The Financial Accounting Standards Board said Monday that the Securities and Exchange Commission has adopted its 2015 GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy, which uses XBRL format.
FASB’s staff develops and maintains the taxonomy for public issuers registered with the SEC. The GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy contains updates for accounting standards and other improvements to the official Taxonomy previously in use by SEC issuers.
The GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy is a list of computer-readable tags in eXtensible Business Reporting Language, or XBRL, format that allows companies to tag the thousands of pieces of financial data that are included in typical long-form financial statements and related footnote disclosures. The tags allow computers to automatically search for, assemble, and process data so it can be accessed and analyzed by investors, analysts, journalists and regulators.
The SEC staff is strongly encouraging companies to use the most recent version of taxonomy releases for their XBRL exhibits to take advantage of the most up-to-date tags related to new accounting standards and other improvements. The staff suggests that filers consider transitioning to the 2015 taxonomies for the earliest reporting period that ends after March 9, 2015, but not for reporting periods that end before March 9, 2015.
The 2015 GAAP Taxonomy is
