Why seal your documents, and what the seal lets a client check
Quotes, invoices and contracts travel as PDFs that anyone can edit or copy. A seal gives the person receiving one a way to check it against what you actually issued.
On this page4 sections
At a glance
- What it covers
- PDFs, quotes, invoices and other financial documents
- Who checks it
- The recipient, in a web browser, with no account
- What it compares
- The document in the recipient's hand against the record you issued
A PDF looks final. It is not. Anyone who can open one can change an amount or a bank account number, and a copy of a real invoice looks exactly like the real thing.
The problem a seal solves
Imagine you send a client an invoice for R 12,450.00. Somebody changes the amount and the bank account on a copy of it and sends that to the client instead. The layout is yours, the logo is yours, and the invoice number is yours.
Nothing on the page tells your client which one is real. That is the gap a seal fills.
What the seal does
When you seal a document, Authentikor keeps a signed record of what you issued. The seal on the document leads to that record. When the recipient checks it, they see what the seal was issued for, next to what is in their hand.
| Detail | Issued | In the recipient's hand |
|---|---|---|
| Invoice | INV-2026-0142 | INV-2026-0142 |
| Amount | R 12,450.00 | R 92,450.00 |
| Bank account | ending 4821 | ending 7730 |
This is an example. The invoice number matches, and the amount and the bank account do not, so the difference stands out.
What you do
Issue the document from your Authentikor account, with the seal on it.
Send it the way you always do.
Your client checks it at authentikor.co.za/verify, or by giving the file to the file check.
Your client needs nothing installed and no account. The check runs in a web browser.
Where it fits
Sealing suits the documents where a changed detail costs real money: quotes, invoices, contracts, letters. It works alongside the verification codes on your emails. See document sealing for what is covered, or request a demo to see it with your own documents.