How we compute key figures

Each 10-K and 10-Q page shows a few key figures next to the summary: revenue, operating income, net income, total assets, total debt, shareholders’ equity and tangible book value. This page explains what they mean, where they come from and how far you can rely on them.

Where the numbers come from

Every figure comes from the company’s own filing. Along with each 10-K and 10-Q, a company files its financial statements in XBRL, a machine-readable format in which every number carries a standard tag, such as “long-term debt, noncurrent”. We read the balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement as the company presents them, using the amounts and line names it reported.

The figures do not come from the AI summary, and they do not come from a data vendor. Where a figure cannot be read cleanly from the filing, we show a dash and give the reason; we never estimate one.

What each figure means

Accounting rules define some of these figures exactly. Others, total debt above all, are analyst conventions with no official definition, so we state ours.

• Revenue: total revenue, as the company presents it.
• Operating income: the company’s own operating income subtotal. Some companies do not present one, and then none is shown; we do not construct one for them.
• Net income: net income attributable to the company’s shareholders. The share belonging to minority owners of its subsidiaries (noncontrolling interests) is excluded.
• Total assets: as reported on the balance sheet.
• Total debt: short-term borrowings, the current portion of long-term debt, long-term debt and finance lease liabilities, as presented on the balance sheet. Operating lease liabilities are not included. A few companies state the current portion of long-term debt only in the notes to their statements; we add it from there, and a note says so. When the balance sheet presents no borrowing or finance lease line at all, we show “No debt”.
• Shareholders’ equity: equity attributable to the company’s shareholders, excluding noncontrolling interests. It includes preferred stock where a company has issued any.
• Tangible book value: shareholders’ equity minus goodwill and other intangible assets. When the company’s statements show no goodwill or no intangible assets, that part counts as zero, and a note says so.

Banks, brokers and other financial companies

Revenue and debt mean something different for a company whose business is lending or investing, so these companies get their own definitions. We tell which kind of company it is from the lines its own statements present.

• Banks and brokers: revenue is net revenue, net interest income plus non-interest income. Total debt is the money the company borrowed to fund itself; customer deposits, repurchase agreements, federal funds purchased and securities loaned are excluded.
• Business development companies: revenue is total investment income (interest, dividends and fees), and net investment income is shown as well. Total debt follows the general definition.
• Mortgage REITs and similar lenders: revenue is net interest income. Total debt includes all financing liabilities, repurchase agreements and securitized debt among them, since that is how these companies fund their loans. Much of the securitized debt is non-recourse to the company.

The tile’s label and its note say which definition applies.

How we compute them

1. We fetch the filing’s XBRL files from SEC’s EDGAR archive.
2. We find the primary statements and read their lines, with the company’s own labels and amounts.
3. We apply written rules that say which standard tags make up each figure. The rules are the same for every company of a kind, and every change to them is reviewed.
4. A few companies need an exception, most often because they present a line, such as part of their debt, under a custom tag of their own instead of a standard one. A person reviews every exception, and the figure then carries a note saying what it includes or leaves out.
5. For comparisons, we use the company’s neighbouring filings.

A 10-K page shows the full fiscal year and a 10-Q page the quarter. Each figure is compared with the same period a year earlier and with the previous quarter. When a company later revises an earlier figure, the comparison uses the revised amount, and a note says so. When a percentage would mislead, for example because the earlier figure was zero or had the opposite sign, we show the earlier figure instead.

When a figure is missing

A dash always comes with a reason, which you can see by hovering over it:

• Not reported: the company’s statements do not present this item. Examples are a company whose income statement has no operating income subtotal, or one that has no revenue yet.
• Not derived: the figure would have to be calculated rather than read, and our rules do not allow that calculation. For example, companies report no fourth quarter separately, and a per-share figure cannot be found by subtracting nine months from the full year.
• Unavailable: the item may exist, but we could not map it with confidence.

When a company’s own XBRL data contradicts itself, we show no key figures for that filing and say why. Numbered notes under the figures explain any special treatment. For example, a company may fold goodwill into another balance-sheet line; we then take it from the notes to its financial statements.

How we check them

• Against SEC’s statement data. SEC publishes every company’s financial statement lines each quarter. Our reading of the tracked companies’ statements agrees with it exactly on 99.995% of the values both contain: 4 differences in more than 86,000 values.
• For consistency within each company. The four quarters of a fiscal year must add up to the full year. Some filings give a quarter twice, once directly and once inside a year-to-date total; the two must then agree. We look into every mismatch. A common cause is that the company itself revised an earlier figure.
• Against a second calculation. We also compute every figure from SEC’s separate company facts database, and look into the figures where the two differ. That database is not always right itself, since it does not record which line of a statement a number sits on, so a difference is a reason to look and not a count of errors. Most often the filing turns out to be the better source.
• Against public financial data sites. We compare our figures with theirs and look into every difference. Most figures agree. Where they differ, it is usually a matter of definition: total debt, for example, often includes operating leases on those sites.
• Coverage. We show about 97% of the figures that companies themselves report. The rest are shown as unavailable, with the reason.

There is no single official definition of total debt or similar figures, so other sites may show a different number for the same company without either being wrong. Compare the definitions before comparing the numbers.

How we check the summary

Each 10-K and 10-Q page also shows whether the AI-written summary’s own figures agree with the filing’s data.

• What is checked. A second AI model reads each summary and compares every figure it states for the key figures above (the same metrics, the same periods) with the filing’s own XBRL.
• What a flag means. “Small difference” means the summary’s figure is within 2% of the filing’s; often it is rounding, but not always. “Differs” means more than 2%.
• What the checker can get wrong. It can miss an error or raise a false alarm. We review flags, and hide those we find to be false alarms, such as a figure that measures something else under a similar name. A new flag can appear before we have reviewed it.
• What “not checked” means. The summary has not been run through this check yet.

What is not included

Adjusted or non-GAAP measures, and breakdowns by segment or region, are not included. The figures are the company’s own, as filed; we do not audit them. If you spot a figure that looks wrong, please tell us: datataide@gmail.com.