled by the define and isn’t required. FERC uses a numeric component “OrderNumber” to manage sequencing of company-specific information. Users of the Workiva resolution for FERC reporting can easily assign row numbers within the form schedules as “OrderNumber” within the Workiva platform. Lastly, there are no custom dates as you’re limited to a small record of allowable values.
SUBMISSION OF DATA AS INSTANCE DOCUMENT ONLY
Going ahead, there is not any digital type to submit. Machine-readable data is the important thing focus. Although not in iXBRL format, FERC’s official type renderer will provide standardized viewing for the submitted XBRL data.
SUPPORTS REQUEST FOR CONFIDENTIAL DATA
Since most filing information to the SEC is public report, the SEC doesn’t provide this, but FERC does. Whether FERC will really approve a request for confidential information is another question! If you’ve an XBRL vendor for SEC reporting, ensure your vendor additionally supports FERC compliance, for the rationale that FERC taxonomy won’t be the same 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 preserve an in-house resolution for FERC compliance, understanding the similarities and differences between XBRL filings for FERC and for the SEC will be essential when evaluating your options.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Percy Hung is director of structured data initiatives and Peter Larison is supervisor of structured knowledge initiatives at Workiva. ราคาเกจวัดแรงดันน้ำ , Inc. is a world software-as-a-service firm. It provides a cloud-based related and reporting compliance platform that permits the use of linked knowledge and automation of reporting throughout finance, accounting, risk, and compliance. For more info, visit www.workiva.com
Share