On June 28, 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) voted to adopt amendments to the XBRL reporting requirements that would require registrants to use the Inline XBRL format for the submission of financial statement information and fund risk/return summary information. The amendments are intended to improve the quality and accessibility of XBRL data.
Inline XBRL allows users to embed XBRL data directly into HyperText Markup Language (HTML) document. This combines the human-readable HTML document with the machine-readable XBRL data and resulting into providing an easier way to view, access, and explore the contextual information of the underlying data. The use of inline XBRL is intended to improve the usefulness, timeliness, and quality of the XBRL data being submitted to the SEC. Secondary to that, this change is intended to decrease the cost of preparing XBRL filings.
The transition to inline XBRL for financial statements will be done on a phased basis:
- Large accelerated filers that use US GAAP will be required to comply beginning with fiscal periods ending on or after June 15, 2019.
- Accelerated filers that use US GAAP will be required to comply beginning with fiscal periods ending on or after June 15, 2020.
- All other filers will be required to comply beginning with fiscal periods ending on or after June 15, 2021.
- Filers will be required to comply beginning with their first Form 10-Q filed for a fiscal period ending on or after the applicable compliance date.
For funds, the transition to submit risk/return information using inline XBRL will also be done on a phased basis:
- Large fund groups (net assets of $1 billion or more as of the end of their most recent fiscal year) will be required to comply two years after the effective date of the amendments.
- All other funds will be required to comply three years after the effective date of the amendments.
Additionally, 15 business days grace period for supplying risk/return information in XBRL will be eliminated in an effort to make data more timely to the public.
Finally, the requirement for both companies and funds to post XBRL data on their websites will be eliminated when the amendments take effect.
Tools for creating inline XBRL documents are already available in the GoFiler Complete and GoXBRL software. We will be providing more resources and information about inline XBRL for filers as the compliance date for inline XBRL approaches.