Filing and service are different acts with different deadlines, and a document can be on time for one and late for the other. Electronic systems stamp a submission at the moment it is accepted rather than the moment it is sent, mailbox rules treat dispatch as filing in some forums and not in others, and a filing rejected for a formal defect was never made. This subject covers where a document has to go and what makes it count as arrived.
A step is rarely complete when the document is produced. It usually has to reach a forum and every other party, sometimes on different timetables and by different methods, and occasionally a regulator or a third party as well. Mapping the destinations before starting, and confirming each one afterwards, is what converts a document into a completed step.
