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Glossary

EDGAR

What EDGAR is, the SEC's electronic filing system, how a company gets access under EDGAR Next, and which offering filings appear there.

EDGAR (Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval) is the SEC's system for receiving and publishing filings. Every offering document a company files with the SEC, from a Form C to a Form 1-A to a Form D, is submitted through EDGAR and, unless it is a confidential draft, becomes public there. EDGAR full-text search is free and open to anyone.

Getting access

A company filing for the first time applies for EDGAR access with Form ID, which gives it a Central Index Key (CIK), the permanent number that identifies it in the system.

Since 2025 access runs through EDGAR Next. Every individual who files for a company signs in with their own Login.gov credentials and multifactor authentication, and the company designates account administrators who authorize those individuals and any filing agents. The amended Form ID took effect on March 24, 2025, and compliance was required from September 15, 2025. The SEC's EDGAR Next page has the current process. Getting access can take days, so it belongs early in an offering's timeline.

What appears there for an offering

  • Regulation Crowdfunding: Form C and its amendments, progress updates, annual reports, and termination (C/A, C-U, C-AR, C-TR).
  • Regulation A: the Form 1-A offering statement and its amendments, the SEC's comment letters and the company's responses (released after qualification), the notice of qualification, the final offering-circular, testing-the-waters materials filed as exhibits, and ongoing reports (1-K, 1-SA, 1-U, 1-Z).
  • Regulation D: the Form D notice and its amendments.

A draft Form 1-A submitted for nonpublic review is not public at first; it and the correspondence must be filed publicly at least 21 calendar days before qualification.

Why it matters to marketing

EDGAR is the public record a campaign is measured against. Testing-the-waters exhibits, the offering circular, and progress filings are read by reporters, competitors, and prospective investors, and the date a filing becomes public on EDGAR can change what the company's communications must include. Treat EDGAR dates as campaign dates.

Further reading

This page is general information about SEC filing, not legal advice.

Topics:glossaryregulation

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