Short version: Tallyfor can't read a PDF that's locked with a password, so it now stops you at upload instead of letting the file break your binder later. If a locked file does reach finalize, Tallyfor tells you which file it is by name. Remove the password from the PDF, re-upload it, and finalize again.
Why password-protected PDFs are a problem
Bank and brokerage statements are the usual culprits. Many institutions email statements as encrypted PDFs — the file opens fine in Acrobat or Preview once you type the password, but the password travels with the file. Anything that needs to read the PDF's pages without a human present, including Tallyfor's binder assembly, sees an unreadable file.
This matters at finalize, because that's the step where Tallyfor stitches your trial balance report together with every document attached to the binder into one PDF. One unreadable document is enough to stop the assembly.
What happens now at upload
Password-protected PDFs are caught at the point of upload, so the problem never gets into the binder in the first place. This applies both to the normal document upload and to dragging and dropping files onto workpapers.
When you try to add one, Tallyfor declines the file and shows a toast telling you the PDF is password-protected. Nothing is attached, and the rest of a multi-file selection is unaffected — you only need to deal with the file that was blocked.
What happens now at finalize
Documents attached before this change, or files that are damaged rather than encrypted, can still fail when the binder is assembled. Finalize now handles that cleanly.
Previously, binder assembly would sit on the "Assembling your binder…" spinner and never come back — a healthy-but-slow finalize and a permanently stuck one looked identical. Now the spinner clears and you get a message that names the file:
Chase Southwest 01-14-2026.pdf is password-protected or unreadable — remove or replace that file, then finalize again.
Because the message carries the file name, you can go straight to the document rather than opening attachments one at a time to find the bad one.
How to fix a locked PDF
You need a copy of the file without the password. Any of these works — use whichever your firm already has:
Re-download without the password. Most bank portals let you download statements directly, and portal downloads are usually unencrypted even when the emailed copy isn't. This is the cleanest option.
Save an unprotected copy. Open the PDF, enter the password, then use your PDF tool's security or permissions settings to remove password protection and save a new copy.
Print to PDF. Open the PDF, enter the password, then print it to a new PDF. The new file carries no password.
Then, in Tallyfor:
Delete the locked attachment from the binder or workpaper.
Upload the unprotected copy in its place.
Finalize the binder again.
A note on client data. Removing the password produces a file with no encryption of its own, so handle it the way you'd handle any other client document. Files in Tallyfor are protected by your workspace's access controls, and if your firm routes finalized binders to Google Drive or Dropbox, they land in the folder you configured.
Common questions
Can I just give Tallyfor the password?
No — Tallyfor doesn't ask for or store document passwords. Upload an unprotected copy instead.
My file isn't password-protected, but I still got the error.
The same message covers PDFs that can't be read for other reasons — a truncated download, a corrupted scan, or a file that isn't really a PDF despite its extension. Opening it in your own PDF reader is the quickest test. If it opens fine for you and Tallyfor still rejects it, send it to our support team with the binder name.
I have older binders with locked attachments in them. Do I need to fix them now?
Only when you next finalize one. Nothing else in the binder is affected — the trial balance, reports, and exports don't read attachment contents.
Related
Need help?
If you're stuck on a finalize that won't complete, send our support team the binder name and the file name from the error message and we'll take a look.