Business Overview	12 Months Ended
Business Overview	Dec. 31, 2018
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]
Business Overview	NOTE 1. BUSINESS OVERVIEW Fortive Corporation (“Fortive” or “the Company”) is a diversified industrial growth company encompassing businesses that are recognized leaders in attractive markets. Our well-known brands hold leading positions in advanced instrumentation solutions, transportation technology, sensing, and franchise distribution markets. Our businesses design, develop, service, manufacture and market professional and engineered products, software and services for a variety of end markets, building upon leading brand names, innovative technology and significant market positions. Our research and development, manufacturing, sales, distribution, service and administrative facilities are located in more than 50 countries. We report our results in two separate business segments consisting of Professional Instrumentation and Industrial Technologies. The Professional Instrumentation segment consists of our Advanced Instrumentation & Solutions and Sensing Technologies businesses. The Advanced Instrumentation & Solutions businesses provide product realization and field solutions services and products. Field solutions include a variety of compact professional test tools, thermal imaging and calibration equipment for electrical, industrial, electronic and calibration applications, online condition-based monitoring equipment; portable gas detection equipment, consumables, and software as a service (SaaS) offerings including safety/user behavior, asset management, and compliance monitoring; subscription-based technical, analytical, and compliance services to determine occupational and environmental radiation exposure; software, data analytics and services for critical infrastructure in utility, industrial, energy, construction, facilities management, public safety, mining, and healthcare applications. Product realization services and products help developers and engineers across the end-to-end product creation cycle from concepts to finished products and also include highly-engineered energetic materials components in specialized vertical applications. Our Sensing Technologies business offers devices that sense, monitor and control operational or manufacturing variables, such as temperature, pressure, level, flow, turbidity and conductivity. The Industrial Technologies segment consists of our Transportation Technologies and Franchise Distribution businesses. Our Transportation Technologies business is a leading worldwide provider of solutions and services focused on fuel dispensing, remote fuel management, point-of-sale and payment systems, environmental compliance, vehicle tracking and fleet management, and traffic management. Our Franchise Distribution business manufactures and distributes professional tools and a full line of wheel service equipment. On October 1, 2018, we completed the split-off of businesses in our automation and specialty platform (excluding our Hengstler and Dynapar businesses) (the “A&S Business”) to our shareholders who elected to exchange shares of our common stock for all issued and outstanding shares of Stevens Holding Company, Inc. (“Stevens”), the entity we incorporated to hold the A&S Business. The split-off was immediately followed by the merger of Stevens with a subsidiary of Altra Industrial Motion Corp. (“Altra”). Our shareholders who participated in the exchange offer tendered approximately 15.8 million shares of our common stock in exchange for 35.0 million shares of Altra. Concurrently with such split-off, we sold directly to Altra the remainder of the assets and liabilities of A&S Business that were not otherwise contributed to Stevens. Accordingly, the A&S Business have been reported as discontinued operations in our Consolidated and Combined Statements of Income, and the related assets and liabilities have been presented as assets and liabilities of discontinued operations in the Consolidated and Combined Balance Sheets for all periods presented. Unless otherwise noted, discussion within these notes to the consolidated financial statements relates to continuing operations. Refer to Note 4 for additional information on discontinued operations. Prior to the disposition, the A&S Business was reported in our Industrial Technologies segment. Prior to our separation from Danaher Corporation (“Danaher” or “Former Parent”) on July 2, 2016 (the “Separation”), our businesses were comprised of certain Danaher operating units (the “Fortive Businesses”). Refer to Note 20 for additional information regarding the Separation. The accompanying consolidated and combined financial statements present our historical financial position, results of operations, changes in equity and cash flows in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”). Certain reclassifications have been made to prior year financial information to conform to the current period presentation. Unless otherwise indicated, all amounts in the Notes to the Consolidated and Combined Financial Statements refer to continuing operations. The financial statements include our accounts and the accounts of our subsidiaries. All intercompany balances and transactions have been eliminated upon consolidation. The consolidated and combined financial statements also reflect the impact of non-controlling interests. Noncontrolling interests do not have a significant impact on our consolidated and combined results of operations, therefore net earnings and net earnings per share attributable to noncontrolling interests are not presented separately in our Consolidated and Combined Statements of Earnings. Net earnings attributable to noncontrolling interests have been reflected in selling, general and administrative expenses (“SG&A”) and were insignificant in all periods presented.