Below is a summary of the changes in the new XBRL taxonomy as well as a link to a quick reference guide that lists out all the new, deprecated, and modified elements within the 2018 US GAAP taxonomy.

What’s New in 2018

This year, FASB has begun moving elements that correspond to SEC financial statement and schedule disclosure requirements and SEC form instructions to a separate taxonomy, called the SEC Reporting Taxonomy (or “SRT”). There have also been changes to account for changes in GAAP; from work with the Insurance and Financial Services Industry Resource Groups; from FASB’s Taxonomy topical projects (which review taxonomy elements by GAAP topic area); and from FASB’s Reference Project.

709 new elements: 709 new elements were added: 393 due to ASUs and the income statement remodeling, 91 due to public comments, industry resource group recommendations, and internal analyses, 38 due to the Taxonomy Topical Project for retirement benefits, 175 due to the Taxonomy Topical Project for fair value, and 12 due to other taxonomy projects. Seven new elements have been added to the SRT.

399 changes to documentation: 399 elements had their documentation label (definition) changed for various reasons. Among those, 55 elements had their documentation label changed and were moved to the SRT. An element’s documentation may have been changed as a result of Accounting Standards Updates (ASUs), to clarify the definition of a concept, to remove unnecessarily restrictive wording, and to correct inconsistencies.

629 label changes: 629 elements had their Standard, Period Start, Period End, or Total labels changed to better reflect the intended application of the element.

22 property changes: 22 elements had their data type changed. The majority of these elements were changed from gYearItemType to gYearListItemType to allow multiple years as the value.

1,026 added Taxonomy Implementation Notes: Taxonomy Implementation Notes were added for 1,026 elements to assist preparers with determining their intended use.

2 change label clarifications: The Taxonomy includes clarification in the change label for 2 elements.

574 deprecated elements: Elements are deprecated for a number of reasons, including errors in their creation, because the element was superseded by ASUs or other GAAP changes, or low usage. The Change Notes for an element contains information about each element as follows:

Taxonomy Version – contains the version of the Taxonomy in which the deprecation is applicable.

Change Date – contains the year and month in which the deprecation was made.

Deprecated Date – contains the date on which the element is deprecated. The date of deprecation is the date after which the element no longer should be used.

Deprecated Label – contains the reason for the deprecation.

Deprecation Replacement – contains a possible replacement element or possible replacement elements, if applicable. Multiple replacement elements are separated by a space. Not all elements will have a replacement element.

Element Deprecated – contains the value of true to indicate it is a deprecation.

Modified Deprecated Label – contains the value of true if the part for Deprecated Label has been modified.

XBRL preparers can also use the definition linkbase to view relationships between deprecated elements and other elements within the taxonomy. Deprecated elements will remain in the taxonomy for two years to aid in transitioning financial reports and viewing legacy documents but should not be used in new SEC filings.

Removal of the 2015 UGT deprecated elements: With EDGAR Release 17.2 last year, the 2015 US-GAAP Taxonomy was no longer accepted by the SEC. The 441 elements that were deprecated in the 2015 UGT will no longer appear in the 2018 UGT.

While there is currently a transition period where the SEC will continue to accept EDGAR filings that use the 2017 taxonomy, we always recommend making the move to the latest taxonomies as soon as possible. The taxonomies change because of ASUs, public comment, analysis of data, and other impetuses. The most valuable data you can provide your investors and the public will be data that is the most up to date with accounting standards and financial reporting standards.

Sources:

Release Notes for the US GAAP 2018 Taxonomy (www.fasb.org)