Issue 1003 Modeling of Common Stock, Preferred Stock, Treasury Stock or Other Information which has only One class

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Griffin Cobb
8 years ago
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Issue 1003 Modeling of Common Stock, Preferred Stock, Treasury Stock or Other Information which has only One class Issue: What is the proper approach to modeling such things as common stock,

1 Issue 1003 Modeling of Common Stock, Preferred Stock, Treasury Stock or Other Information which has only One class Issue: What is the proper approach to modeling such things as common stock, preferred stock, and treasury stock which have only one [Member]? Currently, inconsistent approaches are used by SEC filings, there are inconsistencies in the US GAAP Taxonomy between the balance sheet network modeling and the equity network modeling, and neither approach used to model these components appear to be correctly or logically modeled. Note that this issue also applies to other situations where only one class of information exists within an SEC XBRL filing. Preferred stock, common stock, and treasury stock are only used as examples of the larger issue of how to model a class of anything which only has one [Member]. Facts: Consider the example of Microsoft: The following is the stockholders equity section of the Microsoft balance sheet: Microsoft: As can be seen from the fragment, Microsoft has one class of stock. The XBRL Taxonomy fragment for the balance sheet parenthetical information is as follows: 1

Currently, inconsistent approaches are used by SEC filings, there are inconsistencies in the US GAAP Taxonomy between the balance sheet network modeling and the equity network modeling, and neither

The information for the common stock information is NOT modeled with a Class of Stock *Axis+. As such, how do you know what class of stock the common stock shares authorized and outstanding relate?

2 The information for the common stock information is NOT modeled with a Class of Stock *Axis+. As such, how do you know what class of stock the common stock shares authorized and outstanding relate? Is it assumed to be the same class? Consider the Firefox rendering of this information: Consider the Google modeling: This is Google s equity section: This is Google s modeling of the balance sheet parenthetical information: 2

3 Google is mixing preferred stock and common stock into the same model. Logically, this does not seem to make sense as convertible preferred stock and common stock are two different things. Here is the Firefox rendering which shows everything modeled within this [Table]: 3

that the dollar amount of the shares is NOT shown in the table which

4 Here is the same information, except this time only the common stock information is shown: (note that there is another issue here which is that the dollar amount of the shares is NOT shown in the table which breaks down the shares.) And here only the preferred stock information is shown. 4

Consider this is a reference implementation which I created: http://www.xbrlsite.com/us-gaap-2011/referenceimplementation/2011-03-15/abc-20101231.

5 Consider this is a reference implementation which I created: Focus here on the one class of preferred stock. Here is the modeling for the preferred stock: (note that the common stock is in a separate table, not combined with preferred stock) 5

xml Focus here on the one class of preferred stock.

6 And here is the Firefox rendering of the preferred stock: Note that there is one class of stock which is explicitly identified, and that the domain or total is likewise modeled. The domain is what is shown on the balance sheet, and the preferred class A [Member] details the information for all the classes of preferred stock, which in this case is only one. ****************************************************************************** QUESTIONS/OPTIONS: Focusing on only one issue here, this is the general question that comes to my mind. If a collection of things, such as the classes of common stock, has only ONE participant, say as an example only one class of common stock, how do you model that information? 1. You model the class which describes the class of stock and you model the domain which connects the total for the classes being described, even though there is one, to the total which, in this case, then ties to the balance sheet. (This is how the Reference Implementation example for the preferred stock is modeled) 2. You do NOT model the classes of stock, you do what (as shown in the Microsoft example above) and therefore are left to imply that there is only one class of stock and what that class is (i.e. because it is not identified by an [Axis] or a [Member] to make this information explicit.) Don t confuse this issue with the modeling of information which will never have more than one class. The existence of some *Axis+ means that there could be n (any number, 1 to many) number of classes. If you have zero classes, than the [Table] would not show up in a financial filing. 6

****************************************************************************** QUESTIONS/OPTIONS: Focusing on only one issue here, this is the general question that comes to my mind.

7 My Personal Recommendation: The number of members of a collection is not the way to determine how to model something. If you have two members, it is clear how you model the information, you create an [Axis] to differentiate the information, you create a [Member] for each class, and you create a [Domain] which ties the information to any summary, if one exists. Having only one class of something does not change this. Therefore I believe that 1 is the correct approach. This would apply to preferred stock, common stock, treasury stock, or any other information such as property, plant and equipment which might have n number of classes. Agreed upon resolution: Officially unresolved. 7

create a [Domain] which ties the information to any summary, if one exists. Having only one class of something does not change this.

EMERSON AND SUBSIDIARIES CONSOLIDATED OPERATING RESULTS (AMOUNTS IN MILLIONS EXCEPT PER SHARE, UNAUDITED)

EMERSON AND SUBSIDIARIES CONSOLIDATED OPERATING RESULTS (AMOUNTS IN MILLIONS EXCEPT PER SHARE, UNAUDITED) CONSOLIDATED OPERATING RESULTS (AMOUNTS IN MILLIONS EXCEPT PER SHARE, UNAUDITED) TABLE 1 Quarter Ended March 31, Percent Change Net Sales $ 5,854 $ 5,919 1% Costs and expenses: Cost of sales 3,548 3,583