About this resource
- Publisher
- U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
- Use
- One commissioner's dated account of structured-data milestones; the speech expresses the speaker's views, not a Commission rule.
- Version
- Speech of November 10, 2021
- Relevant parts
- Chronology of the voluntary program, the 2009 mandate, and the 2018 Inline XBRL rules
- Link checked
- Sep 12, 2026
Why add labels to financial data?
In her November 10, 2021 speech, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Commissioner Caroline A. Crenshaw explained how labels make reported financial data easier for software to use. The format is called Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL).
Her account identifies a voluntary company program in 2005, mandatory programs for operating companies and mutual funds in 2009, and Inline XBRL rules adopted in 2018. Inline XBRL places the labels in the report a person reads, allowing people and software to use the same document.
What the speech can establish
Use it as a dated account of these milestones. The speech expresses Crenshaw's views, not a rule adopted by the Commission. Rule adoption does not mean every company had to comply that day.
The scripts explain labels without teaching the format's technical name. They still ask students to check the date and units of an extracted amount. A label helps locate a fact; it does not establish its accuracy.