Negated Labels

In this posting we will discuss Negated Labels, and Facts:

The following report contains debits with report formatting with parenthesis:

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/80424/000119312511017328/d10q.htm

Treasury stock (64,383)


Here is the XBRL filing; the value is reported as a positive value

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/80424/000119312511017328/pg-20101231.xml

64383000000



http://accountinginfo.com/study/fs/equity-01.htm

Treasury Stock
Treasury stock represents the company's common or preferred stock currently owned by the company it self, as a result of stock repurchase in the past.

The amount of treasury stock is subtracted from stockholders' equity.
Treasury stock (the amount of treasury stock is determined by either cost method or par value method.)


http://hitachidatainteractive.com/2009/12/22/xbrl-filings-for-the-sec-not-for-the-faint-of-heart-part-3/

Negated Facts
Another issue to contend with is the translation of data in a spreadsheet to the taxonomy and the translation of the taxonomy to the Previewer. Negated labels are part of this process. Spreadsheets typically use positive and negative numbers to represent debits and credits. For example, the equity section in the balance sheet within a spreadsheet would show equity facts as positive values minus a subtracted value for treasury stock. Treasury stock has a debit balance. When data facts are moved from a spreadsheet into the filing, the value for treasury stock arrives as a negative value. In actuality, it is a positive debit, so it must be multiplied by minus 1 to make sense out of it. The reverse holds true in the Previewer. It does not recognize offsetting debits and credits. All values in the equity section will be listed as the positive values that they are. Total equity will not properly add up, because it will include a difference of twice the value of treasury stock.

Treasury stock must therefore be negated. This is where you implement a negated label. A negated label is a label category. You set the preferred label in the presentation arc to point to a negated label. This tells the Previewer to multiply the debit value of treasury stock by minus 1 and display it as a negative.

You may be thinking, Why not keep the value for treasury stock as the minus value originally in the spreadsheet? Then you won’t need a negated label. Nice try, but your filing will be wrong. You will have a minus debit which is factually incorrect.