On June 13, 2016, the SEC issued an order that will allow companies to voluntarily file structured financial statement data in a new format known as Inline eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL). The order relates to the requirement that certain reporting companies must provide their financial statements accompanying their periodic and current reports in machine-readable format using XBRL. Until now, companies have provided this XBRL data as an exhibit to those reports.

Going forward, the order will allow companies to embed their XBRL data directly into their HTML periodic and current reports instead of providing the data as an exhibit to those reports. Inline XBRL has been made possible due to technological advances since the XBRL requirements were first adopted.

The use of Inline XBRL is voluntary and companies may continue to include their XBRL data in an exhibit if they wish. The order provides that companies may use Inline XBRL within their HTML filings through March 2020.

The SEC expects that the use of Inline XBRL may:

The SEC also issued a press release on the use of Inline XBRL.

For more information on XBRL reporting, see Practice Note, XBRL Reporting Requirements.