How to Send Password-Protected Payslips, One Password per Employee

At the end of every month, payslips go out by email. Each one carries a salary, a social security or national insurance number, often bank details. A payslip sent to the wrong address, or forwarded by mistake, exposes all of that. This guide shows how to protect the whole month’s payslips in one run, each with its own employee’s password, on your own computer.

Why one password per employee

Protecting every payslip with one shared password doesn’t protect much: every employee knows it, so anyone could open a colleague’s payslip received by mistake. With a password unique to each employee, a misaddressed payslip stays unreadable to whoever receives it.

Rules on electronic payslips vary by country and state. Password protection covers the confidentiality of the email itself. Check the rules that apply where you employ people.

Choosing the passwords

• At least 12 characters. Below that, the app shows Too weak and offers Generate.
• Nothing a colleague could guess. No date of birth, social security number or employee ID: that information circulates in the company.
• The same every month. The employee learns it once. Hand it over in person when they join, or by text message, never in the email that carries the payslip.

The employee spreadsheet

PDF Protect Plus matches each payslip to its employee using a small CSV spreadsheet, one row per employee. The client column holds the employee’s name (the name header works too), and the password column their password:

client,password
Olivia Hart,Harbor-Slate-Peony-31
Daniel Brooks,Sail.Cherry.Mill.58
Megan Price,Storm-Linen-Spool-24
Ryan Cole,Prism!Dune!Pine!73

The employees, file names and passwords in this guide are fictional. Starting from scratch? Our guide how to create your password spreadsheet (CSV) shows every step in a spreadsheet app.

The employee’s name in the file name

The app looks for each employee’s full name in the PDF’s name, ignoring capitals, accents and punctuation: Payslip 2026-10 - Olivia Hart.pdf finds Olivia Hart. If your payroll software exports one PDF per employee with their name, there’s nothing to do. If it names files differently, for example with an employee ID, add a file column to the spreadsheet with each employee’s exact file name.

Step by step: the month’s payslips in one run

1. Add the payslips

Open PDF protection, then the Batch protection tab. Add the month’s payslips and choose My clients’ passwords: here, your “clients” are your employees.

2. Import the spreadsheet

Click Import the spreadsheet and pick your CSV. Each payslip shows the employee found and its status. Matched: all good. To confirm: two employees could match, such as two people with the same last name; pick the right one from the list. Client not found: the name isn’t in the file name; add the row or pick the employee.

3. Tick the vault

In the first month, tick Save these passwords in the vault. The app keeps one entry per employee in its encrypted local vault. In the following months, it finds each employee without the spreadsheet. You can also tick the sending summary: it lists which employee gets which file, with no passwords, and works as a checklist while you send.

4. Protect

Click Protect. Each copy is encrypted with AES-256 using its employee’s password, in a new folder. The original payslips stay untouched.

Sending the payslips

• One email per employee, never one email with every payslip.
• Never the password in the same email. The employee already knows it, since it doesn’t change.
• The sending summary lets you tick off each payslip sent to the right person.

To help your employees open their payslip, send them the link to our guide opening a password-protected PDF.

Payroll data stays on your computer

Reading the spreadsheet, matching the payslips and encrypting them all happen on your machine. Neither the payslips nor the passwords are sent to our servers. For the details, see how local processing works.

The monthly checklist

1. One password of 12+ characters per employee, shared once, separately.
2. The employee’s name in each payslip’s file name, or the file column.
3. First month: spreadsheet imported and vault ticked. After that: the payslips are enough.
4. One email per employee, without the password.