This guide is for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Data sourced from SEC EDGAR filings. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Consult a qualified financial advisor before making investment decisions.
Where Our Data Comes From
Every number on Billiver comes from SEC EDGAR — the US government's free, public database of corporate filings. This page explains what SEC EDGAR is, what types of filings exist, and how Billiver turns raw filings into the data you see on each company page.
What Is the SEC?
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is a US government agency created in 1934 after the Great Depression. Its mission is to protect investors, maintain fair markets, and ensure companies are honest about their finances.
Any company that sells shares to the public in the United States must register with the SEC. There are roughly 10,000 publicly traded US companies today, and every one of them must file regular financial reports.
These filings are not optional. Companies face legal liability for false statements in SEC filings, making this the most trustworthy source of financial data available.
What Is EDGAR?
EDGAR (Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval) is the SEC's public database of all filings submitted by public companies. Think of it as a giant library where every filing a company has ever submitted to the SEC is stored and available to anyone for free.
EDGAR contains filings going back to the early 1990s and holds tens of millions of documents. US law (the Securities Exchange Act of 1934) requires public companies to disclose their financial information. Your tax dollars fund it.
Filing Types at a Glance
Not all SEC filings are the same. Each type serves a different purpose and contains different information:
| Filing | Nickname | Frequency | What It Contains |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-K | Annual Report Card | Once a year | Complete financials, operations, risks, plans (100-300 pages) |
| 10-Q | Quarterly Check-In | 3 times a year | Shorter financial update for Q1, Q2, Q3 |
| Form 4 | Insider Trading Report | Per trade | Executive/director stock buys and sells (2-day deadline) |
| 13F | Big Investor Holdings | Quarterly | All stock holdings of firms managing $100M+ |
| DEF 14A | Shareholder Meeting Guide | Annually | CEO pay, board members, shareholder votes |
| 8-K | Breaking News | Per event | Mergers, CEO changes, bankruptcy, other major events |
The 10-K is the most important filing. It is audited by independent accountants and provides the most comprehensive view of a company's financial health.
Why SEC Data Only
There are many sources of financial data on the internet, but Billiver deliberately uses only SEC EDGAR. Here is why:
Legal
SEC filings are public domain. We can collect, analyze, and republish them freely. Many other financial data sources have restrictive Terms of Service that prohibit automated collection or commercial use.
Reliable
Companies face legal liability for false statements in SEC filings. Executives can go to prison for fraud. This makes SEC filings the most trustworthy source of financial data available.
Comprehensive
Every public US company files with the SEC. No gaps, no paywalls, no subscriptions. The same data that professional analysts use is available to everyone.
How Billiver Processes Data
Raw SEC filings are long, complex documents. Billiver's data pipeline extracts the key numbers and makes them easy to read:
Automated collectors download filings from SEC EDGAR using their public API. Financial data is extracted using XBRL — a machine-readable tagging system that wraps each number in a standardized label.
Each data point is cross-validated against multiple sources within the filing. For example, profit margin is recalculated from revenue and net income — if the stored value differs by more than 1 percentage point, the calculated value is used instead. Data that fails validation is excluded rather than shown incorrectly.
Validated data is stored in our database and presented on each company page. Metrics like ROE, Piotroski F-Score, and DuPont Analysis are calculated from the raw data. Every metric links back to a guide explaining how to interpret it.
From Filing to Billiver Page
Here is how each SEC filing type maps to what you see on Billiver:
| SEC Filing | Billiver Page | What You See |
|---|---|---|
| 10-K (Annual) | Financial History | Revenue, Net Income, Assets, Debt, Equity, Margins, ROE, ROA |
| 10-K (Segments) | Revenue Segments | Breakdown by product/geography, concentration index |
| 10-K (Exhibit 21) | Subsidiaries | Full list of subsidiaries with jurisdictions |
| 10-K (Debt notes) | Debt Analysis | Maturity schedule: Year 1 through After Year 5 |
| 10-K (Customer notes) | Supply Chain | Top customers, revenue concentration |
| 10-Q (Quarterly) | Quarterly Data | Q1, Q2, Q3 financial updates |
| Form 4 | Insider Trading | Executive buys and sells, transaction details |
| 13F | Institutional Ownership | Top institutional holders, share counts, changes |
Data Freshness and Limitations
SEC filings are not real-time. Each filing type has a different deadline, which means data ages at different rates:
| Filing | Deadline | Max Data Age |
|---|---|---|
| Form 4 | 2 business days | Near real-time |
| 8-K | 4 business days | Near real-time |
| 10-Q | 40 days | Up to 4.5 months |
| 13F | 45 days | Up to 4.5 months |
| 10-K | 60 days | Up to 14 months |
No market prices
EDGAR contains only what companies file with the SEC. Market prices come from stock exchanges and are not included. Billiver focuses on fundamental data from filings.
Tag variation
Not all companies use the same XBRL tags for the same concept. Revenue alone has more than a dozen valid tags depending on industry and accounting method. Our collectors try multiple tags in priority order.
Accurate or absent
If a data point cannot be validated, Billiver excludes it rather than displaying potentially incorrect information. Missing data is always preferable to wrong data.
Data source: SEC EDGAR (Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval system). All data is public domain.
Continue Learning
Our editorial team includes professionals with backgrounds in finance, data analysis, and financial education. We focus on making investing concepts accessible while maintaining accuracy. All content undergoes multi-step review before publication.
- ✓Research using official sources (SEC filings, IRS publications)
- ✓Multi-step review for accuracy and clarity
- ✓No affiliate relationships or sponsored content
- ✓Regular updates when regulations or market data change
This content is for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Always consult with a qualified financial advisor for personalized guidance.