Filing Timestamps: Acceptance Time, Filing Date and Period of Report

The short version

Every EDGAR filing carries three different dates, and they answer three different questions:

• Acceptance datetime: when EDGAR accepted the submission, to the second, in Eastern time. This is closest to when the document became public.
• Filing date: the business day the filing is legally deemed filed. It drives deadlines.
• Period of report: the date the filing is about, such as a quarter end or the date of an event.

They often differ. A filing submitted after 5:30 p.m. ET is usually dated the next business day, even though it is public that evening. A 10-K is about a period that ended weeks earlier. Reading the wrong date leads to the wrong timeline.

Three dates on one filing

Apple's annual report for fiscal 2024 shows all three on its EDGAR index page:

This 10-K was accepted at 6:01 a.m. ET, minutes after EDGAR opened, so the filing date and the acceptance date are the same day. The period of report is 34 days earlier: 34 days between fiscal year end and filing, within the 60 days a large accelerated filer is allowed.

The 5:30 p.m. cutoff and its exceptions

EDGAR accepts electronic submissions from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. ET on business days (Rule 12 of Regulation S-T). The filing date is assigned under Rule 13(a) of Regulation S-T:

The 10 p.m. extension for Form 4 and Forms 3 and 5 dates from the Section 16 reforms; Schedules 13D and 13G received the same extension in amendments that took effect in 2024. The test is when the transmission commenced, not when acceptance happened, so a large submission started at 5:29 p.m. can be accepted after 5:30 p.m. and still receive that day's date.

A worked example: two filings at 6:15 p.m.

On a hypothetical Tuesday, Company X does two things at 6:15 p.m. ET: it files an 8-K announcing a financing, and its CEO files a Form 4 reporting a share purchase.

All dates are hypothetical.

Both documents appear on EDGAR within minutes on Tuesday evening. Anyone sorting by filing date sees the Form 4 on Tuesday and the 8-K on Wednesday, as if they were a day apart. Anyone sorting by acceptance time sees that they arrived together, after the 4:00 p.m. close and before the next morning's premarket session.

Deadlines run from the filing date. An 8-K is due within four business days of the triggering event. If the event happened on the previous Thursday, the fourth business day after it is Wednesday (Friday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday), so the 6:15 p.m. Tuesday submission counts as filed on Wednesday and is still on time. Submitted at 6:15 p.m. on Wednesday instead, it would be deemed filed Thursday, one day late.

Why acceptance time matters for news timing

Markets react to information when it becomes public, and for SEC filings that is close to the acceptance time, not the filing date.

• After-hours filings are common. Companies often file financings, auditor changes and late-filing notices after the close. A filing date of "Wednesday" can describe a document that was public, and traded on, Tuesday evening.
• Press release and filing can be minutes or days apart. A company may issue a press release in the morning and file the 8-K later, or file first. Compare both timestamps before deciding which came first.
• Feeds can list a filing under the wrong day. Any tool that shows only the filing date will place a 6:15 p.m. filing on the next day. Sorting by acceptance time restores the true order.
• Halts and filings interact. A company may request a trading halt pending news, and the filing explaining it can arrive during the halt. The acceptance time places the filing inside or outside that window.

Period of report is not the event date

The period of report means different things on different forms:

• 10-Q and 10-K: the end of the fiscal period covered.
• 8-K: the cover reads "Date of Report (Date of earliest event reported)", the date of the event, which can be up to four business days before the filing date.
• Form 4: the date of the earliest transaction reported, which can be up to two business days before filing.
• 13F: the quarter end for which holdings are reported; 13F reports are due 45 days after quarter end, so the positions can be weeks or months old when you read them.

A 10-Q filed in mid-May describing the quarter that ended March 31 is not news about May. Its subsequent events note may be; see the guide on what to read first in a 10-Q.

How Signal8 shows filing times

• The live SEC filings feed shows each filing's date and, beneath it, its EDGAR acceptance time labelled in ET. When acceptance falls on a different ET day from the filing date, the stamp carries its own date so the two are not confused.
• Alerts can notify you of new filings for companies you follow, so the evening filings in the example above reach you on Tuesday rather than when a Wednesday-dated list is checked.
• The news feed shows press releases with their own timestamps for comparison.

FAQ

What is the SEC filing cutoff time?

Most EDGAR filings must begin transmission by 5:30 p.m. Eastern time to be dated that business day; later submissions are dated the next business day. Forms 3, 4 and 5, Form 144, Schedules 13D and 13G and Schedule 14N have a 10:00 p.m. cutoff instead. EDGAR accepts submissions from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. ET on business days.

What is the difference between filing date and acceptance date?

The acceptance datetime is the moment EDGAR accepted the submission, recorded to the second in Eastern time. The filing date is the business day the filing is legally deemed filed, which is used for deadlines. A filing accepted after the 5:30 p.m. cutoff usually has a filing date of the next business day, even though it was public that evening.

Are after-hours SEC filings public immediately?

Filings accepted during EDGAR's operating hours, which run until 10:00 p.m. ET, are generally disseminated shortly after acceptance, including those accepted after 5:30 p.m. They become publicly visible that evening even though their official filing date is the next business day.

What does period of report mean on an 8-K?

On an 8-K, the period of report is the date of the earliest event reported, shown on the cover as the Date of Report. Because an 8-K is generally due within four business days of the event, this date can be several days before the filing date and the acceptance time.