Transferring Large Files Virtually

[equinecpa]

I occasionally have clients who wish to send me large data files -files too large for email. Does anyone use a file transfer service - I googled and see there are a few out there. Can anyone recommend one over the other? Of course security is a concern.

I'm thinking perhaps I need to subscribe to one of those virtual portals I read about -anyone doing that-where you can share files with your clients? Any recommendations are greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Carolyn

[Maribeth]

Try www.cpasecure.com

Maribeth

[JohnH]

One warning about CPA Secure, just FYI. I have no problem or complaint about their product, but I'm not a fan of their billing practices.

When you sign up, they put you on an automatic renewal. When the anniversary comes up, if you decide to cancel they will hold you to the upcoming full year's fee. They require a 30-day written notice PRIOR TO the renewal date. No proration, no consideration for services not used, no goodwill adjustment. If you let the "drop dead" date get by you, then you can just drop dead as far as they are concerned.

They're not alone in doing business in this sorry manner, but I sure don't like it no matter what type of service or company I'm dealing with.

[erchess]

Dispute the charge

So what can they do if you dispute the charge with your CC company? I have had outfits try to pull this kind of nonsense on me but I have never had one take me to court when I disputed the charge through my credit card company.

[Gretel]

Drop Box

Check this out. It just was recommended to me and I am very impressed. It actually serves both, backup and folder sharing, and best, it's free up to 2GB. It is very intuitive and user friendly but requires each user to sign up, which is an easy process also.

You can create a special folder for each client you want to use it for and just copy the files into that folder. Both, your client and you, can make changes and add and delete stuff.

[S T]

Link

Hi Gretel,
Do you have a link??

Sandy

[JohnH]

So what can they do if you dispute the charge with your CC company? I have had outfits try to pull this kind of nonsense on me but I have never had one take me to court when I disputed the charge through my credit card company.

Well, as I see it, I don't have a dispute with them that I can take to the credit card company. I agreed to the terms and they have the right to hold me to the agreement. It's my fault I didn't read the fine print. But none of that means I need to endorse their lousy business practices so I just warn others about this aspect of how they manage their customer relations. Under the circumstances, I think that's a reasonable response to an indefensible, low class way to treat one's customers.

[geekgirldany]

I recommend box.net
$10 a month for 10gig of space. You can create and password protect folders. Let customer's only see their folder. Its been really great for me.

[dtlee]

Try here first:

https://www.dropbox.com/tour

I use this among my own machine and it works well. I have not tried it with clients.

[equinecpa]

Can you use dropbox without downloading software to your computer? That might nix it for customers who need to transfer files to me...

[erchess]

Very Interesting Thread

How often do you folks have clients that want to send you something in this way? I receive and send faxes through a computer fax service and I send and receive email attachments but I don't do business related file sharing. On the other hand I do personal file sharing with a few people using MSN Messenger.

[geekgirldany]

The only thing I use box.net for is QuickBooks files. They upload their backup... I make the changes... upload and they can download the changed file back to their computer to restore. So helpful in that I don't have to set a time for them to bring a jump drive by and then pick it back up.

[Gretel]

I haven't used drop box with a client yet, but with a fellow accountant who is doing tax returns (over 10) for a client I do all the bookkeeping and personal finances. I copied all the files (QB, Word, Excel, PDF) into the folder I share with him and he will copy all the tax returns in this folder, then, after copying to harddrive we delete.

Next time I will actually copy the QB file (not a backup), so he won't need to restore.

If I move a real client QB file into a folder, I can work life in this file on another computer that has the same version of QB installed and don't need to go through the trouble of backup and restore. Same is true for tax software. I think DropBox opens a lot of opportunities and I can't wait to get more familiar with it.

Anyone, using a shared folder, needs to download their program. Seems like they are very actively soliciting new customers. If I invite a friend and this friend signs up, both the friend and I get more free space up to a limited amount. If any of you is interested in doing this please send me a PM.

I won't be able to get back to you before Wednesday since I am traveling.

[FEDUKE404]

Size matters ?

I occasionally have clients who wish to send me large data files -files too large for email. ....
Carolyn

Aside from the "security" etc issues, what exactly are you calling "files too large for email" ??

I routinely receive email attachments in excess of 10 MB, and have successfully received email messages of 18 MB in size.

If someone is scanning a lot of documents et al, that is a separate issue (dump them onto a DVD and snail mail). Those are usually in a JPEG format, and can be "large" based upon the resolution used.

But otherwise, I cannot envision a mere data file that would not fly through most emails.

FE