FileSentinel collects sensitive client documents through links that guard themselves, encrypts every file in transit and at rest, and writes down every action with a time and a name. When someone asks how you handle client data, you have an answer you can print.
Start My 15-Day Free Trial Setup in under 15 minutes. Cancel anytime.Plain talk on compliance: no software makes a firm compliant on its own. FileSentinel gives you strong controls and a clean record, so your program has the evidence it needs. We support your work -- we do not replace it, and we do not claim a certification we have not earned.
There is no password to guess, reuse, or steal. Each link does four things a password never could.
Every link carries a long, random token. It cannot be typed by hand or guessed by a bot. One client, one request.
You set how long a link stays open. When the window closes, it stops working on its own.
Sent to the wrong person? Turn the link off from your dashboard and it dies at once.
A link opens one client's checklist and nothing else. No account, no shared drive, no path to anyone else's files.
A password can be reused, written on a sticky note, or handed to a family member. A FileSentinel link is built for one person, one purpose, one window of time -- a control you can explain in a sentence.
A W-2 is a target the moment it leaves your client's hands. FileSentinel keeps it covered at both points where documents are most at risk.
Every upload and download travels over an encrypted connection -- the same standard your bank uses. No file crosses the open internet in plain view.
Once a document lands in storage, it stays encrypted on disk. A stolen drive gives up nothing readable.
What this replaces: a tax return sitting as an email attachment is stored in the clear, on servers you do not control. The same file in FileSentinel is behind encryption at both ends of the trip.
Audit Trail - Robert Kim
Your inbox cannot tell you who opened a file or when. FileSentinel records each event as it happens, so you are never guessing after the fact.
Kept for 7 years -- the retention window tax and financial firms are asked to keep. If a question comes up three seasons from now, the answer is still there, ready to export.
The FTC Safeguards Rule and IRS Pub 4557 shape how firms like yours are expected to protect client information. Here is what each asks, and the control FileSentinel puts behind it.
| The rule asks for | FileSentinel's answer |
|---|---|
| FTC SafeguardsAccess controls that limit who can reach customer information, only as long as they need it. | Unique, time-limited, revocable links scope access to one client and one request, and close it when the window ends. |
| FTC SafeguardsEncryption of customer information in transit and at rest. | Documents are encrypted over the connection and again while stored -- both points the rule names. |
| FTC SafeguardsMonitoring and logging so unauthorized access can be detected. | Every open, upload, download, share, and note is logged with a time and an actor, and held for 7 years. |
| IRS Pub 4557A secure way to collect and store taxpayer data, away from open email. | Clients upload through a secure portal instead of attaching W-2s and Social Security numbers to email. |
| IRS Pub 4557Limits on who can reach taxpayer information. | Files sit inside your firm's account, reachable by your staff and by the one client the link was built for. |
| IRS Pub 4557Proof your safeguards are real and being followed. | The audit trail is your evidence: a dated record of how each document was collected, viewed, and handled. |
The honest line: FileSentinel is one strong piece of a compliance program, not the whole thing. Your written plan, your staff training, and your other tools still matter. What we give you is a real control -- and a clean record to point to when someone asks.
Your staff, inside your firm's account, and the one client the link was built for. A magic link opens that client's checklist and nothing else -- there is no shared drive and no path from one link to another client's files.
The link stops working. Anyone who clicks it afterward sees a message, not a file. Documents already uploaded stay safe in your account, and you can send a fresh link in one click.
Documents stay in your account for as long as you keep them there, and you can remove a file when you no longer need it. The audit record follows a 7-year retention window that fits how tax and financial firms are asked to keep their books. If you close your account, we remove your data on the schedule described in our terms.
Documents sit in encrypted object storage and the records about them in a managed database, both run and backed up on enterprise cloud infrastructure -- not on our laptops, personal drives, or a server closet of our own. The parts most firms get wrong, patching and backups and physical security, are handled by a provider whose entire business is doing exactly that.
No. Your clients' documents are yours. We do not sell them and we do not use them to train any model. We store and protect them so you can do your work -- that is all.
Yes. The audit trail gives you a dated record of how each document was collected and handled. Paired with your written security plan, it is the kind of evidence a reviewer asks to see under the FTC Safeguards Rule and IRS Pub 4557.
Send your next document request as one secure link. No login for your clients, no follow-up for you, a log for everything.
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