SEC-mandated, machine-readable structured filings are an alternative source to Compustat for companies' accounting data. Discrepancies between as-filed and Compustat data, potentially a result of Compustat's standardizations, are more pronounced for firms with complex financial reporting. We show that these data discrepancies affect inferences in four research settings: (i) properties of accrual accounting, including accruals-cash flow relationships and abnormal accruals; (ii) real earnings management; (iii) the existence and magnitude of six of 21 accounting-based anomalies examined, including the accruals anomaly; and (iv) disclosure quality assessments based on the hierarchical structure of financial statement items. FactSet data also exhibit significant and often larger discrepancies from as-filed data. Our findings demonstrate the importance of these data discrepancies for the interpretation of empirical tests.

SEC 规定的机器可读结构化文件是 Compustat 的公司会计数据的替代来源。对于财务报告复杂的公司来说，提交的数据与 Compustat 数据之间的差异可能是 Compustat 标准化的结果。我们表明，这些数据差异会影响四种研究环境中的推论：（i）权责发生制会计的属性，包括应计项目-现金流量关系和异常应计项目；(ii) 实际盈余管理；(iii) 所审查的 21 项会计异常中的 6 项是否存在及其严重程度，包括应计项目异常；(iv) 基于财务报表项目层次结构的披露质量评估。FactSet 数据还与提交的数据表现出显着且通常更大的差异。