Register for a session now by clicking a date below. Each webinar will last approximately 30 minutes.

Wednesday, December 7th 3:00pm EST

Wednesday, December 14th 3:00pm EST

Wednesday, December 21st 3:00pm EST

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Did you know that each day some 5,760 hard drives will crash? An easy way to avoid the nightmare of lost data is to improve your practice with SaaS. Such services allow businesses to go on about their daily routine without the worry of file transfer and storage. Services that offer a portal are quickly becoming popular due to the easy to use delivery tool for clients. Accountants can easily post electronic versions of past tax returns and other relevant data so clients can access the documents 24/7 without interrupting workflow. Because that’s the goal, right?

ShareFile offers a client portal that allows firms to securely transfer files that are either too large or too confidential to send via e-mail. ShareFile for Accountants was specifically designed with Accounting Professionals to securely exchange confidential documents and large business files. Accounting firms can make documents available to clients through an encrypted, password-protected, custom-branded client portal or securely though email with a Microsoft Outlook Plug-in. The portal serves as an easy way for Accountants to create online folders which allow clients to see only those folders where specific access is granted.

Want to learn more about how we help accounting firms safely exchange their most sensitive files with state-of-the-art encryption for both file transfer and file storage? Contact us; we’d love to hear from you! Interested in trying ShareFile? Enjoy a free 30-day trial.

OneLogin is a useful tool for small businesses to unify access to SaaS apps. OneLogin eliminates user-managed passwords and ensures users only have to remember and enter one single password- for OneLogin or their corporate network. It’s simple- one click. This eliminates the need to remember different user names and passwords for various applications.

Exciting news here at ShareFile -we recently completed SAML integration with OneLogin, which means that ShareFile is now listed in the OneLogin directory of SaaS apps. If users are ShareFile customers, they can simply add ShareFile to their OneLogin account and perform single-sign-on from OneLogin to ShareFile. This makes it easier to access ShareFile and other applications, without having to worry about remembering numerous passwords.

We are continuously striving to make ShareFile as seamless as possible for our customers. We love to hear feedback and suggestions as we continue to innovate. Have a suggestion for us? Shoot us an email at suggestions@sharefile.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

ShareFile has robust reporting that can help your business save time, manage usage, and even help with Sarbanes-Oxley compliancy.

Once logged in, click on “Admin” in top right navigation bar, then click on “Reporting” in right navigation. This will take you to your Account Reporting Dashboard. You can see a high level view of your users, clients, storage space, and bandwidth usage.

Under “Details” click “+Create Report”

Report Number 5 – Usage Report. Check employee or client activity. This is also a great customer service tool. You can check to see which clients have downloaded, or not downloaded, the file you sent. If it has been several days and the file has not been downloaded, you can contact them to see if they need assistance. It is a great reminder to download the file and your client will appreciate the attention to detail. Usage reports can also be helpful audit tools. Have you ever had a client say that they didn’t receive information that you thought that they had, or wanted to double-check when a team member last updated a file? The Usage Report gives you facts such as the exact time and IP address where an upload or download took place to help answer any questions that may come up as a natural result of collaboration.

A small box will appear that shows Report Type “Usage Report.” Click next step. You will have the option to change the report, the date, and activity types. For now, leave as is (definitely test the other settings later), and click next step.

Another small box will appear with a great feature, “Scheduling.” This will schedule the report automatically if you wish. If you click “Recurring” you will have the option to run the report automatically daily, weekly, or monthly and if you click email notice, it will come right to you. Click “Create Report” and view the results. You can view the report in many different ways, HTML, Excel, CSV, or PDF. Again, play with the settings and customize it based on your needs.

Report Number 4 – Access Audit Report. This report is great if you must be Sarbanes-Oxley compliant. You can show who had access to which folder and their level of access to these folders. This information, combined with a “Storage Report”(which I cover later), can help prove full disclosure of necessary financial documents. This report will also save you a lot of time if you want to check that all folder permissions on the account are correct before sending out login information, since it combines all of the Folder Access information for the account in one place.

From the dashboard, click create report. Choose “Access Audit” from the drop down and click next step. From here you can obtain a report on the entire account, each user, or each folder. Click next step to scheduling. You can schedule this report as well, but for now click “Create Report” and choose you method to view the report. You have many options to view this report as well.

Report Number 3 – Virtual Data Room Click Trails Report. If you have our Virtual Data Room, this report is a detailed account report of usage. Click Trails can be a great tool in helping you gauge potential bidder interest when working on a deal, as you can see what users are interested in browsing and how much time they are investing in reviewing specific documents. If you want to be able to make the most of your sale, this information can help you determine what details to focus on when speaking with different bidders and weed out parties with casual interest from serious potential buyers.

Click “Admin” on the top navigation, then “Click Trials” in right navigation. Select the time frame from the “View Trials for” drop down. You can see a list of users on this page. If you click on “View Session” associated with each user, you can view user activity in click trail form. You can see the steps that a user took, viewing folders and files, along with their log-in and log-out times.

