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Quick Start Guide

Get up and running with EdgarTools in 5 minutes. By the end, you'll have a company's financial statements in Python.

Prerequisites

  • Python 3.8 or higher
  • Internet connection
  • Basic familiarity with Python

Step 1: Install EdgarTools

pip install edgartools

Trouble importing?

If you see ImportError: cannot import name 'get_filings' from 'edgar', you may have installed the wrong package. There is an unrelated package called edgar on PyPI. Fix it with: 

pip uninstall edgar && pip install edgartools

Step 2: Set Your Identity

The SEC requires all API users to identify themselves. Set your identity once:

from edgar import set_identity

# Use your name and email (required by SEC)
set_identity("John Doe john.doe@company.com")

Tip: You can also set the EDGAR_IDENTITY environment variable to avoid doing this in every script.

Step 3: Get a Company

Look up any public company by ticker symbol or CIK number:

from edgar import Company

company = Company("AAPL")  # Apple Inc.

AAPL

See Apple's filings, financials, and insider trades on edgar.tools — no code required →

You can access basic company data as properties:

company.industry        # 'ELECTRONIC COMPUTERS'
company.shares_outstanding  # 15115785000.0
company.public_float    # 2899948348000.0

Step 4: Get Financial Statements

This is the most common task — getting a company's financial statements:

financials = company.get_financials()

# The three financial statements
income    = financials.income_statement()
balance   = financials.balance_sheet()
cashflow  = financials.cashflow_statement()

AAPL Income Statement

That's it — three lines to get any company's income statement, balance sheet, or cash flow.

Common gotcha

The canonical method is cashflow_statement(), but cash_flow_statement() also works. All three statements: income_statement(), balance_sheet(), cashflow_statement().

Step 5: Get Specific Values

Need just one number instead of the full statement?

financials.get_revenue()
# 391035000000

financials.get_net_income()
# 93736000000

Step 6: Export to DataFrame

Every financial statement converts to a pandas DataFrame for further analysis:

df = financials.income_statement().to_dataframe()

You can also export company filings:

filings = company.get_filings()
df = filings.to_pandas()

Step 7: Browse Company Filings

Retrieve and filter a company's SEC filings:

# Get all filings
filings = company.get_filings()

# Filter by form type
tenk_filings = company.get_filings(form="10-K")

# Get the latest 10-K as a data object
tenk = company.latest("10-K")

AAPL Filings

How EdgarTools Is Organized

Here's a map of the main objects. Use it as a reference when you want to try something new:

Company("AAPL")                        # Start here — look up a company
  ├── .get_financials()                  # Annual financials from 10-K (RECOMMENDED)
  │     ├── .income_statement()          #   Revenue, expenses, profit
  │     ├── .balance_sheet()             #   Assets, liabilities, equity
  │     ├── .cashflow_statement()        #   Cash in and out
  │     ├── .get_revenue()               #   Quick: just the revenue number
  │     └── .get_net_income()            #   Quick: just net income
  │
  ├── .get_quarterly_financials()        # Quarterly financials from 10-Q
  │     └── (same interface as above)
  │
  ├── .get_filings(form="10-K")          # Browse SEC filings
  │     ├── .head(5)                     #   See the first 5
  │     ├── .latest()                    #   Get the most recent one
  │     └── [0].obj()                    #   Parse into a data object (TenK, etc.)
  │           ├── .auditor               #     Auditor name, PCAOB ID, location
  │           └── .subsidiaries          #     Subsidiaries from Exhibit 21
  │
  └── .get_facts()                       # Historical data (for 4+ years of trends)
        ├── .income_statement()          #   Multi-year income data
        └── .balance_sheet()             #   Multi-year balance sheet

See it live on edgar.tools

The code above runs locally. edgar.tools puts the same data in a web UI with AI enrichment on top — no code required.

Also includes a REST API (20+ endpoints), hosted MCP server, and data exports. Free tier: 100 API calls/day.

Step 8: Next Steps

You just learned how to install EdgarTools, look up a company, get financial statements, and browse filings. Here's where to go next:

Financial Data

Companies & Filings

Filing Types

Reference

  • Cheat Sheet — Common operations at a glance
  • Notebooks — Interactive Colab tutorials you can run in your browser

Getting Help

Support EdgarTools

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