XBRL US has started a 90-day public exposure period for the XBRL US Style Guide, which was recently revised, updated, and released by the XBRL US Domain Steering Committee. The comment period began on April 17th and continues through July 17th. The Domain Steering Committee intends for the Style Guide to facilitate the creation of consistent, high-quality XBRL taxonomies by providing uniform guidelines and recommendations.

Back in November of 2013, Microsoft released a Security Advisory stating that by January of 2016 Microsoft would no longer allow root authorities to issue certificates using the SHA-1 hashing algorithm. As that date has come and gone, most users probably never even noticed anything happening. This is because browsers were quick to adopt the new changes. E-commerce is part of everyday life and no one wants to buy something from a site that their browser says is insecure. However, SSL certificates are used for many other things, including verifying publishers of software and drivers. This is also known as code signing.

Rules previously adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission to facilitate intrastate and regional securities offerings went into effect on April 20th. Specifically, revised Rule 147 and new Rule 147A became effective on this date.

Every year, FASB releases a new version of the US GAAP XBRL taxonomy. Depending on the individual filer, adopting this new taxonomy can be easy or potentially require a fair amount of work. While FASB does have release notes for the taxonomy, there is little guidance on how to adopt the new changes. In this blog, we will be going over what can change in a taxonomy update, how to identify those changes, and how to determine what, if anything, needs to be done to your filing to incorporate the changes.

The SEC has opened registration for its compliance outreach seminars for investment companies and investment advisers. Seminars are being held in four different cities around the country in May and June.

The SEC is adopting technical amendments to make several rules and forms conform to amendments made to the Securities Act and the Exchange Act by Title I of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act. These rules address regular updates to the JOBS Act, as prescribed by Congress, to continue to ensure investors and entrepeneurs benefit from crowdfunding and emerging growth opportunities.

Many EDGAR filing forms have fees associated with them. Determining the fee associated with a filing is extremely important and can be straightforward. However, there are times when the calculation can also become more complicated. Fee offsets can be a source of confusion for many filers and our support team often gets asked questions about how to prepare an EDGAR filing when fee offsets are involved.

The SEC is requesting public comment on proposed changes to Industry Guide 3 (Statistical Disclosure by Bank Holding Companies). In light of developments in the financial services industry since the publication of Guide 3, the SEC is considering modernizing the nature, timing, scope, and applicability of Guide 3, which at the moment applies strictly to Bank Holding Companies (BHCs).

The SEC recently approved and published the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) taxonomy so foreign private issuers can begin submitting their financial reports to EDGAR using XBRL. Requirements for foreign private issuers to use XBRL were originally adopted in 2009 with the caveat that such requirements would not go into effect until the IFRS taxonomy was available. Now that the taxonomy has been published on the SEC’s website, issuers may begin using it to submit financial statements.

On March 13, 2017, EDGAR 17.1 was released by the Securities and Exchange Commission. This release primarily contained changes to add a new online version of the Transfer Agent forms, Form TA-1, TA-2 and TA-W. Other changes affect a number of forms, including the Regulation A forms, the Form ABS-EE data files, Form SDR and Form N-MFP2.

On March 1, 2017, the SEC voted to propose amendments intended to improve the quality and accessibility of data submitted by public companies and mutual funds using XBRL. These changes, which are part of the SEC’s ongoing initiative to modernize the EDGAR system, would require the use of Inline XBRL.

The SEC voted on March 1, 2017 to adopt rule and form amendments to make it easier for investors and other market participants to locate and access exhibits in registration statements and periodic reports that were originally submitted with prior filings. This ruling requires issuers to include a hyperlink to each exhibit in the filing’s exhibit index.

The SEC is adopting amendments to the expiration dates in the interim final rules that provide exemptions for those security-based swaps that, prior to July 16th, 2011, were security-based swap agreements and defined as “securities” under the Securities Act and Exchange Act. This definition is due solely to the provisions of Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act and the Consumer Protection Act. Under the new amendments, the expiration dates on the interim final rules will become February 11, 2018.

When EDGAR Release 17.1 goes into effect on March 13, 2017, new online versions of the Transfer Agent filing forms will become mandatory. These forms, TA-1, TA-1/A, TA-2, TA-2/A, and TA-W, will become available on the EDGAR Filing Website.

As computers advance so do their operating systems, bringing better user experiences and faster operations. However, such changes usually have a cost so not all businesses adopt a change unless it there is a very clear and measurable benefit. Evidence of this practice was abound when the end of life came for Windows XP, as many businesses were still using that operating system instead of Vista, 7 or 8. Waiting until after the end of support for an operating system to occur before upgrading isn’t ideal, and the difficulties such businesses encountered should be a lesson for all.