The SEC Form N-CSR Files dataset is a per-accession archive of every Form N-CSR and Form N-CSR/A certified shareholder report filed on EDGAR by registered management investment companies — open-end mutual funds, ETFs organized as open-end funds, and closed-end funds — since the form's adoption in February 2003. One record is one complete EDGAR submission identified by its 18-digit accession number, packaged as a folder inside a monthly ZIP container that holds a structured metadata.json sidecar alongside the SGML-wrapped primary shareholder report and its certifying exhibits. The dataset covers both N-CSR originals and N-CSR/A amendments, preserves the filing-agent SGML envelope around every payload document, and reflects the regulatory evolution of the form including the Sarbanes-Oxley certification regime, the inline-XBRL phase-in, and the Tailored Shareholder Reports rule that took effect July 24, 2024. The form is filed under Section 30(b)(2) of the Investment Company Act of 1940 and Sections 13(a)/15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act, with the underlying shareholder report required by Rule 30e-1 and the ten-day N-CSR filing window set by Rule 30b2-1. Files are distributed in HTML, plain text, JSON, and occasional PDF, packed into year-organized monthly ZIP containers.
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The dataset is a complete, per-accession archive of Form N-CSR (Certified Annual Shareholder Report of Registered Management Investment Companies) and Form N-CSR/A (amendments) submissions transmitted to EDGAR. Each accession is materialized as a single folder named with the dashes-stripped accession number (for example, 000119312525190817 for accession 0001193125-25-190817), and the dataset packages both the filing payload and a structured manifest describing the filer, the fund's series and share-class structure, and every document EDGAR received — including those that are deliberately excluded from the dataset copy (image graphics and standalone XBRL data files).
Form N-CSR itself is the Certified Shareholder Report of Registered Management Investment Companies, mandated by Investment Company Act Section 30(b)(2) of the Investment Company Act of 1940 and by Sections 13(a)/15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and implemented by Rule 30b2-1 under the 1940 Act. A registered management investment company must file N-CSR within ten days after transmitting an annual shareholder report under Rule 30e-1. The form is largely a transmission shell: the substantive disclosure is the shareholder report itself, which is attached as the primary document and supplemented by a fixed roster of certifying exhibits required by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 — Section 302 officer certifications (EX-99.CERT) and Section 906 officer certifications (EX-99.906CERT) — together with the registrant's code of ethics (EX-99.CODEETH) when newly adopted or amended, and the auditor's consent (EX-99.D) where applicable. Form N-CSR/A carries the same internal anatomy but is filed to amend a previously submitted N-CSR; the dataset layout is identical except that the primary document filename ordinarily contains ncsra rather than ncsr, formType is "N-CSR/A", and description reads "Form N-CSR/A - Certified Shareholder Report: [Amend]".
The dataset is distributed as monthly ZIP containers organized into year subdirectories, with the earliest records dating from February 2003. File types found in the archive are HTML, plain text, JSON, and occasional PDF, with HTML inside the SGML envelope accounting for the overwhelming majority of payload documents.
When a monthly ZIP container is decompressed, it expands into a flat directory of per-filing folders. Each folder is one record. Inside each folder a consumer will find:
metadata.json — always present, always at the folder root, and the only filename guaranteed to existdocumentFormatFiles[] sequence "1" with type equal to N-CSR or N-CSR/A, but with no fixed filenameImage files (EDGAR GRAPHIC documents — .jpg, .gif, .png chart and logo images referenced inline by the shareholder report) and standalone XBRL artifacts (.xsd schema, .xml instance documents, and linkbase files) are listed inside metadata.json so the full EDGAR manifest is preserved, but they are not written to disk. Consequently the on-disk file count is always lower than the length of the metadata's document manifest — a filing whose manifest lists forty-plus documents may ship only a handful of HTML files in the folder.
