Virtual Cabinet is our preferred route for sharing information with you securely.
It avoids us having to send you sensitive information in the post or via email and enables us to send you documents for approval using the electronic signature facility.
There are a few steps to go through the first time you access the Portal. These are outlined below.
Please note, the Portal is a method for us to share and collaborate with you. It’s not a document storage facility. Documents will not be held on the Portal permanently; therefore, we recommend you download any approved documents for your own records.
The Portal is not just for us to send documents to you either. You can also send documents to us. We strongly recommend sending any sensitive information via the Portal, as opposed to via email (see usage tip 4).
We have carefully selected Virtual Cabinet as our Portal provider. We feel this product is intuitive to use with relatively few steps for you to go through when you wish to send us a signed document electronically and securely.
However, if you have any problems at all when using the Portal, please don’t hesitate to call us on 01489 885772. We’ll be happy to talk you through any aspects of the set-up and explain how to use the Portal.
Virtual Cabinet set-up and usage tips
Tip 1: Setting up your Virtual Cabinet Portal account
The first time you access the Virtual Cabinet Portal, you will need to set up a username and password. You should have received an email from ‘Parry Hancock’ notifying you that we have sent you some documents. In this email, there will be a link to activate your account.
Click on the link and follow the instructions to set up your account. The notification for setting up your username and password will expire in 5 days. This is unique and confidential to you, similar to you setting up any online user account. Don’t worry if in time you forget the password as there is a ‘forgotten password’ reset facility. The username will always be your email address.
When you first create your account, you will be asked to review and accept the Ts & Cs of the Portal provider. We have reviewed these and consider them to be standard terms of business, but of course please take the time to read them if you wish. You will only be asked once to tick and confirm you agree.
Please note: once you’ve created your account, you can log in to the client Portal at any time and view/send your documents by clicking on the link at the top of our website homepage www.parryhancock.co.uk. You will just need to enter your login details.
Tip 2: Authenticating your device
The first time you ‘sign’ a document on the Portal, you will be asked to authenticate yourself on the device that you’re using via an email authentication. This means you’ll receive an email which you’ll need to click on to confirm you are ‘you’.
Each time you use a different device, e.g. a tablet, smartphone or laptop, you will be asked to authenticate the device you are using. This is a security measure to ensure your username and password are not being used by anyone fraudulently.
Tip 3: Signing your documents
We may send you several documents in a ‘pack’, e.g. your tax return and accompanying computation and schedules. It is likely that we will only request certain documents in the pack to be electronically signed by you. When we request a signature, you’ll see the option to ‘sign’ or ‘decline’ that document at the top of the document. If we’ve not requested a signature, e.g. because we’ve sent you the computation for information, then you won’t be prompted to ‘sign’ the document.
We recommend you download your documents to your PC. You can do this by clicking on the icon in the bottom right-hand corner, which has an arrow pointing downwards. Documents have to be downloaded individually.
To exit the screen once you’ve actioned your documents, click on the little arrow in the top right-hand corner of the document. This will take you back to your Portal homepage which will list all of the documents you have been sent.
Tip 4: Sending us documents
Sending documents to us via the Portal is very simple, much like sending an email. Once you’ve logged into the Portal on the left-hand side of the screen, you will see a blue box which says ‘Compose’. Click this and select the recipient from the drop-down bar (please note: this will only display the names of recipients who have sent you documents, so you can’t manually type in an email address).
Type a message if necessary and click in the documents box to upload a document. Click send.
You can only send up to five documents at a time; so if you have quite a few to send, we would suggest creating a zip file. This way you can send as many documents as you like.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
The Team at Parry Hancock