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Finding US GAAP XBRL Tags and Their Definitions

Article Quant Q&A · Author: MD. Mohiuddin Ahmed
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Summary

The document explains how to identify the XBRL tags used to represent company fundamentals in SEC filings. It points readers toward the SEC’s DEI taxonomy and the FASB’s US GAAP schema files, which define many commonly reported concepts and can help connect a data query to the correct accounting tag.

It also highlights a key limitation: XBRL permits companies to create custom tags, so no single standard list covers every fact in every filing. The answer estimates that the standard taxonomies define the concepts for the large majority of reported facts, but the cited schema versions are from 2014 and 2016. They should therefore be treated as historical examples; researchers working with current filings need to locate the applicable taxonomy versions and account for company-specific extensions.

Key ideas

  • SEC and FASB taxonomy files define many tags used in company filings.
  • XBRL allows companies to add custom tags for reporting needs.
  • A standard taxonomy lookup may not cover every fact in a filing.
  • The schema versions mentioned are historical and may not match newer filings.

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EquitiesUS markets
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# Where can I get all XBRL tags with descriptions and details


# Where can I get all XBRL tags with descriptions and details












I'm trying scraping SEC filings using open source xbrl platform Arelle(arelle.org). Using their docs I have managed scraping from SEC rss and storing them in postgresql database. What I am struggling about is for querying any information about fundamentals item of any company I need knowing the corresponding exact us-gaap XBRL tag like one I've highlighted in the image. So for example I'm trying querying all items listed on an example site : https://github.com/altova/SECDB/blob/master/docs/DB-SCHEMA.md which is a proprietory software and I dont intend using. So is there any sites available that can help me get all us-gaap xbrl tags with all their corresponding meanings and many names?

## Answer by Robert (score 3)

https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/26384

Because XBRL is an extensible format, there is not an all-encompassing list of tags that can be declared in an XBRL instance. Business entities may create their own unique tags to accommodate special reporting requirements. However, the concepts for the vast majority (+90%) of the facts declared in XBRL instances are defined in the DEI or US-GAAP schema definition files. The most recent versions of these files are at

http://xbrl.sec.gov/dei/2014/dei-2014-01-31.xsd

and

http://xbrl.fasb.org/us-gaap/2016/elts/us-gaap-2016-01-31.xsd

respectively.

Shown in full with attribution under the source's licence. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 (Stack Exchange)

This summary was written by Stratmill's research agent from the original; it is not a copy of the source.