metadata.json sidecarmetadata.json is the structured anchor of every record. Its top-level keys carry filing-level descriptors, the EDGAR document manifest, the registrant (entity) blocks, and, for open-end fund trusts, the registered series and share-class tree. The fields are:
formType — "N-CSR" for original filings, "N-CSR/A" for amendments.accessionNo — dashed accession number, e.g. "0001193125-25-190817".effectivenessDate — date EDGAR deemed the filing effective, YYYY-MM-DD.filedAt — ISO-8601 acceptance timestamp with timezone offset, e.g. "2025-08-28T11:22:46-04:00".periodOfReport — the report period-end (fund fiscal year-end, or, for legacy N-CSR records, fiscal half-year), YYYY-MM-DD.description — EDGAR-style human-readable form description, e.g. "Form N-CSR - Certified Shareholder Report".linkToFilingDetails — deep link to the primary document on sec.gov; for inline-XBRL primaries this is the ix?doc=... viewer URL, otherwise the bare document URL.linkToTxt — URL of the full SGML submission .txt.linkToHtml — URL of the EDGAR filing index page (*-index.htm).linkToXbrl — XBRL viewer URL; frequently empty for N-CSR records prior to the inline-XBRL phase-in.id — opaque 32-character hex dataset row identifier.documentFormatFiles[] — the EDGAR <DOCUMENT> manifest (see below).dataFiles[] — the XBRL schema, instance, and linkbase manifest; empty for filings without inline XBRL.entities[] — one entry per registrant block in the EDGAR header.seriesAndClassesContractsInformation[] — series and share-class tree (open-end fund trusts only; empty for closed-end trusts and operating-company N-CSR filers).documentFormatFiles[]Each entry mirrors one row of the EDGAR <DOCUMENT> table and carries:
sequence — a string such as "1", "2", or a literal single space for the trailing complete-submission entrysize — byte count as a stringdocumentUrl — absolute sec.gov URL (ix?doc=... when the primary is inline XBRL)description — filer's free-text label; usually the fund name on the primary and the exhibit purpose on exhibitstype — EDGAR document type codeSequence numbers are strings, are not always contiguous (graphics typically introduce gaps), and the trailing complete-submission row uses " " (single space) for both sequence and type and "Complete submission text file" for description.
The type vocabulary in the dataset includes:
N-CSR / N-CSR/A — primary shareholder report, always at sequence "1".EX-99.CERT — Sarbanes-Oxley Act Section 302 officer certifications.EX-99.906CERT (sometimes EX-99.906 CERT with an interior space) — Sarbanes-Oxley Section 906 officer certifications.EX-99.CODEETH (sometimes EX-99.CODE ETH with an interior space) — code of ethics applicable to the registrant's principal executive and senior financial officers, filed when adopted, materially amended, or when a waiver is granted.EX-99.D — consent of the independent registered public accounting firm; most often present for closed-end funds and BDCs (Form N-2 registrants) where audited financials are incorporated by reference into a Securities Act registration statement.EX-19.A3, EX-19.B — Item 19 exhibits used by operating-company N-CSR filers (a small minority — for example, certain BDCs and other non-fund N-CSR registrants).GRAPHIC — embedded chart, table, and logo images; referenced in the manifest but excluded from the on-disk folder.XML, EX-101.SCH, EX-101.CAL, EX-101.DEF, EX-101.LAB, EX-101.PRE — XBRL instance document and linkbase files associated with inline-XBRL N-CSRs; also surfaced through dataFiles[] and excluded from the on-disk folder.Because filers do not normalize exhibit-type strings, consumers should treat EX-99.906CERT/EX-99.906 CERT and EX-99.CODEETH/EX-99.CODE ETH as equivalents. The reliable way to resolve the primary document on disk is to find the documentFormatFiles[] entry whose type is N-CSR or N-CSR/A and whose sequence is "1", then take the basename of its documentUrl.
dataFiles[]This array mirrors documentFormatFiles[] but enumerates only the XBRL attachments — taxonomy schema (EX-101.SCH), calculation/definition/label/presentation linkbases (EX-101.CAL, EX-101.DEF, EX-101.LAB, EX-101.PRE), and the XML instance document (whose description typically reads "EXTRACTED XBRL INSTANCE DOCUMENT"). For filings without inline XBRL — the majority of older N-CSRs — the array is empty.
entities[]One entry per registrant block in the EDGAR header. Fields include:
cik — numeric string, no leading zeroscompanyName — EDGAR-style label preserving the parenthetical role tag, e.g. "TOUCHSTONE STRATEGIC TRUST (Filer)" or "(Subject)"type — form type from that header blockact — "40" for Investment Company Act of 1940 filersfileNo — SEC file number; generally 811-... for registered management investment companies and 814-... for BDCsfilmNo — EDGAR film numberirsNo — IRS employer identifierfiscalYearEnd — four-digit MMDD (sometimes omitted)stateOfIncorporation — US two-letter code, or empty for non-US registrantstickers — array of exchange tickers; populated for closed-end funds, ETFs, and BDCs that are exchange-listed; commonly absent or empty for open-end mutual fund trusts whose shares are not exchange-listed at the trust levelseriesAndClassesContractsInformation[]This array exposes the EDGAR series-and-class structure that open-end fund trusts must report. Each entry describes one registered series and carries the series identifier (S0000…), a name, and a classesContracts[] list. Each share class has its own EDGAR class-contract identifier (C0000…), a name (typically the class letter or label such as A, C, Institutional, R6), and a ticker where one is assigned. A single multi-fund trust filing routinely enumerates many series and dozens of share classes within one N-CSR. For closed-end fund trusts and for operating-company N-CSR filers, this array is empty and consumers should fall back to entities[].tickers and entities[].fileNo for issuer identification.
