The SEC provides a free viewer so you can privately preview your XBRL reports prior to filing them. This previewer renders reports in a similar manner to the SEC Interactive Data Viewer, which is used to render XBRL reports that have been filed live.
The GoFiler software contains an extension tool that will automatically download and install the SEC’s previewer software for you. You will then be able to use the previewer to create proofs of your XBRL reports prior to filing them to EDGAR. Proofing with the SEC’s previewer will provide you (and your clients, if applicable) with a good approximation of what the final XBRL report will look like when viewed as interactive data in the EDGAR filing archive. (As a side note, on the GoFiler proof generated by the SEC’s previewer software, the navigation sidebar is created completely by GoFiler so may not precisely match the SEC’s sidebar. All other portions of the proof are created strictly by the previewer software.)
The options to proof with the SEC previewer are located on the Publish menu on the File Ribbon. To preview your filing using this tool, open your report in XBRL View, choose the Proof with SEC Previewer menu item and follow the prompts to create your proof.
You can also choose to preview your report using the rendering software used by the SEC. To do this, you must install the software on your computer or network. For instructions and a link to download the software, click here.
