Share documents outside your firm
Send a file to a lender or attorney with an expiry, a passcode, and a watermark — and revoke it later.
Sometimes a document has to go to somebody who isn't your client and never will be — a lender, an attorney, the other side's accountant. External shares handle that without email attachments you can't take back.
Where to find it
Sharing itself starts from the document or selection you want to send.
Create a share
- Select the documents.
- Add the recipients.
- Set the access controls.
- Add a short note for the recipients if it needs context.
- Send.
Access controls
View only or View and download. View-only is the right default for anything you'd rather not see forwarded.
Expiry — In 7 days, In 14 days, In 30 days, or a Custom date. Short is better here than for client requests, because an external share is usually for one specific purpose with a known end.
Passcode — recipients must enter a passcode you share separately. Turning it on without setting one is rejected rather than silently ignored.
Watermark — on by default. Leave it on. A watermarked document that turns up somewhere it shouldn't is traceable, and it costs the recipient nothing.
View limit — cap the number of views, or leave it Unlimited.
Why not just email it
Three reasons, and they're the reasons this feature exists:
- An emailed attachment can't be expired, revoked, or watermarked.
- You have no record of who opened it or whether it was forwarded.
- Some of what you send is exactly the material you'd least like sitting in an unknown inbox permanently.
A share is revocable. An attachment is not.
Keeping track
The External Shares tab lists everything you've shared outside the firm, who it went to, and its status. Shares can be revoked, and revoking takes effect immediately.
That list is also the answer to "did we send the 2023 financials to the bank?" — a question that otherwise means searching somebody's sent items.
Notes and limits
- Revoking a share stops access immediately, including for someone who already opened it.
- A passcode is shared by you, separately. LedgerOS doesn't send it alongside the link.
- Watermarking applies to supported document types.
- Expired shares stay in the list as a record rather than disappearing.