The primary document at sequence "1" carries the substantive content. It is delivered inside an SGML envelope of the form:
1
<DOCUMENT>
2
<TYPE>N-CSR
3
<SEQUENCE>1
4
<FILENAME>…
5
<DESCRIPTION>…
6
<TEXT>
7
… HTML payload …
8
</TEXT>
9
</DOCUMENT>
Parsers must strip this preamble before treating the inner content as HTML. The header markers <TYPE>, <SEQUENCE>, <FILENAME>, and <DESCRIPTION> are authoritative and should be reconciled against the corresponding documentFormatFiles[] entry.
The Item structure that has applied across most of the dataset's lifetime contains, in order:
EX-99.CODEETH exhibit.The signature block at the foot of the primary document carries the principal executive officer's and principal financial officer's signatures with titles and dates. Form N-CSR is signed on behalf of the registrant and separately by each certifying officer; the standalone Section 302 and Section 906 statements live in their own exhibit files.
For filings on or after the Tailored Shareholder Reports compliance date (July 24, 2024), the open-end-fund layout shifts: Item 1 attaches a streamlined retail-facing tailored shareholder report (TSR) per share class, while Items 6 and following carry the full portfolio holdings, complete financial statements, management information, and approval-of-advisory-contract disclosures previously housed inside Item 1.
The exhibit roster attached to a typical N-CSR is short and stable across filers:
EX-99.CERT — Section 302 certifications. Two near-identical certification statements, one by the principal executive officer and one by the principal financial officer, in the form prescribed by Form N-CSR's General Instructions, attesting to the officer's review, disclosure controls, and internal control over financial reporting.EX-99.906CERT — Section 906 certifications. Officer statements furnished pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 1350 affirming that the report fully complies with the requirements of Section 13(a)/15(d) and fairly presents the financial condition and operations of the registrant. Section 906 certifications are "furnished" rather than "filed" and carry different legal exposure, but ship as exhibits alongside the Section 302 certifications.EX-99.CODEETH — Code of ethics. Filed when the registrant adopts a new code or materially amends an existing one; not present on every N-CSR.EX-99.D — Auditor consent. A short consent letter from the registered public accounting firm to the incorporation of its audit report; most commonly present for closed-end funds and BDCs whose audited financials are incorporated by reference into a Securities Act registration statement.EX-19.A3 / EX-19.B. Item 19 exhibits used only by operating-company N-CSR filers.Each exhibit is wrapped in the same SGML envelope as the primary document, with <TYPE>, <SEQUENCE>, <FILENAME>, and <DESCRIPTION> markers preserved exactly as transmitted to EDGAR.
Filenames are not standardized; they reflect the conventions of the filing agent that prepared the submission. Patterns found in the dataset include:
d<docid>dncsr.htm, d<docid>dex99cert.htm, d<docid>dex99906cert.htm, d<docid>dex99d.htm).tm<jobid>d<rev>_ncsr.htm, tm<jobid>d<rev>_ex99-cert.htm, tm<jobid>d<rev>_ex99-906cert.htm, tm<jobid>d<rev>_ex99-codeeth.htm; amendments use _ncsra in place of _ncsr).8dde5aa36ebc3f9.htm alongside descriptive exhibit names like JIF_6-30_N-CSR_EX-99_6.30.25.htm).primary-document.htm, cert302.htm, section906.htm, coe.htm, ncsrcodeofethicsjan2022.htm).formn-csr.htm, ex19-a3.htm, ex19-b.htm).The only guaranteed filename in any record is metadata.json. Everything else must be resolved through documentFormatFiles[].
For each accession the record contains the dataset pipeline's metadata.json and every primary and exhibit document in the EDGAR submission whose payload is HTML, plain text, JSON, or PDF. The dataset thus preserves the full narrative and certifying content of each filing: the shareholder report and its embedded financials, schedule of investments, MDFP, and signature block; the Section 302 and Section 906 certifications; the code of ethics where filed; the auditor consent where filed; and any non-image, non-XBRL exhibits the filer attached.
