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§9.3.4

SEC Period Tiers

A stack of period headers—how are the tiers annotated?

✅ NormativeSettled. The requirement holds as written.📄 Page ruleCan be applied from the page alone.Read §9.3.4 in the RFC ↗

The requirement

A financial period stack MUST be rendered as its printed tiers: period groups over their own date leaves, an apex qualifier above them, a stacked month and year joined into one leaf label, and the units note kept verbatim as the corner header cell.

When it applies

This is the header stack of every 10-K and 10-Q. It looks ambiguous, but every part of it has a fixed answer.

Sketch of the printed page — layout, not output
| $ in millions |       Average for the        |  ← apex qualifier
|               | Three Months Ended | Year …  |  ← sibling period groups
|               | December | December | Dec…   |  ← stacked month/year =
|               | 2024     | 2023     | 2024   |    ONE leaf, joined
The page shows Requirement
"Three/Six Months Ended…", "Year(s) Ended…" MUST be sibling group tiers over their own date leaves
An apex qualifier like "Average for the" MUST be a tier above them, spanning the period groups
Stacked "December" / "2024" MUST be one leaf label, the lines joined
Bold on the current-period column styling, not structure: the header structure MUST NOT change; the bold is marked per cell as printed
"$ in millions" in the stub corner MUST be the corner header cell, kept verbatim

Reading the examples. Each one pairs a source page with the output the rule expects. ✅ Sample: the rule applies. ❌ Counter-sample: it looks like it applies and does not, or a rendering got it wrong. A non-conforming output, in red, is shown only for contrast. … marks content left out of an excerpt.

Examples

01

✅ SampleThe rule applies

Three Months Ended / Nine Months Ended bands with the $ in millions corner note in…wdb

Three Months Ended / Nine Months Ended bands with the $ in millions corner note in the stub.

Source page
SEC Period Tiers — Three Months Ended / Nine Months Ended bands with the $ in millions corner note in…. Source page.
Expected output
Three Months Ended September 30, Nine Months Ended September 30,
2024 2023 % Change 2024 2023 % Change
$ in millions Reported Ex-FX(\*) Reported Ex-FX(\*)
Distribution $ 2,598 $ 2,833 (8)% (7)% $ 8,070 $ 8,769 (8)% (7)%
Advertising 1,490 1,709 (13)% (13)% 5,691 6,394 (11)% (11)%
Content 833 215 NM NM 1,396 744 88 % 87 %
Other 89 111 (20)% (21)% 250 300 (17)% (18)%
Total revenues 5,010 4,868 3 % 3 % 15,407 16,207 (5)% (4)%
Costs of revenues (excluding depreciation & amortization) 2,185 1,800 21 % 22 % 7,088 7,243 (2)% (1)%
Selling, general and administrative 710 672 6 % 6 % 2,087 2,109 (1)% — %
Adjusted EBITDA $ 2,115 $ 2,396 (12)% (11)% $ 6,232 $ 6,855 (9)% (9)%
SEC Period Tiers · Source page

Three Months Ended / Nine Months Ended bands with the $ in millions corner note in…

SEC Period Tiers — Three Months Ended / Nine Months Ended bands with the $ in millions corner note in…. Source page.
02

✅ SampleThe rule applies

For the Years Ended December 3110k1

For the Years Ended December 31, spanning 2030/2029/2028 plus a Change tier, with an (in millions, except percentages) corner note.

Source page
SEC Period Tiers — For the Years Ended December 31. Source page.
Expected output · excerpt
For the Years Ended December 31, Change
(in millions, except percentages) 2030 2029 2028 2030 vs. 2029
Revenues
MerevaldCare $ 301,450 $ 284,900 $ 252,100 $ 16,550 6%
Vantage Health 108,200 97,650 73,300 10,550 11
Vantage Insight 19,300 19,480 15,010 (180) (1)
Vantage Rx 137,000 119,400 102,650 17,600 15
Vantage eliminations (4,520) (3,810) (2,840) (710) 19
Vantage 260,980 232,720 188,120 27,260 12
Eliminations (162,300) (146,700) (116,700) (15,600) 11
Consolidated revenues $ 400,130 $ 370,920 $ 323,520 $ 29,210 8%
Earnings from operations
MerevaldCare $ 15,820 $ 16,650 $ 14,590 $ (830) (5)%
…
SEC Period Tiers · Source page

For the Years Ended December 31

SEC Period Tiers — For the Years Ended December 31. Source page.
03

✅ SampleThe rule applies

Three / Six Months Ended September 302q

Three / Six Months Ended September 30, over 2004/2003 leaves, with an (in thousands) lead-in. Each period label wraps over two lines inside its own group cell and is joined. The currency sign is printed with a space before the figure; Nova Studio Net Product Revenue is indented one step.

Source page
SEC Period Tiers — Three / Six Months Ended September 30. Source page.
Expected output · table 1 of 2
Three Months Ended September 30, Six Months Ended September 30,
2004 2003 2004 2003
Rivera 2 $ 311,839 $ 221,180 $ 473,815 $ 339,549
PC 140,702 93,022 207,453 173,360
Orbit 141,936 68,691 199,146 100,212
Lumos Cube 38,181 24,553 64,605 45,707
Handheld Go 10,081 3,809 28,069 6,168
Subscription Services 12,554 11,124 24,994 24,755
Nova Studio Net Product Revenue 655,293 422,379 998,082 689,751
Co-publishing and Distribution 48,913 92,512 116,105 164,059
Advertising, Programming, Licensing and Other 11,522 15,114 33,182 29,576
Total Net Revenue $ 715,728 $ 530,005 $ 1,147,369 $ 883,386
SEC Period Tiers · Source page

Three / Six Months Ended September 30

SEC Period Tiers — Three / Six Months Ended September 30. Source page.

Why the stacked month and year join

"December" and "2024" are not two levels of anything — no other column shares a "December" parent. The typesetter broke one label across two lines to fit a narrow column, so it is a wrap. A tier is kept only for a label that genuinely spans more than one leaf column, as Multi-Row Header Tiers (§9.3.3) requires.

More

Rule id tables-sec-period-tiers · tables headers sec