Glossary

The filing terms the record uses, defined from the rule's own text at the SEC, the eCFR or the US Code. Terms that are the record's own conventions say so and point to the methodology.

A

Accession number: The unique identifier EDGAR gives each accepted submission: its three parts, and how CFO Tribune ties each move to one filing.

C

Chief accounting officer: A company title, not a term SEC rules define. The forms speak of the principal accounting officer; how the record treats a chief accounting officer.
CIK: The Central Index Key: the number EDGAR assigns to each filer, and how CFO Tribune uses it to keep a company's records together.

D

Documented-unknownrecord convention: The value the record uses when a filing does not establish a fact: never a guess, always with a written reason.

E

EDGAR: The SEC's Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval system, where companies file and anyone can read the filings the record is built from.
Effective daterecord convention: The day a CFO change takes effect, as the filing states it, and how the record keeps its precision: a day, a week or a month.

F

Filing daterecord convention: The day a company filed a document with the SEC, as EDGAR records it, and how CFO Tribune uses it to date and order the record.
First-time CFOrecord convention: How CFO Tribune records whether an incoming officer held a CFO seat before, and the evidence the record requires.
Form 10-K: The annual report a company files with the SEC, who must sign it, and why CFO Tribune's roster is built from its signature page.
Form 8-K: The SEC's current report: what it is, the rule that requires it, and how CFO Tribune reads CFO changes from it.
Four business days: The general deadline for a Form 8-K: within four business days after the event, with the rule for weekends and holidays.

I

Interim CFOrecord convention: How CFO Tribune records an officer appointed to the CFO role on an interim or acting basis, and why those seats are listed as open.
Internal promotionrecord convention: How CFO Tribune marks a CFO appointment where the filing shows the officer already worked at the company, and when it says not established.
Item 5.02: The Form 8-K item for officer and director changes, where a company reports that its principal financial officer left or was appointed.
Item 5.02(b): The paragraph of Item 5.02 that covers an officer who retires, resigns or is terminated, and what it requires a company to say.
Item 5.02(c): The paragraph of Item 5.02 that covers a newly appointed officer: the name, position and date, the officer's background, and any material arrangement.

P

Principal accounting officer: The officer SEC forms name alongside the principal financial officer: listed in Item 5.02 of Form 8-K and among the required signers of Form 10-K.
Principal financial officer: The officer role SEC rules name where a company's own title is usually chief financial officer: who must be reported when they leave or arrive, and who signs and certifies.

R

Regulation S-K Item 401: The SEC disclosure item on directors and executive officers, whose background paragraphs an appointment 8-K must include for a new CFO.

S

Section 302 certification: The certification the principal executive and principal financial officers sign in each annual and quarterly report, under Sarbanes-Oxley Section 302 and Rule 13a-14(a).
Section 906 certification: The written statement by the CEO and CFO that accompanies each periodic report with financial statements, under 18 U.S.C. 1350.
SIC code: The Standard Industrial Classification code in a company's EDGAR filings, and how CFO Tribune groups the codes into sectors.
Signature block: The signature page of a Form 10-K, who must sign it, and how CFO Tribune reads the CFO's own signature there.

T

Transitionrecord convention: How CFO Tribune uses transition: one filing that reports both the outgoing CFO and a permanent successor.

#

8-K/A: An amendment to a Form 8-K: the rule for how it is filed, and the Item 5.02 case that calls for one.