Below is an overview of some changes to the EDGAR Renderer with this new release.

Improvement: Unit Ordering

While the previous versions of the XBRL Viewer had provisions for determining the order in which contexts that had multiple units were displayed, the previous version of the software did not provide any feedback to users as to how it determined that order so it was not something that preparers could manipulate. The new version provides warnings that inform preparers when the unit ordering is an issue.

How the Viewer Determines the Unit Order

Units are displayed in the order that the elements which share their names appear on a presentation. For example, a context with a member element of “USD” on a presentation that has the unit “USD” will instruct the viewer that the user wishes to specify a custom unit order. All remaining line item or member elements that share a name with a unit will be used to determine the order in which units are displayed. If there is a unit that does not have a matching element, the Viewer will display a warning to the user.

When preparing XBRL with GoFiler, the order of contexts from left to right followed by the order of line items from top to bottom will determine the unit order. So you can manipulate the order of the units by changing the order of these elements within GoFiler’s XBRL View.

A more detailed look at unit ordering is available in the Novaworks Knowledge Center article: How to Use XBRL Unit Ordering.

Improvement: Uncategorized Items

The previous viewer was very aggressive when it came to removing instant facts from presentations that had duration elements. This was a problem for preparers who were unaware of the change prior to submitting their 10-Q filings last quarter.

This issue appears to have been corrected. The new version of the Viewer is more in line with previous iterations of the viewer, so you should be seeing less problems with “Uncategorized Items” when you preview or view your XBRL reports.

Improvement: Total Columns

The previous version of the viewer displayed a “Total” column whenever there were multiple contexts that ended on the same date on the same presentation. For example, a presentation that contained two contexts where one was a subset of the other (as in 3 months and 6 months ended June 30, 2015) would previously appear to have two “Total” columns when rendered by the Viewer. This could also occur on the Document and Entity Information presentation, if the instant context being used for the “Common Stock Outstanding” line item was the end date of the period of the report.

This appears to have been corrected.

Validation

The SEC has also started rendering XBRL exhibits on filings (including test filings) prior to accepting or suspending the submission. Because of this, your acceptance notice will now include error messages and warnings that were generated by the EDGAR Renderer in addition to the usual EDGAR validation.

Corrected Bugs

As with all software, there are bugs with the program. The following bug was corrected in this version of the software:

1.  Headings on presentations that have no monetary facts no longer display the “scaling factor is -92233720....” text.

If you have any questions or have an XBRL report that is not rendering as expected in the new SEC XBRL Viewer, please contact our support team for help. We’ll be happy to take a look at your XBRL and make suggestions so you can get the result you need.

Resources:

http://arelle.org/downloads/19

https://github.com/Arelle/EdgarRenderer

https://datapreview.sec.gov/previewer3/