How to Share LLC Documents With Your Accountant (Without Giving Away Everything Else)

The safest way to give your accountant access to an LLC’s documents is to share only the entities and document categories they need, keep it read-only wherever you can, and use a system that lets you see and remove that access later. Email attachments and shared-folder links do none of that.

What your accountant actually needs

It varies by engagement, but for most it’s the accounting records, tax filings and formation basics: what was filed, who owns the entity, and the supporting documents. They usually don’t need your legal correspondence, private notes, or documents about entities they don’t work on.

Write that list down before you share anything. It becomes your access policy.

Why “just send it” falls short

• Ordinary email isn’t protected end to end. Many providers encrypt messages as they travel between mail servers, but Google’s own explanation notes that this doesn’t encrypt email while it’s stored on a server, and that email can still be read after it’s delivered. It’s a letter sealed in transit and left open on the shelf at each end: your mailbox, your accountant’s, and every backup. Protecting the content itself is a separate step from securing the transmission, and NIST’s email guidance treats the two separately.
• Email attachments are copies. Once sent, you can’t update or recall them, and every forward creates another.
• A shared-folder link usually exposes the whole folder, not only the file you meant to share.
• Neither ties access to a specific entity. Access to “the folder” quietly covers every LLC in it.
• Neither tells you who can see what today. Taking access back means hunting down copies or changing links.

The rule: least access, per entity and per category

1. Share one entity at a time. Give access to the LLCs the accountant works on, not your whole portfolio.
2. Split documents by category. Accounting records, legal documents and owner-level documents shouldn’t sit in one bucket.
3. Default to read-only. Grant upload or edit rights only where the work requires it.
4. Review on a schedule. Check who has access once a year, and remove access when an engagement ends.

How role-based sharing works in Equipath

Equipath shares access entity by entity. Each person you share with gets a role, a preset bundle of permissions that covers two things: what they can do with the entity’s records, and what they can do in each of four document categories (General, Owner, Legal and Accounting).

Role	Entity records	Documents
Accounting	View only	General: view. Accounting: view, add, delete
Legal	View only	General: view. Legal: view, add, delete
Viewer	View only	General: view only
Full Access	View, edit, delete, manage sharing	Every category, full access
Custom	You choose	You choose, per category

For most accountants, Accounting is the right fit. They can look at the entity’s details, filings and officers without changing anything, work with the Accounting documents, and read the General ones. They can see how the entity connects to other owners, but ownership percentages are visible only to Full Access users, so if your accountant needs them you’ll have to provide them another way. They can’t see Owner or Legal documents, and they can’t change who else has access.

Avoid giving an accountant Full Access. Any Full Access user can change or remove other people’s access, including yours. For the full permissions matrix, see Understanding roles and permissions.

Sharing is available on Premium entities. The compliance calendar, filings and ownership mapping are part of the free core.

Set it up in five steps

1. Make sure the entity is on Premium, since sharing is a Premium feature.
2. Open the Sharing tab and click Share Entities.
3. Select the entity, enter your accountant’s email address, and choose a role. For most accountants, that’s Accounting.
4. Confirm with Share Entities.
5. Log in once more after your accountant creates their account. Until you do, they’ll see a “share pending” message rather than the entity. Tell them to expect it.

What happens to the encryption when you share

When you share an entity, your browser wraps a copy of the entity’s encryption key for your accountant, using their public key. Equipath stores that wrapped copy, and your accountant’s browser uses it to decrypt what they’ve been given access to. The entity’s data isn’t re-encrypted, and your own account key isn’t handed over.

Because your browser does the wrapping, the share can only finish while you’re signed in. That’s why you have to log in once more after your accountant creates their account: Equipath’s servers can’t complete it for you. Your accountant doesn’t need to be online for this, only to have an account.

Before you share: a five-point check

• Which entities does your accountant work on, and only those?
• Which document categories do they need?
• Is read-only enough, or do they need to add documents?
• Have you told them what they’ll see while the share is pending?
• When will you review this access, or remove it?

Removing access

Open the share for that person, choose Remove Access, and confirm. Do it when the engagement ends, not when you remember. Because your accountant holds their own wrapped copy of the key, removing access deletes that copy and ends their access in Equipath right away, but it can’t reach anything they’ve already decrypted or downloaded.

Frequently asked questions

Is it safe to email my accountant documents? Many providers encrypt messages between mail servers, but ordinary email isn’t encrypted end to end, and it sits readable in each mailbox, backup and forward. For anything sensitive, such as tax returns, ownership records or identifiers, it’s better to share through a system that controls who can see what. If you do have to email, ask your accountant which secure options they support.

Can my accountant edit my entity records? No. The Accounting role is view-only for entity records. They can view, add and delete documents in the Accounting category, and view General documents.

Can my accountant see my legal documents? No. Accounting sees General and Accounting documents only, so Owner and Legal documents stay hidden. The Legal role works the same way for an attorney, with Legal documents in place of Accounting ones.

What if my accountant works on several of my LLCs? Sharing is set up entity by entity, so you can share the ones they work on and leave the rest.

Do I need Premium? Sharing is available on Premium entities. Core features, including the compliance calendar and ownership mapping, are free.