Tax packs, bank statements, cap tables, and draft agreements routinely travel as email attachments to “the accountant” or “outside counsel.” The people are trusted. The channel usually is not.
This guide covers how to share financial and legal packets with accountants and counsel using sealed links—without slowing month-close or deal work.
Why advisor shares go wrong
- Attachments land in firm mail systems and personal phone sync
- Forwarding to “the senior on the engagement” multiplies copies
- Year-old threads still hold last year’s P&L
- No clean answer to who could open the file after staff turnover
Default workflow
- Stage only the documents requested for this engagement period
- Seal in a vault with client-side encryption before upload
- Mint a share: 14–45 day expiry (match the engagement), optional password out of band
- Email or portal-notify with the link—never the raw PDF if avoidable
- Revoke when the return is filed or the matter closes
- Keep an activity export if finance or legal asks later
Compliance Locker supports that sealed delivery layer. It does not replace your CPA’s portal or your counsel’s DMS when those are required.
By document type
Tax and bookkeeping packs
Bundle by year/period. Re-mint next year instead of appending to an eternal folder. Kill ZIP+password as the standing method—see ZIP vs vault.
Cap tables and financing docs
Treat as board-grade sensitivity. Separate investor diligence shares from counsel-only sets. Fundraise checklist.
Litigation / privileged materials
Follow counsel’s instructions. A sealed vault can help with controlled delivery; privilege strategy is legal advice, not a product feature.
Policy one-liner you can publish
Sensitive financial and legal source files are delivered via sealed links with default expiry. Email is for notification. Attachments are the exception, not the default—and require an owner.
FAQ
Is emailing PDFs to our CPA fine if we use a client portal?
Portals help when the firm runs them well. Many small practices still default to email. Prefer sealed links you control—or the firm’s portal—over attachments that live in mail backups forever.
What about sharing with outside counsel?
Same pattern: sealed packets, short expiry, audience separation from investors or vendors. Privileged material may need tighter counsel-managed channels—ask your lawyer.
Can accountants keep working files in their own systems?
Yes. Your job is controlled delivery and revoke of source packets—not owning their engagement workspace.
Do we need watermarks?
Useful for high-sensitivity financials and draft filings. Pair with expiry and revoke; watermark alone is not a control plane.
How does this differ from an auditor share?
Accountants and counsel are ongoing advisors; auditors are often time-boxed fieldwork. Both need sealed packets—auditor close-out is usually stricter. See the external auditors guide.
Related: sharing with external auditors, board pack sharing.