Freelancers and small businesses reuse documents: last year’s proposal becomes this year’s, a contract is adapted from a template, an invoice is copied from another client’s. Every reuse can carry the previous client’s name, an old price, or the file path of another project. These slips are common and avoidable.
Where the leak hides
- Properties: title, subject and keywords often hold the previous client’s name.
- Template path and author: show the folder structure and who wrote the original.
- Tracked changes and comments: earlier negotiation wording and internal notes.
- Spreadsheet sheets and links: hidden sheets with other clients’ data, and links to files on your drive.
- Metadata in PDFs: the creator program and the dates, which may contradict what you say about timing.
A routine before you send
- Search the document text for the old client’s name and any old figures.
- Accept or reject every tracked change and delete comments.
- In spreadsheets, look for hidden sheets and break external links.
- Export to PDF for anything the client does not need to edit.
- Clean the final file: PDF or Document.
- Check it in the File Metadata Viewer, and send.
Dates can contradict you
A contract dated last month inside a file created last week is not a crime, but it invites questions. Created and modified dates are in the file, and so are the hours a document was edited. If dates matter, make sure the visible date and the file are consistent, or remove the file dates.
If you handle many documents, the batch cleaning guide explains how to process whole folders, and the API can clean files automatically as part of your workflow.