Two classes of attachment are deliberately omitted from the on-disk record:
GRAPHIC entry listed in documentFormatFiles[] (chart images, fund-performance graphics, logos, embedded figures) is excluded. The manifest still records their filenames, sizes, and EDGAR URLs so the original submission can be reconstructed by fetching the missing assets directly from sec.gov..xsd), instance documents (.xml), and linkbase files are tracked in dataFiles[] (and the corresponding EX-101.* entries of documentFormatFiles[]) but are not written to the folder. Inline XBRL facts embedded inside the primary HTML remain present in that HTML document, since inline-XBRL tags live in the rendered HTML stream.The complete .txt submission (the SGML envelope wrapping every document EDGAR received) is also not packaged into the folder; it remains accessible through the linkToTxt URL.
Form N-CSR/A records are structurally identical to N-CSR records in this dataset. The folder layout, exhibit roster, and metadata.json schema are unchanged; only formType shifts to "N-CSR/A", description reads "Form N-CSR/A - Certified Shareholder Report: [Amend]", and the primary document filename typically contains ncsra instead of ncsr. An amendment is a self-contained re-submission that supersedes the prior accession for the periods and items it addresses, and is therefore stored as its own record under its own accession folder rather than being merged with the original.
The internal anatomy diverges in two practical respects depending on registrant type.
Open-end fund trusts (typically Section 8 registrants on Form N-1A, file number prefix 811-) populate seriesAndClassesContractsInformation[] with a full series-and-class tree. The primary N-CSR usually consolidates multiple series under one trust-level filing, so the financial statements and schedules of investments are stacked series-by-series within Item 1 (or, post-Tailored Shareholder Reports, within Items 6 and following). The entities[].tickers array is frequently absent because shares are not exchange-listed at the trust level.
Closed-end fund trusts and BDCs (file number prefixes 811- for registered closed-end funds, 814- for BDCs) leave seriesAndClassesContractsInformation[] empty, expose their listed ticker through entities[].tickers, almost always carry an EX-99.D auditor consent, and may carry Item 5 (audit committee listing requirements) and Item 10 (share repurchases) disclosures absent from open-end records.
Operating-company N-CSR filers — a small minority — depart further: they may include EX-19.A3 and EX-19.B item exhibits and tend to use plainer in-house filenames.
Form N-CSR's content and structure have been adjusted by several rule changes since the form's inception in 2003:
N-CSR and N-CSR/A form types; semi-annual reports on the new N-CSRS form type fall outside the dataset's scope. Records filed on N-CSR before the compliance date may have periodOfReport values corresponding to either fiscal year-ends or fiscal half-year-ends; after the compliance date, periodOfReport values correspond to fiscal year-ends only.linkToFilingDetails increasingly points at the ix?doc= viewer URL, dataFiles[] populates with EX-101.* linkbase entries, and the primary HTML embeds inline-XBRL fact tags inline.N-CSR has been an EDGAR-filed form throughout its life, and the dataset's earliest records (February 2003 onward) are already HTML-based, wrapped in the same SGML <DOCUMENT> envelope used today. Two material format shifts have occurred within that long-stable framing:
dataFiles[] entries. Later records, as fund inline-XBRL tagging requirements have taken effect, embed inline-XBRL facts inside the primary HTML and surface taxonomy schema and linkbase files through dataFiles[]. The presence of an ix?doc= prefix on linkToFilingDetails is a fast indicator of an inline-XBRL primary.EX-99.906CERT and EX-99.906 CERT appear, as do EX-99.CODEETH and EX-99.CODE ETH. The dataset preserves these strings exactly as transmitted; downstream consumers must normalize them.Several anatomy details matter for accurate extraction:
<DOCUMENT>...<TEXT>...</TEXT></DOCUMENT> markers. The inner content can only be parsed as HTML after the preamble is removed. The preamble's <TYPE>, <SEQUENCE>, <FILENAME>, and <DESCRIPTION> lines are authoritative and should be reconciled against documentFormatFiles[].documentFormatFiles[] entry where type is N-CSR or N-CSR/A and sequence is "1", then take the basename of documentUrl (stripping the ix?doc= prefix when present).EX-99.906CERT/EX-99.906 CERT and EX-99.CODEETH/EX-99.CODE ETH before grouping.sequence and type.documentFormatFiles.length because GRAPHIC and standalone XBRL entries are listed in the manifest but excluded from the folder. Consumers that need those assets must fetch them via each entry's documentUrl.seriesAndClassesContractsInformation[] because the trust-level entities[] block aggregates multiple economically distinct funds. For closed-end funds, BDCs, and operating-company filers, identification should flow through entities[].tickers and entities[].fileNo.periodOfReport in light of the July 24, 2024 bifurcation. Earlier records may report fiscal half-year-ends; later records (within this N-CSR-only dataset) report fiscal year-ends only..xml instance and EX-101.* linkbase files are excluded from the on-disk folder; the dataFiles[] array provides the URLs needed to fetch those companion artifacts from sec.gov.Form N-CSR is filed by registered management investment companies — investment companies registered with the SEC under the Investment Company Act of 1940 and organized as either open-end or closed-end management investment companies. The legal EDGAR filer is the registrant entity (typically a Delaware or Massachusetts statutory trust, a Maryland corporation, or, less commonly, a limited partnership), not the individual series within it.
