Received, accepted and registered explained

Received

Receipt is the first event. Under section 1071 of the UK Companies Act 2006, as explained in GOV.UK guidance, a document is not delivered to the registrar until the registrar receives it ¹. Digital documents are received when Companies House gives them queued or pre-queued status ¹.

A receipt at this stage is evidence of timing. It is not evidence that the document is correct. The EDGAR glossary says an accession number is generated for each submission and does not mean EDGAR has accepted it ³.

Accepted or rejected

Acceptance is a check against set rules. The SEC defines acceptance review as procedural checks by EDGAR to decide whether a filing meets certain minimum filing requirements ³. An accepted filing is one that passed that review ³. Filings that fail are placed in suspended status, are not publicly viewable and are deleted in six business days ³. The SEC tells filers who get a suspense message to correct the errors and resubmit ⁴.

In England and Wales, court officers either accept or reject each CE-File submission ⁵. Where a submission is rejected, the party gets notice of the reasons on CE-File ⁵. Any resubmission takes its own date and time of filing ⁵.

Acceptance is narrow. It means the document passed the checks that system runs. It is not a finding that the contents are true.

Registered, filed or issued

The last event places the document on the official record. Companies House says an uploaded document will be registered with the date it was uploaded, as long as it is acceptable ². An examiner first checks whether it is acceptable for filing ².

Under the PCT, the receiving Office checks the papers and, if they meet Article 11(1), accords the date of receipt as the international filing date ⁶. It then notifies the applicant of the international application number and filing date ⁶. If the papers still fail, the Office notifies the applicant that the application is not and will not be treated as an international application ⁶.

How the words line up across systems

Why the difference matters for deadlines

Deadlines usually turn on delivery or filing, not on the receipt. GOV.UK guidance on late filing penalties says delivery means actual receipt at Companies House in the correct format ⁹. The same page says Companies House cannot accept accounts until they meet the requirements of the Companies Act ⁹.

In the Federal Court of Australia, the date of lodgment is not necessarily the same as the date the document is accepted for filing ⁸. The filing date is worked out under rule 2.25 of the Federal Court Rules ⁸.