Inline XBRL
About Inline XBRL
The Inline XBRL specification allows you to incorporate your XBRL tags into your HTML-formatted financial statements, rather than filing a separate XBRL instance document. This keeps the human-readable HTML format of the financial statements the same when viewed in a web browser while adding the XBRL tagging to those statements.
Today, filers submit their financial information to the SEC in two separate formats: HTML and XBRL. Maintaining these two formats with identical financial information is not only time-consuming, but will result in errors if the information in those formats is not kept in perfect alignment.
For filers using an integrated compliance reporting system like Wdesk, this isn’t a problem. Your HTML and XBRL are always in alignment because you’re not working with two different documents—you prepare your financial information and tagging in a single document. Your document is then split into the HTML and XBRL formats at the very end of your filing process.
However, filers using a stand-alone software solution, sometimes called a “bolt-on” approach, have a more complicated and manual process. They must create and maintain a separate version of their financial information in XBRL format, and then manually transfer any changes from the HTML version into the XBRL version. This can be particularly challenging when there are late changes to the document.
The SEC is allowing the voluntary submission of Inline XBRL as a way to improve data quality and reduce the filing burden associated with XBRL for filers using stand-alone software. This could be especially beneficial for smaller filers, who are more likely to use stand-alone software.
Pressure is building from Congress and investors to improve the quality of XBRL filings, and the SEC views Inline XBRL as one way to improve data quality. In addition to the problems of maintaining two separate formats, we know that filers sometimes change their XBRL tagging to achieve a particular rendering effect from the SEC Interactive Data viewer. As accountants, we have a strong desire to make things match visually because that’s how we’re trained—that’s what we understand. But as you know, this is an approach that is not compliant with SEC guidance and often leads to errors or inconsistencies that makes the data harder to use.
