... are all but gone!
Does anyone else still do a proper letter, on letter headed (digital) PDF and attach to the email?
Thoughts and your experiences please.
Thanks.
Replies (15)
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Yes, but limited
I suppose force of habit but for the past 10 years we've used Iris to prep everything we need when sending accounts or tax returns out in PDF, including a cover letter on letterhead. So it's easy to pack up a PDF containing cover letter accounts, returns, letters of rep, resolutions, comps etc etc.
With a handful of new clients however I've drawn up a sample of single pages to replace the letter, in more of an "Executive Summary" format, with links to the key areas in the accounts &/or tax returns.
You can say a lot more with one of these than you can a formal letter, and, visually it looks neater & more modern.
We don't email these PDFs they go via Iris's secure website for electronic approval, but the principal is the same.
Everything else goes in the body of emails to all clients & contacts, or maybe in attached schedules or memos as they are quite often easier to read than an email full of text and I rarely format an email, with inset paras, bullet points etc unless I'm sure the receiver's email won't mash it up.
Almost everything by email
Nearly all of my client correspondence is sent by email in the body of that email. If the email is going to be too long then I may attach a PDF spreadsheet or word document. What I don't do is compose a letter on my letterhead and send it as an attachment.
As with Paul, any documents that need client authorisation are sent via IRIS OpenSpace to be signed electronically.
What's the point?
I hate it when someone sends me something in an attachment that they could just as easily have written in the body of the email. I really don't see the point.
The point is that sometimes you think a communication might be printed off, passed around, discussed, shared, tabled at a board meeting or whatever and if so a letter format, some of us might think, presents a more professional image.
Avoid editing
If the document is of a sort that is likely to be passed around, then a PDF is difficult (though not impossible) to edit. A forwarded e-mail is just text that can be altered at will. This could be as simple as someone inadvertently deleting an important piece of info, or as severe as someone maliciously changing your advice entirely.
100% this
If the document is of a sort that is likely to be passed around, then a PDF is difficult (though not impossible) to edit. A forwarded e-mail is just text that can be altered at will. This could be as simple as someone inadvertently deleting an important piece of info, or as severe as someone maliciously changing your advice entirely.
The main reason for sending pdf attachments rather than typing in the body of the email.
Editing unprotected PDFs is easy
It's true that the popular, free program, Adobe Acrobat Reader, won't let you edit a PDF (the clue's in the name). However, unless you protect the PDF (and most of us don't), then editing a PDF is as easy as editing a Word document if you have PDF editing software.
I use Foxit Phantom PDF (not expensive) and I can just click the Edit button to amend the text in any unprotected document that has embedded text (rather than an image of text). If you draft a document in Word and save it as a PDF, it can thus be edited as easily as an email. If a client wants to fraudulently amend your advice, then software is the least of your problems.
I am sure the above is right, but protection from alteration is not the only, or indeed in my case the main, reason for on occasion communicating by attaching a PDF file to an EMail. Professional appearance is the reason in my book.
Answering the question
What does?No it seems a waste of time to me.
That was my reply to the original question - 'Does anyone else still do a proper letter, on letter headed (digital) PDF and attach to the email?
I should have perhaps quoted that when I responded
Always password protect sensitive PDFs
In the past we always password protected sensitive PDFs with the clients date of birth in DDMMYYYY format (even they can't forget that). This was to protect them from 3rd parties not the clients themselves who could pretty much edit anything on paper or PDF if they wanted to.
Now we use Iris OpenSpace secure website (free to non-Iris customers).
Emails mainly..
.. I only use 'official' correspondence for clearance letters, engagement letter, tax calcs - everything else is done via email.
I often wondered if I were being too 'casual' so i'm pleased I spotted this thread. I have a very good relationship with my clients - they are all very good, relaxed people. I'm lucky!
Deborah Scott, Managing Director
For and on behalf of A Counting House Limited
Companies House reg: 08560493