Report Number 2 – Reports in the Folder Screen. Besides seeing reports under “Admin,” you can view and individual reports on the folders screen. Folder activity reports are available to any folder administrator, so these reports can be great tools for any employee who does not have access to run account-wide reports, but may need to check usage for their clients or coworkers within project folders. This allows employee users to maintain greater autonomy in managing their own project folders and client follow up, and can reduce the need for a central administrator to help employee users with questions about the account.

While on your “Home” screen, click on an individual folder. On the right side of the screen, click on “View Activity Log.” You will be able to select all users or an individual user of that folder, set a date range, and activity type (downloads, uploads, deletions, etc…) of that specific folder or sub-folders. Once you have it set the way you want, click on “Export to Excel” button, choose if you want just that folder and/or sub-folders, and click “ok” when the Excel prompt pops up.

Report Number 1 – The Storage Report. Wondering where all of your storage is getting used up? The Storage report is basically a complete overview of the projects everyone is working on and how much storage they are using. In addition to allowing you to check that all necessary files are available and in order on your account, you can also use this report to help decide which files may no longer be needed on the account. This will help you cut down on your account storage use to save money on your plan or prevent overage fees.

After clicking “Admin” and “Create Report,” select “Storage” from the drop down menu. Click “Next Step” and you will have the option to create the report on the entire account or folder and set date. For now, leave settings as they are and click “Next Step” to scheduling. Same as the previous reports, you can schedule this report. Click “Create Report” and how you want to view the data, HTML, Excel, CSV, or PDF. You can now see the file size of each folder. It is a great way to audit your account and see if there are files that are using up a lot of space that you may no longer need.

As always, if you ever need help with your account, including report generation, please do not hesitate to contact your account manager.

If there are other reports that you found useful and would like to share with others, please comment below.

When creating new employees or editing current employees, you will be given a list of administrative options that can be enabled or disabled for a particular user. This page can be seen below:

More information about these permissions and how to update administrative options for your employees can be found through our Knowledge Base here.

If there are any questions or issues, please contact your Account Manager or our Support staff.

With ShareFile’s new folder invitation feature, folder administrators will be able to send a link granting full folder access to as many email recipients as they would like without having to set the users up with folder access first. This feature is designed to make it easier for folder administrators to grant access to folders to a large group of users. These invitations will allow interested parties to sign up for gain access to folders within a ShareFile account. At the same time, we have also made updates to the “Remember Me” check box on the Login screen of a ShareFile account. Now, the check box reads “Keep me logged in,” as opposed to “Remember Me;” by selecting this option, the ShareFile account will save the email address and password of the user so that it will be automatically filled in whenever you login using the same browser on your computer. For any new accounts opened on the 16th of May or after, the box will read “Remember Me,” but this box will only save the user’s email address, and not their password. This update is designed to improve security within an account because the user must enter their ShareFile password each time they login. Accounts created prior to the 16th of May can also have this setting updated by contacting our Support team at support@sharefile.com. Finally, this month, our Development teams made a number of new account settings available, including the ability to limit file versions, create case-sensitive passwords and limit IP addresses. In limiting file versions, administrators can change the number of copies of a file that will be saved as separate versions on a folder. Case-sensitive passwords can also be enforced on an account-wide basis and accounts may now also limit account activity to a given number of IP addresses. This allows accounts to limit file access and to discourage distribution to external users. To change both the password settings in your account or to limit the IP addresses accessing your account, please contact ShareFile Support at support@sharefile.com.

Each one of these feature enhancements significantly increases your ability to manage your ShareFile account and each one was a result of customer feedback. If there are any new upgrades or suggestions on how we can help you to better manage your account, please contact us or email suggestions@sharefile.com.

Account Services representatives conduct daily training webinars and also one-on-one sessions for customers. The team has the opportunity to work with new our accounts and learn the reasons our customers chose ShareFile as a solution for their business. I recently asked two Account Services representatives, Alex Hofford and Amanda Rogers, about the features and benefits of a ShareFile account that are most helpful to people who are just getting started or looking to learn more. Below are some of the tips they shared.

What are the most common questions that you hear from new accounts?

Alex:
FAQ- One of the most common questions I get from clients is “What is my client going to be able to see when they log in?”

Answer- While the specific answer to this question will be different with each account, the fundamental answer lies within our Folder Access permissions. With these options, the account administrator can control not only which folders each client user can see in the system, but also any download/upload capability and email notifications. These options create a level of customization so that you and your clients can get the most appropriate use out of our system.

Amanda:
FAQ- “How is the transfer secure if we send out an email with a link to download a file? What if the email gets intercepted?”

Answer- I often get asked this question, especially when going over the ‘Require user to login’ option within ‘Send a File’. I point out that if the user isn’t already created as a user on the account, the system will assign them a password. I get a lot of concern over the password coming out in the same email as the link to the file. There are measures that the administrator(s) can put into place within their account to add additional security. Our first recommendation is to create the person as user in the system and then grant them access to a folder in the account that has the material you would be sending to them. If the user is created in this way, then they will be required to log-in each time before they can access the folder. They will be sent a temporary system-generated password in an initial email and will be prompted to change that password as soon as they log-in the first time. Email notifications can be turned on, so that notification will be provided as soon as new files have been uploaded to the folder.

