By now we are all aware that the POPIA regulations have come into effect and that our practices have to be compliant. With the strong emphasis on the protection of personal information we have included the option to encrypt and password protect invoices sent from smeMetrics. 

This function will give your clients the peace of mind that no one else can access their information that is sent via email.

To activate this feature you will need to follow the below steps.

Go to settings/ My invoice info and scroll down to the section called "Encrypt PDF Configuration"


Encrypt Contact PDF's (i.e. Invoices and Statements) ::
This setting lets the system know that it needs to encrypt all invoices and statements sent out, if this is not checked then invoices and statements will be sent without encryption.


Exclude Medical Aid PDF's::
It is important to tick this option if you are using encrypted invoices as the medical aid schemes will not be able to open your paper claims if they are encrypted, this setting is just to ensure that the system knows not to encrypt the invoices emailed to the medical aid schemes.


Encrypt PDF Password Pattern ::
You will need to enter the encryption password configuration so that the system knows what the password on the invoices and statement must be set to.

  1. %conFirstName% this will mean that the password to the PDF document is the patients first name. 
  2. %conLastName% this will mean that the password to the PDF document is the patients last name. 
  3. %conContactNumber% this will mean that the password to the PDF is the patients file number as per smemetrics. Eg :: C000012
  4. %conEmail% this will mean that the password to the PDF is the email address that is listed in the notifications section of the patients contact information.
  5. %conCellPhone% this will mean that the password to the PDF is the cellphone number that is listed in the notifications section of the patients contact information.
  6. %conIdNumber% this will mean that the password for the PDF is the patient's ID number. 

It is important to note that is the chosen variable is empty on the clients contact information that the PDF documents will not be encrypted as the system will have no information to link back to. 

Once you have updated your encryption settings it is vital that you update your email templates so that when your clients receive an invoice or statement that they know how to open the PDF attachments. To update your mail templates you will need to follow the below steps. 

Updating your mail templates ::

Go to settings/ my mail templates and you will need to update a few templates. 


You need to select the template group :: I would advise to simply add a line to the email template advising the client that the PDF is encrypted and that they need to use the password to open the document. Once you have added the line you can save. 




For more info on updating your mail templates please click here.