The paperwork behind a side business

Two kinds of business paper

A side business makes two kinds of documents, and they need different handling.

This page is about the first column. The small business receipts page covers the second.

1. Gather the identity papers once

Most side businesses collect some of these:

• business registration or a trading name certificate,
• a licence or permit for food, childcare, tutoring, events or street trading,
• public liability or product insurance certificate,
• your tax or business number,
• the photo ID you used to verify a payment processor or seller account,
• a bank letter showing the business account.

2. Make a business stack

1. One stack, named for the business, with a sub-stack for each kind of paper. Stacks and sub-stacks keep your vault organized. The free plan allows a few sub-stacks. On the free plan you can make up to 3 sub-stacks, and Sealed Pro has no limit.
2. Scan paper certificates; import PDFs that arrived by email. Sealed scans with Apple’s own document scanner, which finds the edges of the page, straightens it and captures several pages in a row, and Sealed turns the pages into one PDF in your vault. A PDF or other file that is not a photo, video or audio file becomes a document in the vault, with a thumbnail that is sealed too, and you find it under Documents.
3. Lock the stack if the phone is ever used by family. Each stack can have its own lock, and stack locks are part of Sealed Pro.

3. Track the expiry dates

Permits and insurance lapse quietly, often the week of your busiest market. For each document, make a custom record with the number and expiry date in fields. Records keep logins, 2FA codes, credit cards, bank accounts, IDs and passports, Wi-Fi networks, recovery codes, license keys, contacts and custom fields. Keep payment-platform logins and their two-factor codes there too, so they aren’t in a notes app. 2FA codes stay live in the vault and are ready to copy.

Put the renewal dates in your calendar as well; a vault doesn’t send reminders for them.

4. Send copies only where asked

Venues, councils and payment platforms ask for documents through their own systems. Export the file they want and upload it there. Viewing and exporting your own photos is always free.

• Never post a licence or ID in a social media chat, even to a customer asking for proof.
• Send the least you can: a certificate page, not the whole policy.
• Write down who has what in a note: the venue, the date, the document. Secure notes are sealed like everything else in the vault.

5. When something changes

New address, new insurer, closing the business: replace the old certificates, update the records, and delete what’s out of date. Old IDs and permits still carry your details. Removed items can be restored for a while before they’re gone. Recently Deleted keeps anything you remove for 30 days before it is gone for good.

For clean scans of your own ID, see the ID scanning guide.

Where Sealed helps, and where it doesn’t

It helps keep licences, permits and ID copies in one place behind a passcode, with numbers and dates in records. Sealed has a passcode of its own, a gate inside the app that is separate from your iPhone passcode. Records keep logins, 2FA codes, credit cards, bank accounts, IDs and passports, Wi-Fi networks, recovery codes, license keys, contacts and custom fields.

It helps send exactly one document when a platform asks. Viewing and exporting your own photos is always free.

It doesn’t remind you of renewals or file anything with an authority. Sealed is a private photo vault for the photos, videos and documents you’d rather not keep in your camera roll.

It doesn’t keep documents or records on the free plan. On the free plan you can add photos. Videos, documents, notes and records need Sealed Pro.