The Zacks Investment Research Fundamental database consists of “as reported” and standardized financial statement data from 1979 to date covering 6,750 companies trading on US exchanges.

Companies Covered: 6,000 US companies, plus 550 non-US companies traded as ADRs on US exchanges from 35 foreign countries, plus 200 Canadian companies trading on US exchanges.

As Reported Financial Statements: For the 3,800 largest companies annual and quarterly as reported income statements, balance sheets and cash flow statements are available from 2001 to the present.

Standardized Financial Statements: As reported financial statements are mapped into standardized financial statements to facilitate multi company investment analysis. Each company is classified into one of six templates – Industrial, Banking, Insurance, REITs, Utilities, and Brokerage. The reported Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow line items are mapped into standardized line items.

Operational Metrics Data: The Zacks Fundamental database includes 260 operational metric items covering over 900 companies in 32 different industries. History for the metrics items goes back to 2003. For more details on the operational metrics, download the overview document below.

Annual History: For the 3,800 largest companies Zacks provides over 500 fields of annual standardized data from 2001 forward, and 87 fields from 1979 to 2001. For the 2,800 smaller companies and ADRs we provide 87 fields of annual standardized data from 1979 to the present.

Quarterly History: For the 3,800 largest companies Zacks provides over 500 fields of quarterly standardized data from 2001 forward and 87 field from 1987 to 2001. For the 2,800 smaller companies and ADRs we provide 87 fields of quarterly standardized data from 1987 to the present.

Restatements: All data is captured "As Originally Reported" for both annual and quarterly filings from SEC forms 10K and 10Q, and company issued press releases. Subsequent restatements and/or amendments are captured and archived separately, providing true point-in-time data for back-testing and the full restated statements for current analysis.

Point in Time Data: Zacks offers a number of databases that consists of fundamental data as well as consensus estimates and ratios in a point in time format.

Timeliness: Zacks fundamental data is acquired from SEC filings and company issued earnings press releases. The data is generally captured and databased within 24 hours from when this information is made public.  Key items from the earnings release are provided in the Zacks Surprise files on the same day as the release.

Quality: Zacks employs a rigorous quality control process to make sure all data points are recorded accurately. For each company, a trained analyst enters the data from SEC filings, which is then double checked by a senior analyst. Once the data is entered, a senior analyst signs off on final completion after reviewing all the data. In addition, the data is subjected to a battery of automated checks to verify balancing relationships and correct errors. All data items are reviewed by multiple sets of trained eyes as well as automated computer checks.

Audit Trail: In the ZRS system, each Standardized item is linked to its underlying Company Specific item which in turn, is linked to its corresponding SEC filing. This linkage system allows the user to verify the accuracy of the data and identify how the Company Specific data is mapped into the Standardized data format.

Preliminary Data: When companies issue their earnings press releases Zacks captures the data on the day of the press release. This preliminary data is populated in the primary fundamental database until it is overwritten when the actual SEC reports are filed.  The preliminary data is archived separately for back-testing purposes.

Segment information: Business and geographic segment revenues are included in the data base in the Company Specific format.

Currencies: For ADRs and Canadian companies, all data is entered in US dollars.

Non-Financial Metrics: 260 key industry specific operating metrics reported in the press release or in the earnings calls such as same store sales for retail are included in the database.

Company Descriptive Information: The database includes descriptive items such as corporate address, phone, and website information, business description, and number of employees.

Industry Classification: Companies are classified into the Zacks structure of 16 economic sectors, 59 major industries and 215 sub-industries.

Industry /Sector Aggregates: Companies in the sub-industry, industry and sectors are aggregated for a selection of fundamental ratios. This data is available through the ZRS system.

Dead Companies: Zacks maintains a complete database of over 16,000 companies no longer trading that is integrated with the 6,750 active companies  for backtesting applications.

Data Update Frequency: New data for each company is captured and archived as soon as it becomes public on a daily basis. As a result, deliverable fundamental data files can be updated and delivered daily, weekly, or monthly according to customer needs.

Delivery: Data can be delivered in a variety of ways.

FTP: Raw data files can be delivered via FTP in several formats - ASCII comma delimited (CSV), Microsoft Excel, or Extensible Markup Language (XML).

Application Programming Interface (API): Data can be delivered in the form of an API in XML or JSON format.

Software Viewing Platform: Both As Originally Reported and Restated data is available for viewing in the new Zacks Research System (ZRS 5.0) market data system.

Excel: A direct link from within Excel to the full database is provided in the ZRS 5.0 system.

SQL: The fundamental data is also available as a SQL database.

An overview document for the Zacks Fundamental database can be downloaded below.