Getting help with Pinsta

You are in the right place, but we cannot help you directly, and deliberately so.

The password on that document belongs to your accountant, not to us. Pinsta never sees it and has no way to recover or reset it. Ask the practice that sent you the file and they can read your code out to you in seconds.

You do not need a Pinsta account and you do not need to install anything. The file opens in whatever you normally use, once you type the password in.

Three things have to be true before Pinsta can lock anything, and the app tells you which one is outstanding.

Installed — the Pinsta icon is in your Chrome toolbar. Signed in — open it from the toolbar and sign in with the same account you use on the web. A folder chosen — open it and press "Turn on automatic locking", then pick a folder.

That last one catches most people. Chrome will not let an extension write anywhere on your computer until you have pointed at a folder yourself, so until you do, Pinsta has nowhere to put a locked file.

The page notices as soon as each step is done. You should not need to reload it.

Almost always the folder. Automatic locking saves the locked copy into the folder you chose, and if Chrome has since withdrawn that permission there is nowhere for it to go.

Open the extension. If it says Automatic locking is off, choose the folder again and pick "Allow on every visit" when Chrome asks.

If it tells you where your files are being saved, the folder is fine and it is something else. The two usual causes are a client with no PIN set yet, which a manager or an administrator can fix in the Clients list, or a page Pinsta does not cover.

Xero, Karbon and QuickBooks Online. The extension runs only on those and does nothing anywhere else, which is why it asks for access to them by name rather than to every site you visit.

For anything they did not produce, a payroll PDF somebody emailed you or a signed set of accounts, use Lock a file on your Pinsta home page or in the extension. PDF, Word and Excel.

Two-factor authentication is required on every account, so you will need your authenticator app. If you have lost it, an administrator at your practice can reset your second factor from the team list and you can enrol again.

If an invitation link has stopped working, ask whoever invited you to press Resend. Invitation links work once and do not last long, and some email systems open them before you do.

Nothing will lock for that client until one exists. Anyone at the practice can see which clients are missing one in the Clients list.

Setting or changing a PIN is a manager or administrator job. Changing one does not alter documents you have already sent: those keep the PIN they were locked with, which is what encryption means.

Write to secure@pinsta.co.uk. A person reads it, and we aim to answer within one working day.

If you are reporting a fault it helps enormously to say which accounting software you were in, what you were trying to download, and what happened instead.

If you think you have found a security problem, please tell us there and give us a chance to fix it before saying anything publicly. We will keep you posted and credit you if you would like us to.