Getting your EDGAR access to file Forms 3, 4 and 5

Why the company is asking

Your Forms 3, 4 and 5 are filed on EDGAR under your own EDGAR account, so you need a CIK and access codes before anything can be filed for you.

Rule: a Form 3 must be filed within 10 days after you become a director, officer or 10% owner (Form 3 General Instruction 2(a)). At a company registering its stock for the first time, it is due by the registration statement's effective date (Instruction 2(b)).

You get the codes by filing Form ID, the SEC's application for EDGAR access, in your own name on the EDGAR Filer Management dashboard.

• SEC staff review takes about four business days on average; questions or corrections add to it.
• Apply as soon as you can: the SEC asks applicants to apply well in advance of their first filing.

What to have ready

• A Login.gov account created with an email only you use, not a shared inbox. Others on your EDGAR dashboard can see it, so a work address is fine.
• Your full legal name, first, middle and last, with the full middle name: EDGAR suspends an application whose name duplicates another filer's.
• A mailing address for your EDGAR record; directors and officers may use the company's address.
• A notary for your signature on the printed Form ID: a U.S. notary public in person, or a remote online notary recognized by the law of any U.S. state or territory or the District of Columbia. Outside the U.S., without access to a U.S. notary public, the SEC accepts the foreign local equivalent of a notary public, or a remote online notary recognized by the law of any U.S. state or territory or the District of Columbia.

Steps on the SEC dashboard

1. No Login.gov account yet? On EDGAR Filer Management choose Sign in with Login.gov, then Create an account, with the email you will put on Form ID.
2. Sign in to EDGAR Filer Management with Login.gov (weekdays 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. ET).
3. Open Apply for EDGAR Access and choose New EDGAR account.
4. In Part 1, mark the applicant as an individual, choose the applicant type Filer and enter your full legal name.
5. Leave Part 2 (company information) blank and never enter a Social Security number. Part 4 (billing) is for companies.
6. List yourself as account administrator in Part 3 and as the signer in Part 5, with the title Applicant.
7. Save and print Form ID, then sign it before the notary (or the local equivalent) and save the notarized copy as a PDF.
8. Upload the notarized PDF in Part 6 and submit; note the accession number EDGAR emails.
9. When SEC staff grants the application, EDGAR emails you your new CIK. Your CCC is on the dashboard under Account Details.

When your codes arrive

Your CIK is public and permanent; your CIK Confirmation Code (CCC) authorizes filings under it. Once the company records your CIK, set up filing for you in one of these ways.

• If the company files through TakePublic, delegate to TakePublic on the same dashboard: My Accounts, your name, Manage Delegations and User Groups, Add Delegation, CIK 0002150715. Once EDGAR shows it Active, TakePublic reads your CCC from EDGAR.
• Or enter the CCC yourself under Your EDGAR codes, on the link the company sends you or in Settings › EDGAR once you have a TakePublic account. The company never sees a code you type.
• If the company files through another filing agent, delegate to the EDGAR account it names instead. Delegate only to an account you have an agreement with.
• Once a year, confirm your EDGAR account on the dashboard by the quarter end you choose. A missed confirmation has a three-month grace period, then EDGAR deactivates the account.

What the company sees, and what we detect

When the company sends you these steps through TakePublic, the email links to a page for you that opens with a one-time code sent to the contact the company has for you. It takes you through three stages, Get ready, Apply on Form ID and Tell us you applied, and keeps your ticks as you go; mark I applied for my Form ID once you submit it (the company can also record it).

The insider record reads: Not started, Steps sent with the date, Form ID applied with the date and who entered it, CIK found, and CIK granted with the CIK, EDGAR as the source and the date.

• TakePublic searches EDGAR daily for a filer with exactly your name, and the company can check on demand.
• A CIK is proposed only when one filer has your exact name and nothing filed before the steps went out. A near match or two filers with your name proposes nothing.
• Nothing is linked until the company confirms the CIK is yours. Then it asks you for your codes and your EDGAR Next delegation.