In scope:
Out of scope (do not file N-CSR):
Although the entity is the filer, the Sarbanes-Oxley Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act certifications inside each filing are personally signed by the registrant's principal executive officer and principal financial officer.
Form N-CSR rests on three statutes and two operative rules:
The form was adopted in early 2003; the earliest EDGAR N-CSR filings date from February 2003.
A Form N-CSR filing is event-driven, not calendar-driven. The triggering event is the transmission of a Rule 30e-1 shareholder report to investors:
Because the trigger is the fund's fiscal-period-end shareholder report rather than a calendar-year cycle, N-CSR filings cluster by each registrant's fiscal-year-end and the six-month half-year date. A series trust whose series have staggered fiscal year-ends generates N-CSR filings throughout the calendar year.
Under Rule 30b2-1, the registrant must file Form N-CSR with the SEC no later than ten days after the date the shareholder report is transmitted to shareholders. The clock runs from the transmission date, not from the fiscal-period-end.
Because Rule 30e-1 requires the shareholder report itself to be transmitted within 60 days after the close of the relevant fiscal period, the outside boundary for an N-CSR filing is roughly 70 days after period-end.
Form N-CSR/A (amendments) are filed to correct, restate, or supplement a prior N-CSR — for example, restated financials, corrected schedules of investments, or re-executed certifications. Amendments have no fixed deadline; they are filed when the need is identified and inherit the filer and triggering event of the original report.
The SEC's 2022 amendments to Rule 30e-1 and Form N-CSR — the Tailored Shareholder Reports (TSR) rule — became effective with a compliance date of July 24, 2024. They restructured shareholder reporting for open-end funds only (mutual funds and ETFs on Form N-1A):
The semi-annual filing remains a Form N-CSR submission (often informally labeled Form N-CSRS by filers and vendors), but its content is conformed to the TSR regime: a concise semi-annual tailored report for shareholders, with full unaudited semi-annual financials filed on N-CSR.
Closed-end funds and BDCs are not in scope of the tailored shareholder reports framework. Closed-end funds continue to file N-CSR under the pre-TSR content model; BDCs continue to report on Forms 10-K and 10-Q.
Form N-CSR sits within a tight cluster of investment company filings. Several adjacent forms share content (holdings, fund financials, governance, performance) but differ in rule basis, cadence, structure, and filer scope. The comparisons below mark where N-CSR is the right source and where another filing is.
Pre-consolidation, N-CSR covered annual certified shareholder reports and N-CSRS covered semi-annuals. The SEC retired the N-CSRS designation; semi-annuals now file on N-CSR. Historical N-CSRS filings remain in EDGAR under the old form type and are not in this dataset. A complete pre-consolidation semi-annual time series requires combining an N-CSRS dataset with this one.
Monthly position-level portfolio holdings in structured XML: identifiers, fair values, derivatives, counterparties, and risk metrics. Only every third month is made public, on a delay.
N-CSR also discloses holdings but as a period-end schedule embedded in the HTML/PDF shareholder report, not parsed rows. Use N-PORT for systematic holdings analytics and intra-period changes; use N-CSR for audited financial statements, performance narrative, and officer certifications, none of which N-PORT carries.
The pre-2019 quarterly holdings report for Q1 and Q3, replaced by N-PORT. Not in this dataset. Relevant only for long-horizon holdings series spanning the pre-N-PORT era; N-CSR remains the source for annual and semi-annual periods throughout.
The registration statement for open-end funds (mutual funds, most ETFs): prospectus, SAI, and Part C exhibits. Filed at launch and refreshed via post-effective amendments and Rule 485 filings. Prospective and registration-stage, not periodic.
