how to find quarter and year for xbrl document

Question

How can I determine the quarter and year from XML-tags of xbrl file for which it is written.

I can see that context element has period tag which has the time period for the context element :

    <context id="AsOf20050603_Consol_Unaudited">
        <entity>
            <identifier scheme="http://www.sec.gov/CIK">796343</identifier>
        </entity>
        <period>
            <instant>2005-06-03</instant>
        </period>
    </context>
    <context id="From20031129-To20040604_Consol_Unaudited">
        <entity>
            <identifier scheme="http://www.sec.gov/CIK">796343</identifier>
        </entity>
        <period>
            <startDate>2003-11-29</startDate>
            <endDate>2004-06-04</endDate>
        </period>
    </context>

How can I get the time period and year at document level. Thank you

Answer 1

You want the time period and year at the document level - here they are:

The EDGAR Filer Manual, in section 6.5.21, defines certain mandated "dei" fields that define 1) The company's fiscal year end (CurrentFiscalYearEndDate) 2) The current fiscal year (DocumentFiscalYearFocus) 3) whather it is a Q1, Q2, Q3, "Q4" or CY (DocumentFiscalPeriodFocus) 4) and the document period end date (DocumentPeriodEndDate)

--01-31Q220132013-07-31

This should provide what you need unambiguously.

Answer 2

Based on the example you provided, I assume your question is about an XBRL instance that is being filed with the US SEC under the rules of the EDGAR Filer Manual. Two facts are required to be included in the document, tagged with DocumentFiscalYearFocus and DocumentFiscalPeriodFocus. Other date related facts using the DEI taxonomy are optional and should not be relied upon.

DocumentFiscalPeriodFocus will have a YYYY value, such as 2013.

DocumentFiscalPeriodFocus will have a string value Q1, Q2, Q3 in a 10-Q filing, and FY in a 10-K filing.

In the case of a non-SEC use of XBRL, there might be similar rules that require certain tags from a special taxonomy, similar to the Document Entity Information taxonomy used in EDGAR.

In the general case, you have to perform a bit of date arithmetic to find the contexts with timespans of 89-92 days (for quarters) or 364-366 days (for years), and the instant contexts that use a date that is the same as the end date of these quarterly or yearly spans. The latest of these is the span that matches most closely with the idea of the 'reporting period' if you have no other way of determining it.