The GAAP taxonomy, updated every year, is a crucial part of clear financial reporting and smarter, more automated financial analysis. The terms define line items such as revenue, net income, goodwill, PPE, and so forth; and those terms are then connected to the XBRL data filing language companies use to submit financial reports to the SEC.
Software can then read those XBRL-tagged financial reports and present financial data with more speed and precision. All the super-cool stuff you see in Calcbench databases? It traces back a clear taxonomy of GAAP terms.
The proposed taxonomy is out for public comment until Oct. 31, 2017. So if participating in the financial reporting process is your thing, visit the FASB website and speak up. (FASB also plans an explanatory webcast on Oct. 3 to walk through the proposed taxonomy.)