About XBRL validations

The next generation of Workiva validates XBRL and data quality in a document to make sure it meets XBRL technical requirements it needs for SEC acceptance, EDGAR consistency, and accounting-based accuracy.

When you generate XBRL, Workiva checks the document for XBRL validation and data quality at the same time.

XBRL validation

When generating XBRL, Workiva checks if XBRL in the document meets:

• XBRL specification rules
• SEC EDGAR Filer Manual requirements
• FASB Taxonomy Architecture best practices

These checks help show if there are issues that could stop your filing from being accepted by the SEC.

Data quality

Data Quality Validations looks at the meaning of the information from a business and accounting perspective, as well as XBRL modeling expectations.

For example, Data Quality Validations identify values that may have the wrong sign. This is the most common error in SEC XBRL filings.

When generating XBRL, Workiva also checks if data in the document meets:

• EDGAR Filer rules
• Data Quality Committee Guidance and Rules
• Syntactic and semantic compliance and best practices

The importance of data quality validations continues to increase as the SEC expands their enforcement of these issues. Data quality validations combine best practices from subject matter experts, Professional Services, and our customers.

Other inputs include best practices from Workiva, XBRL.us, EDGAR Filer Manual rules, and XBRL syntax compliance, as well as input from data consumers. In addition, SEC staff observations and best practices from FASB (US GAAP Taxonomy) are used.

Mark correct

Sometimes you may be warned about an issue that you don’t need to fix. In this case, you can use Mark Correct to make sure that issue does not appear in future validation checks. Issues marked correct remain marked correct unless the corresponding XBRL data is changed.

1

In the XBRL Validations tab, find the error you want to mark correct. Filtering validations to show only warnings may make it easier to find the desired warning.

2

Open the drop-down menu on that error and click Mark Correct.

This will ensure that the selected occurrence of the warning will not show in future validations. Other instances of that warning may still occur in your document.