Manage XBRL label roles

Label roles help to clearly identify the line item in the document and how that concept is being used.

Label role basics

Assign label roles to a concept so the concept matches the presentation in the document and provides information about how a concept is being disclosed in the filing. You will still see how a concept compares with other companies who use it.

The most common label roles are terse and verbose. Other label roles show what the disclosure or fact is. For example, set the label role to Total when the concept is being used for a value that is the total of a calculation. Then, you can easily see that the concept is a total in the XBRL outline.

You can also use label roles when you want to use the same concept for two different facts in a document. For example, you might use “cash on hand” for the cash fact in the balance sheet and then call it “our cash” in a footnote. To use the same concept in those two locations, use two different label roles, such as Terse for cash on hand and Verbose for our cash.

Workiva has the following label roles:

• Terse is the default label role.
• Verbose is for preferred labels that you update frequently.
• Negated renders a fact value opposite of it is presented in the XBRL instance documents (XBRL Fact Value). You may need to change the negated role in some situations.
• Total is only for target (total) concepts of a calculation relationship. You can use Total label roles as the preferred label even if the calculation relationship is not defined in that specific detail section (the same or duplicate calculation relationship might be defined in another detail section or face statement.)
• Period Start and Period End are for roll-forward presentations. XBRL fact values that are both an ending balance of one period and the beginning balance of another period will be rendered twice under each applicable period.

Label role format guide

You can quickly see which label role is applied to a concept in the XBRL outline by its font formatting. This allows you to quickly review label roles without needing to open the Preferred Label editor. The following table summarizes the font formatting for each label role.

Change label roles

1

Open the document and make sure Show XBRL is on.

2

Choose an XBRL profile if one is not already applied.

3

Go to the XBRL Outline and find the concept you want to change.

4

Right-click the concept in the outline and select Edit Preferred Label.

5

Select a role from the dropdown.

6

Click Done to finish.