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September 21, 2023

10 Gifs That CFOs Should Use in Their SEC Filings

And now, for a little bit of stupid fun. Compliance Week has a post on the SEC's clarification of what constitutes proper multimedia and graphics in company filings.  In this Compliance and Disclosure Interpretation from the Division of Corporation Finance, no joke, the following exchange is presented:

Question: May a Commission filing contain graphics (such as .gif or .jpeg image files) that include information that is not text-searchable?
 
Answer: Rule 304(e) of Regulation S-T specifies that “filers may not present in a graphic or image file information such as text or tables that users must be able to search and/or download into spreadsheet form (e.g., financial statements); filers must present such material as text in an ASCII document or as text or an HTML table in an HTML document.” In our view, “information such as text or tables that users must be able to search and/or download” consists of all information that the filer is required to include in the particular filing, such as disclosures in response to applicable form and Regulation S-K items and any additional information required to be included under Securities Act Rule 408 or Exchange Act Rule 12b-20.
It goes on, as these SEC updates are wont to do, but lucky for you, we read the rest of it and the answer is yes! Gifs are technically allowed in SEC filings because they aren't *required* disclosure. We swear, see for yourself:
Any additional information that the filer chooses to include in the filing and that is not required to be disclosed may be presented graphically without a separate text-searchable presentation.
With that in mind, here are 10 that we humbly suggest CFOs consider for their next SEC filing: 

Yes, there's nothing like a blow-out quarter or firing of an auditor that warrants a self-high-five. 

GAAP in "plain English."


Ahhhh, retirement.

When the legal fees keep piling up.


An official illustration from one of Groupon's early filings.


This is how everyone feels about the new lease accounting proposal.

 

Thanks, JOBS Act! We just went public!


Debits = Credits! Nothing to see here!

Here are the details of our restructuring. 

Yeah, so, our 10-K is gonna be late. The auditors can't get comfortable. 

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