---
title: "Evidence Dates | Altss Glossary"
description: "Evidence dates are the distinct dates attached to a fact and the evidence for it: when the fact took effect, the date a source states it as of, when the…"
canonical: "https://altss.com/glossary/evidence-dates"
---

Glossary · Evidence & data

# Evidence Dates

Evidence dates are the distinct dates attached to a fact and the evidence for it: when the fact took effect, the date a source states it as of, when the source was filed or published, captured, recorded and last verified.

Publisher: Altss LLCContent modified 2026-10-01

ALTSS-DATA-009

One number can carry five or more dates, and each answers a different question. A Form 13F reports holdings as of a quarter end, is filed after the quarter ends, may be captured later still and checked months after that. Errors come from swapping them: reading a filing date as the date a fact took effect, or a page's "updated" date as proof that its facts were checked.

## The main date types

| Date | Question it answers | Example |
| --- | --- | --- |

| Effective or event date | When did the fact take effect, or the event happen? | An appointment effective 1 March; a fund's first sale of interests |

| As-of (reference) date | At what date does the source state the value? | Holdings as of a quarter end; a NAV at its reference date |

| Filing or publication date | When did the source make it public? | The date a Form D or annual report was filed or released |

| Capture date | When was the artefact retrieved, and in what state? | The time stamp in a collection record |

| Recorded date | When was the value entered into the database? | System or transaction time |

| Verification date | When was the claim deliberately rechecked, and with what result? | A last-verified date |

| First / last observed | When was the claim first and most recently seen in a source? | Earliest and latest captures that state it |

| Page modified | When was a published page edited? | A page event, not a fact event |

The first two describe the fact. The middle three describe the evidence. The last two describe checking and publishing.

## Dates set by filing rules

Regulatory filings put a gap between the as-of date and the filing date by design, because each form is filed after the period or event it reports:

- **Form 13F** reports holdings as of a calendar quarter end. A 13F filed in August says what the manager held on 30 June, not in August.

- **Form D** reports an offering that has already begun. The filing date is after the event it reports.

- **[Form ADV](https://altss.com/glossary/form-adv)** figures speak as of the dates the form specifies, which can fall before the filing date.

The filing deadlines themselves are rules of each form and are set out on its page. Fund reporting works the same way. A quarterly report delivered weeks after quarter end carries a NAV as of the quarter end; a value carried forward unchanged is a stale mark, not a new observation.

## Rules that prevent date errors

- Never substitute a filing, publication or capture date for the effective date. If the source gives no effective date, record it as unknown and keep the other dates separately.

- Keep the precision the source gives. A year-only date stays a year; it is not padded to 1 January.

- Record periods as periods. A value for a fiscal year records the fiscal year, which need not be the calendar year.

- A figure repeated unchanged in a later document keeps its original as-of date if that can be established.

- A page edit does not verify anything on the page.

- A verification date applies only to the claims actually rechecked, not to the whole record.

- The measurement date of an aggregate (a count, a total) applies to the aggregate, not to each member.

## How the dates fit the time models

In temporal database terms, effective dates bound the [valid time](https://altss.com/glossary/temporal-validity) of a fact, and the recorded date opens its transaction time; a database that keeps both is [bitemporal](https://altss.com/glossary/bitemporal-data). Capture, filing and verification dates are evidence metadata: they explain why a fact is held, and they feed [data freshness](https://altss.com/glossary/data-freshness), which is measured from the last observation of the fact.

## How Altss applies this (Altss methodology)

Altss methodology requires every observed value to carry the as-of date the source gives it; where the source gives none, the as-of date is recorded as unknown and the publication or filing date is kept separately, never substituted. The capture date of an artefact never becomes the effective date of a fact in it, and a page's modified date never implies that a fact on it was observed, captured or verified on that date.

In the three-dimension evidence model, the **validation status** of a claim is always stated with its date: for RESEARCH_VALIDATED, the date a named reviewer checked the claim. Validation describes the evidence as of that date and is not permanent. Where a claim has no validation date, its validation status is unknown: it is read neither as UNVERIFIED nor as validated. Dates also interact with **derivation status** and **evidence origin**: a DERIVED value takes the earliest as-of date among its inputs, so it is never more current than its oldest input, and an archived copy of a page carries the archive's capture date while keeping the evidence origin of the page it preserves. The rules are in the [Evidence & Provenance Standard](https://altss.com/knowledge-center/frameworks/evidence-and-provenance-standard) (section 9) and the [Temporal Data & Freshness Methodology](https://altss.com/knowledge-center/frameworks/temporal-data-and-freshness-methodology).

## Worked example

### Illustrative 13F holding with five dates

A manager's Form 13F reports a position **as of 30 June 2026** (as-of date). The manager files it on **12 August 2026** (filing date). A research system retrieves it on 20 August (capture date) and stores the value the same day (recorded date). An analyst rechecks the value against the filing on 1 October (verification date).

