David

If it is a choice between compression or encryption I would choose encryption as I have an ADSL link. Encryption is a good idea especially if you are using the mail server as offline backup rather than just mailing the backup to another computer as I am currently doing.

John

The receipts would indeed be in PDF, and starting in the next version, I am going to put a modification password on them, so that even with Adobe Acrobat you will not be able to modify them without knowing that password, which I will not give out.

When I do add a mass-emailing feature for receipts, it will certainly have to address the issue of some people having email addresses and some not. My current thought is that you will be able to display them all, and tell it to email those it can, and print the rest. Alternatively you might be able to selectively display receipts only for people with email addresses (that you will then mass email) and or only for those those without email addresses (which you will print and mail).

If I were you I wouldn’t waste my time with this email scheme. First off, email is not a very secure medium. We often read about email compromises, etc. If you want an off-site backup, what’s wrong with the following manual and relatively easy methods:
1. burn a CD/DVD or copy to a USB stick and take it home
2. transfer over the internet to another computer you control and have remote access to (I do this daily)

I can see the usefulness to some organizations of mass emailing receipts. The receipts would have to be in .pdf format so that they are reproduced consistently by different printers and so they cannot be tampered with by the average person. Note, however, that anyone with the “full” version of Adobe can tamper with them. For our ministry, this method is not practical as we do not have email addresses for most donors and some donors just don’t have email. I’ll continue to stick to mail merges and “snail mail”.

Klaus Schmidsrauter

I am already attaching a backup file for offsite backup (to a Canadian ISP of course!). I do not do any compression as the file is only 2.5mg. Also, sending PDF receipts on request usually to accountants handling donors’ tax returns.
It is a bit tedious but not difficult to do manually, so a built-in facility would be welcome.

John.

While there are some issues, mostly they are taken care of by the software, and the Help in the next version will explain the outstanding ones.

Approval is definitely not needed to use what I call a bitmap signature and the CRA calls a facsimile signature. The program already allows for this, on printed receipts, in any case.

And I am not aware that there is any requirement to track reissued receipts, with the same number. Since the CRA does allow emailing of receipts, and obviously such receipts can be printed multiple times by the recipients, it seems this is not a concern for them.

But definitely thank you for raising these concerns!

The mass mailing of letters or receipts sounds interesting, but I wonder if mailing receipts presents a problem when it comes to the signature on the receipt. To have a preprinted signature (through the computer) I believe you need approval from Canada Revenue Agency, but it is not impossible.

My other concern is that some of the people to whom you email the receipt will have printers rated from good to bad, and will CRA approve them if the printed copy is poor? Also the people will be able to print off the receipt as many times as they like, which means we no longer have control of reissued receipts due to loss or destroyed receipts. Presently I have to keep a record of all reissued receipts.
Robert

David