I’ve also helped accounts with their email templates so that a new user’s password won’t go out in an email. Some accounts even change the passwords for all users to the last four digits of their SSN (for those in Accounting and Financial industries) and then only say in the welcome email that their password is the last four digits of their SSN. I also refer those who ask these questions to the Reporting feature in their account and let them know that they can trace downloads to an IP address and location to determine who is doing the downloading/uploading of a file.

What are the most popular features with your accounts?

Alex: Across all of our accounts, we provide access to the Desktop Widget tool in order to provide easy access to the ShareFile account without having to utilize an internet browser. The Widget allows the user to see the folders and files they have access to in the ShareFile account, while providing a way to upload documents, send files, and create new folders/subfolders.

Many people tell me they like the Widget because of the ability to Drag-and-Drop files in and out of the Widget window. This is a very easy way to move a large number of folders and/or files at once from outside the client portal.

Amanda: The Outlook Plug-in—everyone loves how easy it is to use!

The Reporting page and tracking features are also very popular. All of the users on an account may not be in close proximity with each other. Our notifications, combined with the Activity Log available in each folder, help the Administrator know if their colleagues and clients are getting their work done. Many administrators like being able to check to see how many files have been downloaded and to know right away when that happens. They also like knowing that if there is ever a question about meeting a deadline, they can use the Reporting features to get a time stamp of their work.

What are the best ways to get help when you’re getting started with a new account?

Alex: The Help link in the top right corner of the ShareFile portal menu provides a variety of options to get our clients the help they need as quickly as possible. This page contains a search field for our Knowledge Base (a collection of articles detailing various aspects of our service), a link to chat live with our Support Team, and contact information for both the support team and your account manager. Using these tools, customers can get the answer they need in a variety of different ways.

Amanda: We broadcast a daily webinar, held during the week at 2PM EDT. Each account has a dedicated account manager, who serves as a point of contact for any questions that come up as you start using the service. Customers can also contact their account manager to schedule a free training session for themselves and their colleagues if the webinars are time conflicting or if they would like the ability to ask more questions during training.

Many thanks to Alex and Amanda for the expert advice on getting started with your ShareFile account! If you have any questions or would like any help getting started with your account, please feel free to contact us at support@sharefile.com.

If you don’t have an account yet and would be interested in learning more about our service, check out our 30-day free trial at ShareFile.

A number of updates have been implemented in the past few weeks to the main application:

Enhancements to Send, Requesting, and Notifications

Distribution Group Updates

More information on folder content available

There is also an update to Enterprise Sync which fixes any issues where large jobs could fail to finish reliability in some cases, and also addresses problems when editing jobs that have not yet initially run. This update also adds the ability to exclude file types from the sync, which is useful if you wish to exclude temporary or backup files.

Got Feedback? We take feedback from our customers seriously.

Send your suggestions to suggestions@sharefile.com.

“From my experience, ShareFile Sales University is all about ShareFile’s first core value of customer centricity. Through the course, my peers and I learned to interact with clients with a level of professionalism and sincerity that allows us to stand apart from the typical salesperson. ShareFile is about more than sharing files; it’s about providing tailor-made solutions to address the file sharing and security concerns of our customers. We, as Sales Executives, don’t provide a product… we offer an answer to real problems encountered by businesses every day.” –Grady Slane, Senior Sales Executive

Since ShareFile Sales University has proved to be successful in raising the bar for our customers, we have decided to expand our courses to offer the ShareFile University Data-Driven Course. Taught by ShareFile’s Director of Analytics, the course will allow employees to learn how to use a data-driven approach to innovate their current position at ShareFile. This course coincides with one of our core values of being “Data Driven.” Every aspect of our company, from software development, to sales and marketing, to customer support, is driven by metrics.

We are looking forward to seeing our metrics at work through this course!

Another helpful tip: Our talented account managers provide FREE DAILY product demonstrations that allow attendees a way to get their most essential questions answered. These live webinars are offered Monday-Friday at 2pm EDT. You can register easily by simply going to our Knowledge Base and selecting the day that works best with your schedule.

We want to hear from you! Was this helpful? Let us know how we’re doing.

ShareFile Sync allows you to sync up folders on your desktop with folder in your ShareFile account. Any files that you save into these folders will upload directly into your account without you having to first save them to your desktop. With ShareFile Sync, you can simply “Save As” or “Print To” directly from your DMS into the folders on your desktop and these files will become available to your clients the next time it syncs up, which is every 5 minutes.

Using ShareFile Sync is a quick solution that will make it easier for you to manage your workload and ensure that your clients receive their tax returns in a timely manner through their ShareFile folders. To download ShareFile Sync, you can visit the “My Settings” link in your account under “Desktop Tools” or contact your Account Manager today to walk through ShareFile Sync in more detail.

ShareFile Training Tutorial Video

We also offer live training with a talented ShareFile Representative. Simply contact your account manager to learn more.