Each date answers a different question. The holding was true on 30 June; nothing in the filing shows what the manager held on 12 August, 20 August or 1 October. The recheck on 1 October confirms that the filing says what the record says; it does not move the as-of date.

Examples are illustrative; figures are not market data.

## Not the same as

- [Temporal Validity](https://altss.com/glossary/temporal-validity): Temporal validity is the period a fact is true in the world. Evidence dates also describe the documents, captures and checks behind the fact.

- [Data Freshness](https://altss.com/glossary/data-freshness): Freshness is a judgment computed from evidence dates (the age of the last observation); the dates themselves are facts.

- [Data Provenance](https://altss.com/glossary/data-provenance): Data provenance is the whole record of where a value came from and how it was produced; evidence dates are the dated fields within it.

## Common mistakes

- Reading a filing date as the date the reported fact took effect.

- Dating an event by the publication date of an article that reports it.

- Treating a page's "updated" date as evidence that its facts were checked.

- Padding a year-only date to 1 January or 31 December.

- Using the capture date as the as-of date of the value captured.

- Applying one record-level date to every field on the record.

- Assuming a fiscal year is the calendar year.

## Edge cases

- An appointment announced in advance has a future effective date; until then it is scheduled, not current.

- A later filing can state an effective date earlier than anything previously observed; the effective date is taken from the filing, and the record shows when it was learned.

- An amended filing replaces a value for the same as-of date: same effective date, later filing and recorded dates.

- A source with no date at all gives an unknown as-of date; the capture date shows only that the statement existed by then.

- Calendar dates are kept as the source states them; capture and recorded time stamps are best kept in coordinated universal time (UTC).

## Questions

### What is the difference between an as-of date and a filing date?

The as-of date is the date the reported value describes. The filing date is when the document was submitted. For a Form 13F, holdings as of 30 June are reported in a filing made after the quarter ends.

### Does "last updated" mean the data was verified?

No. An update or page edit records a change to the record or page. Verification is a deliberate recheck of specific claims against evidence, with its own date.

## Sources

- [17 CFR 240.13f-1 - Reporting by institutional investment managers of information with respect to accounts over which they exercise investment discretion (Form 13F)](https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/17/240.13f-1). U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (CFR text via eCFR; LII mirror), eCFR current as of 2026-09-29; no substantive amendment since eCFR baseline. Status: in force (checked 2026-10-01). 17 CFR 240.13f-1(a)(1) — supports: Form 13F reports holdings for each calendar quarter, as of the quarter end

- [17 CFR 239.500 - Form D, notice of sales of securities under Regulation D and section 4(a)(5) of the Securities Act of 1933](https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/17/239.500). U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (CFR text via eCFR; LII mirror), eCFR current as of 2026-09-29; last amended 2017-05-23. Status: in force (checked 2026-10-01). 17 CFR 239.500(a)(1) — supports: Form D is filed after the first sale in the offering it reports

- [Form ADV: General Instructions and Instructions for Part 1A](https://www.sec.gov/about/forms/formadv-instructions.pdf). U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC 1707 (07-24). Status: current (checked 2026-10-01). Part 1A Instruction 5.b(4) — supports: Form ADV figures such as regulatory assets under management are stated as of a date the form specifies

- [Berkeley Protocol on Digital Open Source Investigations](https://humanrights.berkeley.edu/publications/berkeley-protocol-on-digital-open-source-investigations/). OHCHR; Human Rights Center, UC Berkeley School of Law, United Nations (OHCHR) and UC Berkeley, HR/PUB/20/2; launched 2 December 2020; printed edition (c) 2022 United Nations. Status: Current (checked 2026-10-01). Para. 155(c), (g) — supports: Captures record date and time; collection data include a time stamp from an accurate clock

- [Temporal features in SQL:2011](https://doi.org/10.1145/2380776.2380786). Krishna Kulkarni; Jan-Eike Michels, ACM SIGMOD Record, Vol. 41(3), pp. 34-43. Status: Published (checked 2026-10-01). Sec. 2.1 — supports: Valid time vs transaction time; a row's transaction time can differ arbitrarily from its valid time

## Related terms

6 terms

- [Temporal Validity](https://altss.com/glossary/temporal-validity)

- [Point-in-Time Data](https://altss.com/glossary/point-in-time-data)

- [Bitemporal Data](https://altss.com/glossary/bitemporal-data)

- [Data Freshness](https://altss.com/glossary/data-freshness)

- [Form ADV](https://altss.com/glossary/form-adv)

- [Data Provenance](https://altss.com/glossary/data-provenance)

## Referenced by

1 term

- [Primary Source](https://altss.com/glossary/primary-source)

## Concept record

Concept ID

ALTSS-DATA-009

Classification

Evidence & data

Topics

Private markets data & OSINT

Version

2.0.0

Last reviewed

2026-10-01

Structured data

[JSON](https://altss.com/reference/concepts/evidence-dates.json)

## Canonical URL

https://altss.com/glossary/evidence-dates