The staff of the SEC’s Division of Economic and Risk Analysis (DERA) has discovered that certain filers who report under US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles are using elements for the Statement of Cash Flows that are intended explicitly for continuing operations. These filers do not actually report continuing and discontinued operations separately and should be using general elements to tag each respective subtotal for operating, investing, and financing activities.
The element in question are as follows:
- NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities
- NetCashProvidedByUsedInInvestingActivities
- NetCashProvidedByUsedInFinancingActivities
For instances where a filer is not separately reporting cash flow activities for continuing and discontinued operations, the filer should not use the continuing operations elements. Instead, the filer should use the general elements for tagging the cash flow activities. Using the general elements in this situation will enhance comparability across filings made by a filer for different periods as well as filings made by various filers.
For more relevant information regarding these elements, filers may refer to the US GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy. For additional data quality notices, see the Staff Observations, Guidance and Trends webpage at sec.gov.
The DERA was established to advance the SEC’s statutory mission to protect investors, maintain fair, orderly and efficient markets, and facilitate capital formation through sound economic analysis and rigorous data analytics.
Sources:
Inappropriate Use of Continuing Operations Elements in the Statement of Cash Flows (sec.gov)
