A key piece of the JOBS Act, passed in March, was allowing emerging growth companies an option to submit confidential draft registration statements to the Securities and Exchange Commission in advance of initial public offerings.

That option for a secretive review, however, hit a major hurdle: the SEC didn't actually have a system in place to electronically accept submissions without making them public. And so, companies had to resort to hard-copy paperwork, PDFs burned to CDs, or e-mail.

On Wednesday, the SEC announced that as of Oct, 1, modifications to its EDGAR electronic filing system will finally enable it to accept the non-public filings and shield them from prying eyes. On that date, issuers may choose to submit their draft registration statements either using the current secure email system or via the new EDGAR system. Filing on EDGAR will eventually become mandatory, with a transition date to be announced later.

The SEC's Division of Corporation Finance will provide each issuer that has submitted a draft registration statement since April 5, 2012 (either in paper or via e-mail) and not yet filed a registration statement on EDGAR, a letter with guidance on how to transition to the EDGAR system. Once an issuer chooses to submit draft registration statements or amendments on EDGAR, it must continue to use that system. An overview on how to prepare an electronic submission of a draft registration statement, or an amendment to one, is available on the SEC website.

Issuers that comply with these EDGAR modifications no longer need to file copies of previously submitted draft registration statements as exhibits to their registration statements to comply with the requirements of the JOBS Act. Instead, issuers can direct the EDGAR system to publicly file them as individual documents. More information about this function is in the instructions and the EDGAR Filer Manual.

Submission of a draft registration statement on EDGAR requires EDGAR access codes. An issuer that has not yet submitted a Form ID to apply for the codes must do so prior to making a submission or filing on EDGAR. If an issuer has previously obtained EDGAR access codes and finds that they have expired when it tries to login to EDGAR, it should update the codes by following the “Generate Access Codes (New/Replacement)” link on the EDGAR Filer Management website.