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Sending Word and Excel files to a lawyer, accountant or tax adviser: what to clean first

Last updated: 25 October 2026

This page is about files you send to your own professional adviser. Files you send to your clients, by the kind of work you do, are in before you send an Office file to a client. ScrubDrop does not give legal or tax advice; what your adviser needs is for them to say.

First: do they need the original?

Cleaning changes the file. Microsoft's Document Inspector page recommends running it "on a copy of your original document, because it is not always possible to restore the data that the Document Inspector removes". In the Excel desktop app, breaking a link to another workbook "cannot be undone", says Manage workbook links.

The properties, the tracked changes and the comments can be part of what an adviser is looking at: who wrote a document and when, which version was sent, what was changed. So before you clean anything:

1. Keep the file as you have it, unchanged, and do any cleaning on a copy.
2. If the file is about a dispute, a claim, an investigation, an audit or questions from a tax authority, ask your adviser whether they want the original, a cleaned copy or both. If they want the original, send it as it is.
3. If you send both, name them so that nobody mixes them up, and say in your message which is which.

What to take out

Author, company and the other properties

Microsoft's page Change the author name says that "every time you create a new document, Word sets the Author property based on the User name setting", and that the same setting "provides the name and initials that are displayed in comments and tracked changes". The Document Inspector page adds that Office keeps "the name of the person who most recently saved a document and the date when a document was created". A copy you send to your accountant can therefore name the user name set on a work computer, a colleague who started the file, or the company in your Office settings. For the company, manager, template and custom properties, see Word's company, manager, template and custom properties.

Tracked changes and comments

A draft you have discussed with colleagues keeps that discussion. Microsoft's page Accept or reject tracked changes in Word warns that choosing No Markup "only temporarily hides changes. They will be visible again the next time someone opens the document." Accept or reject them, and delete the comments, or decide that your adviser should see them (below).

Hidden sheets and the data in them

A workbook you send for a tax return or a valuation is often a copy of the one you work in, and it can hold sheets for other years, other people or other businesses. Microsoft's page Hide or unhide worksheets notes that sheets hidden as very hidden are not shown by the Unhide command. How to find them is in hidden sheets, names and personal information.

Links to other workbooks, and folder names

A formula that reads another workbook keeps a reference such as C:\Reports\[Budget.xlsx], the example on Microsoft's Manage workbook links page. Breaking the link, the same page says, converts the formulas that use it "to their current values". Excel can also record the folder a workbook was saved in: Microsoft's specification of the absPath element ([MS-XLSX]) describes it as "the absolute path to the workbook". A path can show your user name, the name of a shared drive, or a folder named after another client or matter. More on these paths is in full paths in Excel links.

What to leave in

• The text and the figures. Removing hidden data should not change what your adviser reads. Compare the copy with the original page by page before you send it.
• The formulas, in a workbook they will check. An accountant who checks a calculation needs to see how each figure was reached. In Excel, breaking a link turns the formulas that use it into their current values, and a sheet you delete may be one that formulas still read. If a link has to go, tell your adviser which figures came from another workbook, or send that workbook too.
• The comments that are meant for them. If you have questions about a figure or a clause, put them in a comment you wrote for this copy, or in your message, after the internal comments are gone.
• Your changes to their draft, if they asked for them. When a lawyer sends you a draft and wants your changes marked, leave your tracked changes in, and check the name they show. If they want a comparison of two versions instead, Word can make one, by default as a new document: Microsoft's page Compare document differences using the legal blackline option says "the documents that are being compared are not changed".

Name the file for the person who receives it

The file name travels with the file and is the first thing your adviser sees. Name it for what it is, for example the subject, the period and a version or date. Leave out internal labels, the names of other clients or matters, and notes such as "draft for the partner". Microsoft's page on naming files lists the characters Windows does not allow in a name, < > : " / \ | ? *, and says not to end a name with a space or a period. If you send an original and a cleaned copy, say so in each name.

Check the copy before you send it

1. Open the copy you are about to send, not the one you worked in.
2. File › Info: read the author, the last saved by and the other properties; open Advanced Properties for the Summary and Custom tabs.
3. Word: the Review tab should show no tracked changes and no comments that you meant to remove. Excel: the Comments pane and the notes, every sheet, and the Unhide list.
4. Excel: Data › Workbook Links should list only the workbooks you meant to keep.
5. On Windows, run Document Inspector (File › Info › Check for Issues › Inspect Document) on the copy, and read what it says it finds but cannot remove.
6. To look for paths, rename a copy to .zip, unzip it, and search every part for C:\, \\, absPath and your user name.

What ScrubDrop does

ScrubDrop reads .docx, .xlsx and .pptx files in your browser; the file is not uploaded. For free, one file at a time, it lists every kind of hidden data on this page that it finds, and removes the document properties, including the folder a workbook was saved in, removes the comments, and accepts the tracked changes. Removing hidden sheets, links to other files, defined names and the other categories, rejecting tracked changes or choosing them by author, is part of ScrubDrop Pro. When Pro removes a hidden sheet, hidden rows or columns, a defined name or a link, every formula on the sheets that stay becomes its last saved value, so the figures stay as they were but the workbook no longer recalculates. If your accountant needs the formulas, remove only what the free version removes, or make the change in Excel and tell them. The path of a Word document's attached template is removed with the links to other files, in Pro.

Each kind it can remove has a tick box. If your adviser wants your tracked changes or comments, untick them before you clean the file; otherwise the free version removes the comments and accepts the changes.

The result is read again by software separate from the one that wrote it, and a file that does not pass is not offered. ScrubDrop keeps your file's name and adds "-scrubbed"; rename it before you send it. It does not decide whether your adviser should have the original, and it does not judge what is written on the page.

Questions

Sources: the Microsoft pages linked on this page were checked on 25 October 2026. ScrubDrop is not affiliated with Microsoft.