My clients scan and email me a lot of source documents and I produce files and reports for them from a cloud based accounting system. I'm looking for a secure solution where I can store all of this information, structured to my own design (e.g. relevant directories) that is accessible to me and my clients through a link on my website. Can anyone recommend something that doesn't cost a fortune ? I'm aware of Dropbox but don't really know if it does what I want.
Thanks.
Related resources
Replies (10)
Please login or register to join the discussion.
Lucey technology
We looked at lucey technology which do a hosted sharepoint service which your clients can access through a secure service, it is pretty simple and we were very impressed. We use it for documents on audits etc so we always have the latest version.
I don't know if it does exactly what you want but good and cost effective and well worth a look.
Doc Safe
We use Docsafe, from online practice. There is a link on our website and clients can log in to access their documents and it works very well at reasonable cost. You choose the names of directories, and can restrict access on a directory by directory basis. For example, you can set up a subdirectory for each director for personal affairs and those directories can be viewed only by the director concerned.
Speak to Mike - link to website here
Due diligence
Would one need to carry out due diligence procedures to ensure security of data etc and what the outcome would be if a cloud company went into liquidation ?
Thanks, still looking ..
Thanks for the suggestions. I can't see any prices on the Lucey website - why do suppliers do that ? Surely xGB for £x is quite simple.
DocSafe says from £50 per month so may be a little steep at the moment.
As for due diligence, absolutely but I guess it's just a case of choosing a company with a good reputation and high standards and doing the research. They won't be holding the only copy of the documents just an accessible version.
Dropbox
Hi - if nothing else, it's free for quite a bit of storage and you can at least try it on a trial basis with a couple of clients to see what you all think.
I wouldn't be without it for personal/internal stuff and also share folders with 3 clients and it really is user friendly.
As to due dil, whatever you use there is risk, how many emails & unprotected docs do we and clients send every day and how many of us use "hard" firewalls?
Real time backup
The beauty of Dropbox is the real time backup. We have experienced scheduled backups failing in the past and I no longer need to check the overnight backup has run OK when I come into the office on a morning.
I pay a little extra to keep deleted files indefinitely, ie. beyond the standard 30 days. I have never needed to go back that far, but the cost is minimal and gives me peace of mind.
Folders can be shared, or you can put a single document in a shared folder and just send a link to that single document.
Lucey
I think I pay under £20 per month for Lucey. It is priced per user (at your end) unlimited clients are standard. I think about £8 per month then about £5 per gb of data per month.
Prices for lucey
Just checked we pay £5 per user and 4.50 per gb per month. You can also add digital signatures for £9 per month.
Thanks to Jon Wilcox for the feature item relating to this query. Lots of useful suggestions.
I'm also looking into using the spare space on my web server to set up a secure area for client docs with password protected access. Anyone done this ?