N-CSR is the post-registration periodic counterpart: realized returns, audited financials, and the period-end schedule of investments. Complementary, never substitutable.
The closed-end fund analogue of N-1A, also covering BDCs and interval funds. Registration-stage and prospectus-oriented. Closed-end funds also file N-CSR, so lifecycle tracking pairs N-2 (offering) with this dataset (periodic).
Operating-company periodic reports under the Exchange Act. They share the SOX 302 certification framework with N-CSR but cover consolidated corporate financials, segments, and risk factors for operating businesses. Registered investment companies do not file 10-K or 10-Q for fund operations; N-CSR is the 1940 Act analogue. Do not merge the two regimes without explicit reconciliation.
Annual census filing in structured XML: organizational facts, service providers, securities lending, fund-of-fund relationships, classifications. No financial statements, no holdings schedule, no performance narrative. Content sets are largely disjoint from N-CSR; the two are complements on the annual cadence.
Annual proxy voting record (and, post-2024 amendments, say-on-pay reports from certain institutional managers). N-CSR may reference voting policies but contains no votes. Stewardship analysis needs N-PX for the ballots and N-CSR for the financial context.
Amendments to prior N-CSR filings, included alongside originals. Amendments may correct certifications, restate financials, refile a missing exhibit, or revise the shareholder report. Both accessions are preserved: the latest amendment supersedes for the period, but the original remains the contemporaneous record. Version reconstruction is the user's responsibility; this dataset does not collapse amendments into a single canonical record.
Not a separate form, but a regime change inside N-CSR. Open-end funds now produce concise, fund-and-class-specific shareholder reports under new Item 27A, replacing the long-form report under legacy Item 27. The new reports use prescribed sections (fund expenses, MDFP, fund statistics, graphical holdings, material changes) and structured tagging. Closed-end funds and BDCs remain on the legacy regime.
Practical effect on this dataset: open-end filings before July 24, 2024 follow Item 27 and look materially different from those on or after that date in length, layout, and tagging. Longitudinal text mining and layout-dependent extraction must accommodate the break; section locations and the boundary between the shareholder report and the financial statements shift at the effective date.
N-CSR is uniquely the certified, audited (or reviewed) shareholder-report package for registered investment companies. Only this dataset contains, in their filed form together:
N-PORT delivers finer-grained holdings, N-CEN delivers structural census data, N-PX delivers voting records, and N-1A or N-2 deliver prospectus content. None substitutes for N-CSR when the question concerns reported fund results, the shareholder communication itself, or the SOX-certified periodic record of a registered investment company.
Because Form N-CSR bundles audited or unaudited financial statements, the full schedule of investments, the manager's discussion, financial highlights, officer certifications, the code-of-ethics exhibit, and the auditor consent into one record, different professions read different sections of that record.
Buy-side, sell-side, and third-party fund analysts covering mutual funds, closed-end funds, ETFs, and variable insurance trusts pull the schedule of investments for share-lot holdings, the statement of operations and financial highlights for gross vs. net expense ratios and per-share metrics, and the manager's discussion for attribution and positioning. Outputs feed fund ratings, peer screens, and style-box classifications.
Quant teams ingest the schedule of investments and financial statements to build point-in-time holdings panels and detect style drift, factor tilts, derivatives use, and leverage. They reconcile N-CSR positions against N-PORT and 13F for cross-validation and use financial highlights and the statement of changes to drive performance-attribution and crowding models.
Fund-of-funds, OCIO desks, and RIA due-diligence groups use N-CSR to verify what a fund actually holds versus marketing claims. They scan the schedule of investments for illiquids, 144A securities, and derivatives; the notes for Level 3 assets, securities-lending terms, and affiliate transactions; and the financial highlights for expense waivers and ratios. These feed manager scorecards and redemption or onboarding decisions.
Legal and compliance staff at advisers and fund boards benchmark peer disclosure across complexes: principal-risk wording, expense-limitation agreements, affiliated brokerage, proxy voting summaries, and Rule 22e-4 liquidity classifications. The code-of-ethics exhibit and ICFR change disclosures inform their own filings and board advice.
Audit teams and internal quality reviewers covering fund clients reference the financial statements, notes, schedule of investments, auditor's report, and consent exhibit to assess fair-value hierarchy classifications, related-party disclosures, and opinion consistency across a firm's fund practice. Independent valuation specialists benchmark Level 1/2/3 methodologies against the significant accounting policies.
