The Financial Accounting Foundation has published the 2011 U.S. GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy in anticipation of its final acceptance by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The new taxonomy, updated from its last release in 2009, reflects changes in accounting standards since it was last published, says Michelle Savage, vice president at XBRL US, a national consortium driving XBRL development and adoption. The new taxonomy also includes new elements specific to certain industries, such as agriculture, airlines, entertainment and franchisors.

The taxonomy is a list of computer-readable tags in XBRL that allows companies to tag the thousands of bits of financial data that are included in financial statements and footnote disclosures. The tags allow computers to automatically search, assemble, and process data to makes it easy for users to access and analyze it.

While the XBRL consortium was instrumental in bringing the technology to market, FAF is responsible for the ongoing development and maintenance of the taxonomy that must be applied by public companies registered with the SEC. FAF unveiled some proposed improvements to the taxonomy in the fall to give users a chance to get familiar with the changes and provide feedback.

The SEC adopted rules in 2009 requiring all public companies to eventually file financial statements in XBRL, beginning with the largest public companies. So far, a little more than 1,500 public companies are required to file in XBRL, Savage says. “That number will increase dramatically this summer when every other public company will be required to file in XBRL,” she says.

FAF says companies with questions about using the taxonomy to create and submit XBRL filings should contact the SEC. Updates are expected to occur annually going forward.

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