For accounting firms
Tax documents and client financials, without the email trail
Collect W-2s, 1099s, and bank statements, send and receive tax and payroll forms, and answer client questions in encrypted chats. Everything is end-to-end encrypted, and it’s erased when you’re done with it.
Clients never need an account. Firm features are on the Business plan.
Tax season shouldn’t run through inboxes
Social Security numbers, bank account and routing numbers, W-2s, 1099s, K-1s, and prior-year returns. Sent by email, they sit in inboxes on both ends for years, get forwarded, and are exactly what identity thieves look for. Squawk Secret gives clients a safer way to send you what you need, and gives your firm a record of who opened what and when.
Squawk Drop
One secure place for client documents
Give clients a page with your firm’s name in the address where they can send tax documents whenever they have them. Sort them with topics like Tax documents or Payroll, limit it to approved senders, and receive up to 2 GB per submission.
Intake
Organizers and intake forms that come back complete
Build client organizers and onboarding forms with required fields and checks for Social Security numbers, EINs, and bank routing and account numbers, plus a typed signature with a signature record. Ready-made templates include banking details for direct deposit.
Fillable PDFs
The real W-9, W-4, and I-9, completed and signed
Send vendors and contractors the official W-9 when you prepare 1099s, and payroll clients’ new hires the W-4 and I-9 (employee section). They fill in the actual form in their browser and you receive the completed PDF. You can upload your own fillable PDFs too.
Secure chats
Answer client questions without the email chain
When a return raises questions, talk it through in an end-to-end encrypted chat: messages, masked credentials, and files. Add a preparer or reviewer as a co-host. When the chat closes or its time limit passes, it’s erased for everyone.
Send
Passwords and account details, delivered safely
Send the password to an encrypted return, portal logins, or payment details as one-time links that self-destruct after they’re read. Add a passphrase you give the client by phone, or lock a link to the client’s email address, and know the moment it’s opened.
Oversight
Controls that support your security plan
Require two-step verification for everyone, or sign in with Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, or Okta. Admin and member roles, instant sign-out when someone leaves, your firm’s logo on client pages, and an audit trail you can export.
Protecting taxpayer data
The FTC Safeguards Rule (16 CFR Part 314) treats tax preparers as financial institutions. It requires a written information security program, encryption of customer information in transit and at rest, and multi-factor authentication for people who access it. IRS Publication 5708 provides a template for that written plan.
Squawk Secret can be one part of how your firm meets those expectations: what you send and receive is encrypted in the browser before it’s sent and stored only in encrypted form, your team can be required to use two-step verification, and the audit trail records every view and response. Our Security page and Trust center support your review of us as a service provider. Squawk Secret doesn’t replace your written plan, and this page isn’t legal or tax advice.
Records and retention
Squawk Secret erases what you send and receive on a schedule you set, which keeps sensitive client data from piling up where it doesn’t belong. Documents that belong in the client file, such as a completed organizer or a signed W-9, should be downloaded into your tax software or document management system before they expire. Squawk Drop items can be kept for up to a year, and the audit trail of who opened what, and when, is kept for your records.
Everything in one place
One Business account covers your whole firm: partners, preparers, bookkeepers, and admin staff, each with their own sign-in.
- End-to-end encryption: we can’t read the contents
- Squawk Drop page for client documents, up to 2 GB at a time
- Client organizers and intake forms with typed signatures
- Official W-9, W-4, and I-9 as fillable PDFs
- Secure chats with co-hosts
- Passphrases and email-locked links
- Required two-step verification and single sign-on
- Audit trail with CSV export
- Your firm’s name and logo on client pages
- Windows desktop notifications when documents arrive