Finance, accounting, and economics researchers exploit the long N-CSR history to study expense ratios, turnover, fee competition, performance persistence, soft-dollar practices, and how disclosure language predicts returns. Governance and ESG scholars analyze the manager's discussion and code-of-ethics exhibits for changes in language over time.
Reporters covering asset management and retirement use the financial highlights and notes to investigate expense growth, acquired-fund fees, securities-lending revenue splits, and underperformance against benchmarks. Consumer-advocacy researchers surface fee inflation and undisclosed strategy shifts affecting retail and retirement investors.
Stewardship and proxy-campaign teams cross the schedule of investments with N-PX records to map which funds hold which issuers at certified semi-annual snapshots, supporting share-mobilization estimates and engagement targeting. N-CSR adds an audited layer to the more frequent N-PORT and 13F views.
ML teams treat N-CSR as a high-value training and evaluation corpus: long-form shareholder letters and manager's discussions paired with structured tables (financial statements, schedule of investments, financial highlights). Use cases include fine-tuning on manager commentary, building retrieval pipelines that link narrative to numbers, training table extractors, and evaluating models on SOX certification language and audit-opinion classification.
Custodians, fund administrators, and prime brokers use N-CSR to reconcile custody books to public disclosures, validate fair-value methodologies, and monitor counterparty exposures in derivatives schedules and securities-lending notes. Section 302 certifications and disclosure-controls language feed vendor-risk reviews and SOC-style attestations supplied to fund clients.
Lenders and derivatives counterparties facing registered funds read the financial statements, schedule of investments, and notes on collateral and counterparty exposure to gauge fund-level liquidity, derivative leverage, and concentration. Output supports counterparty limit setting and stress modeling.
The Form N-CSR Files dataset supports a range of concrete workflows that draw on specific parts of each filing record.
Parse the schedule of investments from the primary N-CSR HTML at sequence "1" to produce per-fund, per-period-end position tables (security identifier, principal amount or shares, fair value, percent of net assets). Key the panel by seriesAndClassesContractsInformation[].seriesId for open-end trusts and by entities[].fileNo plus entities[].tickers for closed-end funds and BDCs. Reconcile against N-PORT month-end positions to validate holdings extraction and to fill the audited annual anchor in a longer holdings time series.
Extract the financial highlights table from Item 1 (or Items 6 and following for post-July 2024 open-end TSR filings) at the share-class level using the classesContracts[] identifiers in metadata.json. Feed gross expense ratio, net expense ratio, waiver/recoupment lines, turnover, and per-share NAV/returns into longitudinal manager-fee studies, RIA due-diligence scorecards, or journalism on fee inflation across complexes.
Diff the report of the independent registered public accounting firm inside Item 1 and the EX-99.D auditor consent across consecutive annual N-CSRs for the same cik. Flag changes in auditor identity, opinion modifications, critical audit matters, or absence of EX-99.D where one was previously present. Output drives audit-quality monitoring lists and PCAOB inspection prep.
Pull every EX-99.CERT (Section 302) and EX-99.906CERT (Section 906) exhibit across the dataset, normalizing the EX-99.906CERT/EX-99.906 CERT label variants. Cluster certification text against the Form N-CSR General Instructions template to detect deviations, missing paragraphs, or disclosure-control weaknesses noted by the principal executive or financial officer. Output supports compliance peer benchmarking and inspection-readiness reviews at fund advisers.
Filter the dataset for records containing an EX-99.CODEETH (or EX-99.CODE ETH) exhibit, since the code is filed only on adoption, material amendment, or waiver. Cross with Item 2 of the primary document to classify the event type, and build a longitudinal log of governance changes by registrant. Useful for fund counsel benchmarking peer codes and for governance researchers studying ethics-regime evolution.
Use the manager's discussion of fund performance, shareholder letter, and notes from the primary HTML as long-form text passages, anchored to the structured tables (statement of operations, statement of assets and liabilities, financial highlights) in the same record. Train RAG systems that answer "why did this fund underperform" by linking narrative attribution to numbers, and evaluate table-extraction models on the schedule of investments under both legacy Item 27 and post-July-2024 Tailored Shareholder Report layouts.
Group records by cik and periodOfReport, then chain originals (formType == "N-CSR") to their amendments (formType == "N-CSR/A") using filedAt ordering. Diff financial statements, schedule of investments, and certifying exhibits between the original and the amendment to identify restatements, refiled exhibits, or corrected officer certifications. Output supports forensic-accounting reviews and contemporaneous-versus-superseded versioning for litigation support.
