PDF protection

PDF protection applies a firm-wide password to the PDFs your workspace generates. With it on, clients can open and read a document but can’t edit it and re-submit a tampered copy.

Open Administrative → PDF protection.

Setting the password

Enter a firm-wide password and save. From that point on, every PDF the workspace generates is encrypted with it. Recipients open the document with the password (or read it straight from the client portal); the encryption is what stops the file being edited and passed off as authentic.

When to turn it on

It’s worth enabling once the firm is past evaluation and into real client work. Until then you may prefer plain PDFs while you’re testing the workflow.

Rotating the password

Change the password from this same page. Only owners and admins can rotate it, and the change is recorded in the Activity log.

Rotating affects only new PDFs. Documents generated under the old password stay encrypted with that old password — rotating doesn’t re-encrypt anything already produced.

Keep the password somewhere safe

The password is hashed and salted on our side — it’s not stored in plain text and can’t be looked up. If you lose it, every PDF generated under it stays locked with the value you no longer have, while new PDFs use whatever you set next. Store it in a password manager your firm can reach.

If you’ve lost the current password

Set a new one here so future PDFs are covered. For older PDFs still locked with the lost password, reach out to your Fola contact — a bulk re-encrypt against your firm’s existing PDFs with the new password can be arranged once firm ownership is confirmed.