Year-end statements for the owner
Deliver the final set to the business owner as one encrypted, numbered PDF.
Financial statements
Password protect financial statements before sending them to clients
A set of financial statements says more about a business than almost any other document. The balance sheet shows what it owns and owes. The income statement shows how much it earns and spends. The cash flow statement shows where the money actually went, and the notes explain the details behind all three. In the wrong hands, that is a ready-made profile of the company.
Yet these statements are routinely emailed as plain attachments, or run through a website to add a password on the way out. Both habits leave the full set readable somewhere outside your control. A few minutes of local preparation fixes that.
Protect a set of statements on your device
Assemble the statements
Export the balance sheet, income statement, cash flow statement and notes from your accounting software. Merge them into one PDF, in the order you would present them, and add page numbers.
Clean the metadata
Run the metadata cleaner to remove the Info dictionary and XMP streams, the hidden fields that can record an author name, a document title, or the software that produced the file.
Encrypt and save a copy
Protect the file with AES-256 and a password of at least 12 characters, chosen or generated. The app saves a new encrypted copy and keeps your original untouched for your records.
Why statements should not pass through an upload service
Tools that upload your files have to receive the complete, readable statements before they can do anything with them. For a document that summarizes a client’s entire financial position, that is exactly the exposure you are trying to avoid. With PDF Protect Plus, the statements are merged, cleaned and encrypted on your own computer or Android device. Your PDFs are never sent to our servers: they are processed on your device.
The only traffic between the app and our servers concerns your account, license and subscription. Your account and license require an internet connection. Balances, revenue figures and notes are not part of it.
Your account and license require an internet connection.
What metadata cleaning does, and what it does not
PDF files carry hidden descriptive data. An exported statement might record the name of the staff member who created it, an internal file title, or the software version used. Cleaning removes that information from the Info dictionary and the XMP streams before the file leaves your office.
Metadata cleaning is not redaction. It does not remove names, account numbers or any other information that is visible on the pages themselves. If something printed on a page should not be sent, change it at the source and export the statement again.
Sending practices that protect your client
Encryption protects the file in transit and in the recipient’s inbox. The way you send it still matters.
- Send the password through another channel, such as a text message or a phone call, never in the same email as the statements.
- Double-check the recipient before sending, especially when your email program autocompletes addresses.
- Keep the original, unprotected statements in your own records; the app never overwrites them.
- Add a CONFIDENTIAL watermark when the statements are a draft or meant for a limited audience.
- Store the password in the encrypted local vault, or in a text file kept in a different folder than the PDF.
When to protect financial statements
Statements requested by a lender
When a client asks you to send statements to their bank, protect the file and give the password to the loan officer by phone.
Draft statements for review
Mark the draft with a CONFIDENTIAL watermark and restrict editing permissions before you send it for comments.
Statements for several entities
Use batch protection with a different generated password per file when one owner has several companies.
Frequently asked questions
Does the app remove confidential numbers from the pages?
No. Metadata cleaning removes hidden descriptive data such as author, title and software. It is not redaction, and anything visible on the pages stays there.
Can the recipient print the statements?
Unless you restrict it, yes. You can limit printing, copying, modifying and annotations, but those restrictions depend on the recipient’s PDF reader. The password is always required to open the file.
Does this make my firm compliant with a specific regulation?
The app gives you encryption and local processing. It does not by itself guarantee compliance with any regulation; that depends on your firm’s overall practices.
What if my client loses the password?
The app cannot recover a forgotten password. If you kept the original and your password record, you can simply protect a fresh copy and send it again.
Do I need to export differently from my accounting software?
No. The app does not connect to your accounting software. Export the statements as PDFs the usual way and open them in the app.
Related reading
Send statements that only your client can open
Merge, clean and encrypt financial statements on your own device, then deliver them with the password sent separately.
Start your 7-day trialYour account and license require an internet connection.