Compare filings

Compare marks exactly what's new, what changed, and what was removed since an earlier filing. Compare is free with a free account, and you don't need to run Sift.

Run Sift as well if you want the changes ranked for you. Each Sift section then lists its most important changes first, so you land on the ones that matter instead of reading every one.

How to turn on Compare

Open a filing, open the side panel with the button at the right end of the top bar, and find "Compare" on the "Sift" tab. Choose "Redline" or "Blackline", and SECSift compares the filing with the most recent earlier filing of the same form.

To compare against a different filing, choose that filing from the "vs." menu. SECSift matches the two filings and marks the differences right in the document.

Compare shows up when the company has an earlier filing of the same form. Compare isn't offered for Forms 3, 4, and 5, SC 13D, S-4, F-4, or filings sent as a PDF.

What the marks mean

The panel shows three counts, and the document is marked to match:

  • New (violet): Text that's in this filing but wasn't in the earlier one.
  • Changed (blue): Text that's in both, but worded or numbered differently.
  • Removed (gray): Text that was in the earlier filing but is gone from this one, shown as gray blocks where the text used to be.

Select a count to turn that mark on or off, so you can focus on just what's new, or just what was removed.

Within a paragraph that mostly stayed the same, only the words that changed carry the highlight, so a one-number edit doesn't paint the whole passage.

Two views

Compare has two views:

  • Redline: Highlights the new, changed, and removed parts in color, inside the normal document. Best for reading while seeing what moved.
  • Blackline: Fades every block that didn't change, leaving the new, changed, and removed parts at full strength. Hover over a faded block with your cursor to read the block. Best when you only want to see what moved.

Tables

Tables are compared cell by cell, not as text. A new period shows up as a new column, and a new line item as a new row, both shaded violet.

Some tables report the same period in both filings, like last year's column in this year's report. When the two filings give different numbers for the same line and the same period, SECSift shades that number blue.

A changed number like that usually means a restatement, where the company corrected a past number, or a reclassification, where the company moved an amount to a different line.

Why this is useful

Companies reuse a lot of language from one filing to the next. What's most important is often in the handful of lines they changed. Compare finds those lines, so you're not re-reading the 90% that stayed the same.

Compare works well for spotting a new risk factor, a changed accounting note, or a reworded outlook.