DT ScanDoc preferences - PDF setup

PDF Creation settings

Password security

PDF files of tax returns or scanned taxpayers' documents contain personal and confidential information that the tax preparer is obligated to protect from unauthorised access. Sending a PDF file attached to an email, or even storing the file the file on a computer that is not secure can easily result in the theft of this confidential information. If you do not have other secure methods in place you should encrypt any PDF files created by DT Max or DT ScanDoc.

Select the radio button Prompt to enter a password whenever a PDF is created to allow you to enter a separate password for each PDF. Check the box Enforce the use of a password to ensure that PDFs are never created without password protection.

If you check the box Save the PDF password in the taxpayer's keyword data, the password will be saved and be accessible to any user with the rights to run DT Max and open the data for that client. This is a convenient method for working with unique passwords while managing them easily. The PDF files will not be accessible by anyone with casual access to the files while just using Windows Explorer. However you should make sure that a proper DT Max security system is in place requiring users to enter a password to access DT Max, otherwise offers no security.

The last radio button, Automatically use the DT Max database encryption password, will cause any PDF file that is created to be password protected automatically by the same password that was used to encrypt the DT Max database. This feature is only relevant to an office where all the users have access to the DT Max database encryption password.

PDF/A

PDF/A is an ISO Standard for using the PDF format for the long-term archiving of electronic documents. PDF/A documents can be read by all versions of Adobe Acrobat and Reader, and most other PDF reader programs, but cannot contain password protection. You should only choose this feature if you have legal or technical reasons. For more information about PDF/A go to www.pdfa.org.

Security of confidential data

Password encrypted PDF files are an easy way to ensure a reasonable level of security. For the highest security an IT professional should configure your network appropriately. When choosing names for PDF files you should consider avoiding SIN numbers, and personal names as these raise the possibility of identity theft in extreme circumstances, even if the contents of the files cannot be accessed.

DT ScanDoc and DT Max use the same password and PDF/A setup dialogue, but the settings are saved separately. Hence you are, for example, able to configure DT Max to use PDF/A for archiving, and DT ScanDoc to use regular password protected PDF files.