Tax season at an accounting firm
Returns and year-end packets for dozens of clients, each protected with the password the client already knows.
Tutorial · Batch protection
Protect a batch of PDFs at once, with one password per client
You send the same kind of document to a lot of clients: financial statements, payslips, statements, monthly reports. Protecting each file by hand means open, type, save, repeat — and sooner or later a file goes out with the wrong password.
The “Batch protection” tab in PDF Protect Plus takes the whole batch in one go: each file gets its own client’s password, read from your spreadsheet, and the app flags what needs checking before anything is protected.
The tutorial, step by step
Add the PDFs
Open the “Batch protection” tab and drag your PDFs into the drop area — up to 200 files per batch. PDFs that are already protected are set aside instead of being processed twice.
Choose “My clients’ passwords”
There are three modes: “The same password for all”, “A generated password per file” and “My clients’ passwords”. For client mailings, pick the third.
Import the password spreadsheet
Import your CSV file with client and password columns, or drop it in together with the PDFs. No spreadsheet yet? The “Download the template” button gives you one to fill in.
Check the orange rows
The app matches each file to its client. An orange row needs your attention: “To confirm”, “Client not found” or “Too weak”. Pick the right client from the list, or click “Generate”.
Protect the batch
Choose the destination folder. The AES-256 protected copies land in a new subfolder, named 001_…_protected.pdf, 002_… — and your originals stay untouched.
Send the passwords separately
Email each PDF and send its password through another channel, such as a text message.
Forty PDFs, one password per client, in one go
Sending the same kind of document to many clients? Import your password spreadsheet: each file gets its client’s password, and the app flags what needs checking before it protects anything.
The whole batch stays on your computer
A month-end batch gathers the sensitive documents of dozens of clients. Handing it to a website would mean uploading, all at once, everything you are trying to protect.
In PDF Protect Plus, everything happens on your device: your PDFs and your spreadsheet are never sent to our servers.
Your account and license require an internet connection.
Preparing the password spreadsheet
The spreadsheet has one row per client and two required columns. The app accepts English or French headers, semicolons, commas or tabs as separators, and files encoded in UTF-8 or Windows-1252 — the usual format a spreadsheet program saves on Windows.
Give each client one fixed password of at least 12 characters: they keep it all year and never have to learn a new one for each mailing.
- client: the client’s full name, as it appears in their file names
- password: their password, 12 characters minimum
- file (optional): the exact name of a file, when the client’s name is not in it
How each file finds its client
If the file column holds the exact PDF name, it wins. Otherwise, the client’s full name must appear in the file name; capitals, accents and punctuation are ignored. “2025 Statements - Martin Dubois.pdf” therefore finds “Martin Dubois”.
A partial match shows “To confirm”, no match shows “Client not found”, and a password shorter than 12 characters shows “Too weak”. In that last case, “Generate” creates a strong password, keeps it in the vault, and the app offers to save an updated copy of your spreadsheet.
Two options to tick before you protect
“Save these passwords in the vault” remembers one entry per client: next time, you no longer need the spreadsheet. “Create the sending summary (client, file)” writes a recapitulatif-envoi.csv file next to the PDFs, with no passwords in it, to help you prepare your emails.
The batch is created in full or not at all. At the end, the “N files protected successfully” window offers “Open the folder”.
Unlocking a batch your clients send back
The “Unlock a batch” tab works the other way round, for files you are entitled to open. With “My clients’ passwords”, the app reads your spreadsheet or the vault and tests every password before it starts; a wrong one shows “✕ Password refused”. With “Type each password”, you enter each file’s password yourself.
The batch is created only if every password is correct, and the copies are named 001_…_unlocked.pdf. The app does not guess passwords: without the right one, the file stays closed.
Mailings that are better done as a batch
Monthly payslips
One payslip per employee, named after them, protected with their personal password.
Monthly consulting reports
The same report produced for each client and sent the same day, with no mix-up between recipients.
Brokerage and insurance files
Policies, endorsements and certificates sent to many policyholders or borrowers at once.
Frequently asked questions
How many files can I protect in one batch?
Up to 200 PDFs per batch. Files that are already protected are set aside, and your originals are never modified.
How do I create my client password spreadsheet?
In any spreadsheet app: type client, password and, if needed, file in row 1. Then add one row per client, with the name written as it appears in their files, and save as CSV. The app’s “Download the template” button gives you a ready-to-fill file; our guide “How to create your client password spreadsheet” walks through each step.
What if a file matches no client?
The row turns orange with “Client not found” or “To confirm”. You pick the right client from the list before protecting the batch.
Where are generated passwords kept?
In “A generated password per file” mode, they are saved to a batch_passwords.txt file in plain text: store it safely, away from the PDFs. Passwords created with “Generate” in client mode are kept in the vault.
Can the app open a PDF whose password I have lost?
No. Batch unlocking is for files whose password you know; it does not try to guess it.
Do my files go over the internet?
No, all processing happens on your device. Your account and license require an internet connection; your PDFs and your spreadsheet never do.
Related reading
Your next batch, protected in a single run
Import your spreadsheet, check the orange rows, protect: each client receives an encrypted file with the password they already know.
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