STC Edgar is here to get your filings done with the fastest possible turn-around time. It is nevertheless sensible to allow sufficient lead time to account for unforeseen communications problems or other delays that can occasionally occur. The best policy is to plan your filings as far ahead as is practical.

As the filer, or the officer/director of a corporate filer, you are responsible for assuring that the contents of the filing are complete, accurate, and not misleading, even if an attorney or consultant assisted in its preparation. Accordingly, you must allow time to review the final draft of the filing and return it to us before the submission deadline. We can, of course, use e-mail, fax or courier to save you time.

Documents submitted to EDGAR must be in a computer file and be formatted in a certain way to be compatible with the system. We can convert to EDGAR format from most popular word processor formats on Windows platform.

You may also submit material to us printed on paper, if that is more convenient. Often, certain exhibits that need to be included in a filing are not available in electronic form. We can accept any part or all of your document in paper form -- however, an extra step (and an additional cost) will be required to make a digital file that can be converted for EDGAR. If the text is clean and of a common typeface and point size, our advanced optical character recognition (OCR) capabilities will digitize the pages at minimal additional cost. For poor copies that do not OCR well, the text will have to be entered by keyboard at a slightly higher cost. You also will need to allow us additional time to prepare and proofread the filing if you give us many printed pages.

For Filing In ASCII

You may submit your document to us in most popular word-processing formats on Windows or MacIntosh. If you want us to file in the ASCII format (the standard format for EDGAR), don't be too concerned with fancy layouts or fomatting since when we convert to ASCII virtually all formatting other than tabbing and paragraphing will be lost. That means the final document will not contain bold or colored text, tables, multiple text columns, hyperlinks, etc. Nevertheless, if you're preparing the document for printing as well, by all means leave the formatting in. We will conform the document to EDGAR's requirements, and there are techniques that in many cases will permit us to approximate your original formatting in the ASCII version.

For Filing in HTML

As you know, HTML is the programming language used to make web pages for display in a browser. Notwithstanding some of the remarkably complex and visually stimulating web pages we've seen recently, the "subset" of the HTML language that EDGAR can understand is still rather limited.

In the context of the EDGAR system, HTML's usefulness is limited to making your filing look a little more like the original (when viewed in a web browser) than will be the case filing in ASCII. You can use some font variation (bold, headline, colors, etc.), but graphics are not allowed. HTML tables can present a little nicer than the tabular columns used in ASCII, but tables cannot be "nested" (tables within tables) as they can in other HTML contexts. No "executable" code (such as Java applets or scripts) is permitted. You can (and are encouraged to) provide appropriate hyperlinks between different sections of the document, but may NOT link to an external site or document.

Note that the SEC has declared its intention to replace ASCII with HTML as the primary format for EDGAR, although the Commission has not yet set a date for abandoning ASCII. We expect the change-over to occur sooner rather than later, though. So it's probably not a bad idea to start thinking in terms of formatting your filings to maximize HTML's capabilities for presenting attractive and easy-to-read filings.

NOTE:The SEC requires Form N-SAR and Form 13F to be filed in ASCII. These documents have standard formats and tagging designed for presentation in ASCII, and their current format facilitates their downloading and use in other computer applications.

Optional PDF Versions

PDF (for Adobe's Portable Document Format) makes it possible to create a filing that precisely matches the appearance of the printed document, including colors, graphics, headers/footers, pagination, etc. Starting with your fully-formatted document in Pagemaker, WordPerfect, MSWord, MS Publisher, or other high-end page layout program, we use special software to convert it to a format that can be stored on EDGAR and displayed in a browser, where it will look identical to your original. With PDF we can, for example, publish on EDGAR a full-color prospectus which exactly duplicates the printed version.

As desirable as this may sound, unfortunately the SEC will not accept PDF documents as "official" filings. They will, however, permit us to post an "unofficial" PDF version in addition to the official ASCII or HTML filing, providing that the text pages are identical in the two versions. The bias against PDF is based on certain limitations when using the format for a document database -- for example, you cannot download and edit a PDF file, nor can you do word searches through the text of the document.

However, planned enhancements to EDGAR's HTML-handling abilities should soon make it possible to post professional-looking documents in that format.

The Typical Project Workflow

Obtain Your Access Codes -- The first thing you'll need to do is get Access Codes from the SEC. Every corporate or individual filer must have a unique CIK code (identifies the filer), and a corresponding CCC code (for security). If you've filed on EDGAR before, you'll have them already and we will use the same codes. If you're a first-time filer and need to obtain codes, we can provide the simple form and instructions. Usually, we get access codes in a couple of days, but if at all possible you should order them at least two weeks in advance of your filing deadline, just to be sure. The SEC does not excuse late filing because you've not received your codes.

Deliver the Document to Us -- Send us the document by e-mail, disk, fax, mail or courier, in one of the formats described above, and we will go right to work reviewing and "EDGARizing" it.

Conformance Review -- Your document will be reviewed for conformace with the requirements of the form and/or applicable Rule. Even though by law we cannot assume responsibility for the content of your filings, another pair of experienced eyes can often spot oversights, omissions or inconsistencies in time to correct them before the live filing. One of the many advantages to trusting your EDGAR filings to corporate finance professionals, rather than a financial printer or back-room filing service.

Proofreading -- Every document we convert is proofread by at least two different people. If any word, spelling or meaning is not perfectly clear we will highlight it for your attention.

Review and Approval -- When we're satisfied the document is the way you intended it, we'll send you the "proof" copy in the format you specify: e-mail, disk, fax, etc. You can make any changes or corrections you think appropriate, then return the document to us. If you make your corrections on disk, don't erase anything but insert the new or corrected text, and bracket the text that should come out. This will speed the process, and avoid "editing" charges for minor changes. We will not send a second proof unless you request one, or unless you've made some substantive changes and we think there should be another review by you as the author of the document.

Live Filing on EDGAR. -- The last step is of course the live filing. The system e-mails us a confirmation of the filing, identifying the filer, the form type and the date and time accepted by EDGAR. The confirmation is your proof that the filing was made timely, even if a system glitch should prevent your filing showing up right away on the system.