The Good and Not-So-Good of the New SEC Rendering Engine

[Updated 2010-04-27 for Not-So-Good Items 5 and 6]

About a month back now, the SEC integrated a new XBRL rendering engine into their EDGAR system and SEC Pre-Viewer application.  We've been working with the new source code since then and, as of this morning, have updated the Bowne Interactive XBRL Viewer with this latest release.  All uploads from today forward, and SEC live filings from today forward, will display XBRL in the Bowne Viewer using this update.

Overall I'd give the SEC a solid B- for this release.  On one hand it was not quite as good as say the Cleveland Browns draft over the weekend (McCoy in 3rd round was THE steal...=) but on the other hand a solid effort none-the-less.  Let's start off with the positives.  In addition to the fixes documented by the SEC (list here), the new rendering engine also addresses the following issues:

1. Companies with odd period start/end dates have better support for column headers being correct
2. Using the word "Shares" in the label of a dimension member (like on Statement of Equity) correctly displays the label (previously it would blank the column header)
3. Data tagged using the "nil" feature of XBRL now display (Commitments & Contingencies row on the Balance Sheet, if tagged as per the EDGAR Filing Manual)
4. Enhanced Statement of Equity report name logic tied to having report display "left-to-right"/horizontally
5. Certain data flowthrough issues have been resolved
6. Gray shading is now used on the Statement of Equity to differentiate balance rows from duration/activity rows
7. Underscores (rules) go all the way across a row even if the row doesn't have tagged amounts in every column

As time goes on I'm sure there'll be a few more items come to light and I'll update this list accordingly.  However, with the good also comes some not-so-good, as follows:

1. Multiple currencies in a single instance document don't render 100% correct
2. Balance Sheet column headers now say "x Months Ended" for those companies that have a correctly-tagged Commitments & Contingencies row (US GAAP tag in the taxonomy is a duration tag while rest of tags on Balance Sheet are instants; throws the column header logic off)
3. Harder for companies that need/want to get their Statement of Equity to display "top-down"/vertically instead of "left-to-right"/horizontally due to 4. above
4. Only two currencies are supported for display within a submission
5. Incorrect rendering of new "Document Fiscal Year Focus" tag required in SEC EFM Vol. II Ver. 14; renders as a number (i.e., 2,010) instead of a Year (2010)
6. Change in business logic tied to how dimensions are displayed that could result in a report having information that used to be in rows move to separate columns 

I was all set to go to press with this post when the two currency display limit came to light.  Although not as important for Year 1 tagged data, it's a real downer for Year 2 tagged data.  The bug is simply that if you have more than two currencies tagged in your XBRL data, the SEC rendering engine will simply ignore any data associated with currencies 3 and up and simply not display that data.

We came across this "feature" with a client that has 5 currencies in its Year 2/detail Notes tagging and let's just say a few data points weren't displaying.  Okay, make that an entire table up was missing...=(.  After tracking down the issue in the code, we updated Bowne Viewer to fix the issue so that it now displays all currency information found in the XBRL.  Let's just hope the SEC makes the same change on their side...=).  

Although the Browns say McCoy won't see action in 2010, I don't think the same holds true for the SEC rendering engine.  I think we'll see a new version get some action before June 30th, one that hopefully continues to enhance our XBRL viewing pleasure.

-Rob