Walk seriesAndClassesContractsInformation[] across every N-CSR for a given trust cik to track series launches, terminations, class additions (for example, new R6 or institutional classes), and ticker assignments. Combined with the share-class-level financial highlights, this yields a class-level lifecycle dataset for product-strategy and competitive-intelligence work at asset managers.
The Form N-CSR Files Dataset is available through three access methods: a JSON metadata API, a full dataset archive download, and per-container ZIP downloads. The dataset covers filings from February 2003 to present, organized into ZIP containers grouped by year and month.
Dataset Index JSON API: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-ncsr-files.json
This endpoint returns dataset-level metadata (name, description, last update timestamp, earliest sample date, total records, total size, form types, container format, file types), the full dataset download URL, and the complete list of container files with per-container size, record count, last updated timestamp, and individual download URL. Poll this endpoint daily to detect which containers were refreshed in the most recent run and decide which ones to re-download. This endpoint does not require an API key.
Example response:
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{
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"datasetId": "1f13365b-9ae0-68f3-aa7e-ed98699545fd",
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"datasetDownloadUrl": "https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-ncsr-files.zip",
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"name": "Form N-CSR Files Dataset",
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"updatedAt": "2026-05-14T02:55:05.498Z",
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"earliestSampleDate": "2003-02-01",
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"totalRecords": 319790,
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"totalSize": 17744322275,
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"formTypes": ["N-CSR", "N-CSR/A"],
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"containerFormat": "ZIP",
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"fileTypes": ["HTML", "JSON", "TXT", "PDF"],
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"containers": [
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{
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"downloadUrl": "https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-ncsr-files/2026/2026-05.zip",
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"key": "2026/2026-05.zip",
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"size": 138187830,
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"records": 412,
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"updatedAt": "2026-05-14T02:55:05.498Z"
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}
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]
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}
Download Entire Dataset: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-ncsr-files.zip?token=YOUR_API_KEY
Downloads the complete dataset as a single ZIP archive containing every monthly container from February 2003 through the most recent refresh. This endpoint requires an API key.
Download Single Container: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-ncsr-files/2026/2026-03.zip?token=YOUR_API_KEY
Downloads one monthly container ZIP rather than the full archive. Use the downloadUrl values returned by the index API to target specific year-month containers. This endpoint requires an API key.
The dataset covers two EDGAR form types: N-CSR (the Certified Annual Shareholder Report of Registered Management Investment Companies) and N-CSR/A (amendments to a previously filed N-CSR). Semi-annual reports filed on the new N-CSRS form type (separated from N-CSR effective July 24, 2024) fall outside this dataset's scope.
One record is one complete EDGAR submission identified by an 18-digit accession number, materialized as a folder named with the dashes-stripped accession (for example, 000119312525190817). Inside the folder are a metadata.json sidecar plus the SGML-wrapped EDGAR documents — typically the primary N-CSR HTML and a short roster of certifying exhibits.
Registered management investment companies under the Investment Company Act of 1940 — open-end mutual funds and ETFs registered on Form N-1A, and closed-end management investment companies registered on Form N-2 — file Form N-CSR. Business development companies, unit investment trusts, face-amount certificate companies, private funds, and foreign funds are out of scope and do not file N-CSR.
Under Rule 30b2-1, the registrant must file Form N-CSR no later than ten days after the shareholder report is transmitted to shareholders under Rule 30e-1. Because the shareholder report itself must be transmitted within 60 days after the close of the relevant fiscal period, the outside boundary for an N-CSR filing is roughly 70 days after period-end.
The dataset begins with the earliest EDGAR N-CSR filings from February 2003 and extends through the most recent refresh. It is distributed as monthly ZIP containers organized into year subdirectories, with file types limited to HTML, plain text, JSON, and occasional PDF.
Form N-PORT delivers monthly position-level portfolio holdings as structured XML (with public disclosure on a delay every third month), while Form N-CSR delivers the certified period-end shareholder report — including audited or unaudited financial statements, the schedule of investments embedded in the report, management's discussion of fund performance, and SOX 302/906 officer certifications. Use N-PORT for systematic holdings analytics and intra-period changes; use N-CSR for audited financials, performance narrative, and the certified shareholder communication itself.
Each Form N-CSR/A amendment is stored as its own record under its own accession folder rather than merged into the original filing. Both accessions are preserved — the latest amendment supersedes for the affected period and items, but the original remains the contemporaneous record. To reconstruct an amendment history, group records by cik and periodOfReport and chain originals to their amendments using filedAt ordering.