A SmartVault alternative that encrypts documents before upload
SmartVault is a document portal built for accounting and tax workflows. It stores your clients’ documents in a form the provider can read — the usual trade-off for a hosted portal. If your objection to a portal is exactly that, this is the alternative.
ShieldFive File Request gives you the client-upload portal without the readable copy: each file is sealed to your keys in the client’s browser, and we hold only ciphertext. It’s a narrower tool — collection, not a full practice-management suite — but on the property that matters for confidential intake, it doesn’t compromise.
A portal without the readable copy
The trade every hosted portal asks you to make is that the provider can open what your clients upload. Here each document is encrypted to your public key on the client’s device, so the portal operator holds ciphertext and encrypted filenames — nothing to index or disclose.
Built for documents you keep for years
Tax records outlive the software that collected them. Uploads are sealed with a hybrid of ML-KEM-1024 and X25519 from the open-source @shieldfive/crypto core, so a seven-year retention period doesn’t become a seven-year window for someone stockpiling ciphertext.
Your client book stays in the EU
Ciphertext and metadata stay in the EU, and a GDPR data-processing agreement is included on every seat rather than gated behind an enterprise tier — which matters when the portal holds a whole client book’s returns.
One inbox for the practice
Seats are €29 per person per month, and the firm’s decryption identity is sealed to each member’s account — so partners and staff work from the same intake without passing a passphrase around. Clients never pay and never sign up.
Start collecting documents securely
Create a request, share one link, and your clients upload without an account — each file sealed to your keys in their browser.
Start collecting — free14-day trial, everything unlocked · then free for 1 open request at a time · no card · clients never pay
Questions
- Is this a full practice-management portal like SmartVault?
- No. File Request focuses on secure client document collection — request, collect, decrypt, done. It doesn’t replace document management, e-sign, or billing. What it adds over a conventional portal is that the provider holds only ciphertext and never the keys.
- Can my whole practice share one inbox?
- Yes. Add seats at €29 per seat per month; the firm’s decryption identity is sealed to each member’s account, so colleagues share one inbox without sharing personal keys.