Compare one FERC XBRL generation with another by creating a FERC blackline. You will need at least two successful XBRL generations for your document to create a blackline. The XBRL Generation History panel lists the XBRL generations that you can use in a FERC blackline.
Create a FERC blackline
- Enable XBRL from the XBRL toolbar.
- Open the XBRL Generation History panel on the right to view available document generations. On the generation you want to compare, click the drop-down menu and select Create XBRL Blackline.
- Name the blackline and add any remarks you want to include.
- Drag and drop the other generation you'd like to compare against or upload a file you want to use for comparison. You can also click the menu in the corner of a generation and select Add to XBRL Blackline.
For best results, you should select the following options:- Include fact values: Shows the text or number a fact is applied to.
- Only show changes: Shows only those facts that had details changed.
- Click Create. The blackline will open in a new browser tab.
After the blackline is generated, you can return to the blackline from the XBRL Blacklines tab from XBRL Generations.
Understand blackline changes
Changes in XBRL blacklines are color-coded to help you quickly identify what was added, removed, or updated.
The blacklines report also shows the following information:
- Concept: taxonomy ID of the concept
- Date: date associated with the tag
- Dimensions: dimensions applied to the fact
- Unit: units the fact uses
- Decimals: number of decimal places for the fact
- Negative: whether or not the fact value is negative
- XBRL Value: included if Include fact values is selected when creating the blackline
- Status: the type of change—Added, Removed, or Updated.
Note: For FERC forms, the blackline report is produced automatically based on the FERC taxonomy. Additionally, blackline changes do not include who made a change.
Before Generating Blackline: The following image from the regular FERC inline form viewer shows an example of text without any indicators of changed content.
After Generating Blackline: Here you can see the same text with multiple changes applied in the Blackline-generated FERC form viewer, indicated with red and blue text styling.
Locate and print changes from a blackline in the FERC Viewer
You can identify which schedule has been changed using the blackline in your document. These changes are shown in the primary form window containing the FERC Viewer presentation of the filing.
In addition to the changes appearing in the primary FERC Form window, you can also print using the integrated Print Document button:
This integrated Print Document button enables you to print the FERC Form, including all related blackline markup in the body of the document, as a PDF or to a local printer. The suggested default printing options are Landscape layout and approximately 70% Scale, excluding Headers and footers.