9.5 Suppression Strategies

There is often more than one approach to suppressing content and to determine the most efficient method will depend on the circumstance.  This article will illustrate some of the different approaches to assist in determining the most efficient and appropriate approach to content suppression.

Reuse of suppression rules

The same suppression rule can be used on multiple segments and rows or columns in a table.  For example a single rule that checks if the value of Property, Plant and Equipment is zero in both the current and previous period can be applied to the Property, Plant and Equipment row in the balance sheet, and to the segments containing the Property, Plant and Equipment accounting policy and its notes to the financial statement.

Suppression rules should be reused wherever appropriate which will be easier to maintain and avoid any unexpected inconsistencies.

Use of report variables in suppression rules

The use of report variables such as entity identifier or name can be used in suppression rules to suppress content based on a list of specific entities.  This would work well if, for example, you wish to suppress a cash flow statement and supporting notes for a handful of entities in the group. In this example, if content has been assigned this suppression rule, then it will be suppressed if the entity identifier is one of “12345678” or “23456789”:

IF( [Entity Identifier] = “12345678” OR [Entity Identifier] = “23456789”,True,False)

This would not however be an efficient approach if you intend to suppress a large number of entities in a large population of reports because the rule itself will be large and likely require frequent updating if new entities become relevant for the rule. Furthermore the suppression will not be very transparent when troubleshooting suppression issues.  In this case it is recommended to use Custom Report Variables.

Using custom report variables to drive suppression rules

Custom Report Variables are a flexible way to drive content suppression. If the logic is binary e.g. either it is a LLP or it is a PLC, create a custom report variable of type Yes/No such as "IsAPLC".

Custom report variables of type Yes/No can be assigned directly to suppress content without having to first create a suppression rule.

If the logic involves more than two possible values, consider to use a custom report variable of type list, and create a suppression rule that tests the value of the report variable.