Quite often I see attachments in emails that are sent in DOC format or an XLS format. Unless you want the recipient to have the ability to change your information, I believe this is a big mistake and I’ll explain why.

Doc and XLS files are dynamic, meaning that the recipient can change them, change the content. Everyday, I receive resumes, business reports , financial information, financial statements via email or online storage such as Dropbox or Google Drive and many of them are open to edit. it would be very easy for me to change all of the information in these cases. I could change a letterhead, I could change financial information I could change names, I could change dates and then forward that on and your original message has been discarded and a new one, which seems to come from you, has been created.

Imagine how dangerous that is. I suggest that you only send static documents such as PDFs as attachments. This doesn’t number of things that are positive. Number one a PDF is much more consistently viewable over platforms. Where you’re going from pc-based to Apple products to desktops to tablets to mobile devices, a PDF is universally viewable and universally consistent. Whereas a doc file or XLS file is not always consistent and so the message you have there which is really the in the formatting could be lost and can look like a mess.

There are many products that will quickly change your doc or XLS files to PDF for other static formats. I highly recommend that you do this.

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Chris Whalen, CPA
(732) 673-0510
79 Oak Hill Road
Red Bank, NJ 07701
www.chriswhalencpa.com

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