FileInvite started for small firms.
It’s moved on. FileRequest hasn’t.

FileInvite was built for mortgage brokers. It’s now built for banks.

FileInvite is a New Zealand-based platform that started as a document collection tool for mortgage brokers and small financial services firms. For years it served that market reasonably well — simple portals, automated reminders, template support.

But FileInvite has since pivoted. Their website today describes the product as “a document collection platform designed specifically for commercial and complex lending.” Their case studies reference SBA loans, construction financing, and commercial real estate. Their homepage hero talks about reducing loan cycle times and processing 12 months of loan volume in two months.

This is enterprise commercial lending software. Not a tool for a sole accountant sending tax return requests to 50 clients.

One Capterra reviewer said plainly: “The software was great, but just not customised to my profession enough. And I know it isn’t meant to be for accountants.”

FileRequest was built for Australian professional services firms from day one — accountants, bookkeepers, mortgage brokers, conveyancers, financial advisers. That is the entire focus. There is no pivot happening.

Your clients open a portal that looks like it came from your firm. Not from 2015.

Most document collection tools look the same. White background. Generic upload button. Stock logo placeholder. A colour scheme that was designed once and never touched again. They work. But they don’t impress.

FileRequest portals are different. A rich dark gradient background, your initials or logo centred at the top, your name and firm displayed in clean serif typography, masked sensitive fields so clients feel secure entering their TFN or other sensitive data. Every element considered. Every interaction deliberate.

When your client clicks the link in your email, they land on something that looks like it was built by a premium fintech company — and it has your name on it.

This matters more than it sounds. In professional services, every touchpoint is a signal about how you run your practice. A polished, modern portal tells your client: this firm has their act together. A generic white form with a stock upload button tells them something else entirely.

The portal your clients see is fully customisable — six background themes out of the box, your logo, your colours, your sender name, your role, and your contact details all displayed at the top. On Practice and Firm plans, the FileRequest badge is removed entirely. Your clients never know what’s running behind the scenes. As far as they’re concerned, your firm built this.

No other tool in this category comes close. ContentSnare, UseCollect, and FileInvite all use the same white-box approach — a plain form that looks like every other SaaS product from the last decade. FileRequest portals look like 2026.

“A portal that looks this good doesn’t just collect documents. It tells your clients everything about how you run your practice.”

FileInvite’s pricing: contact sales. FileRequest’s pricing: right here.

FileInvite does not publish transparent pricing for professional services users. Their plans page for lending customers shows annual prices ranging from $829 to $2,499 per year — plus one-time setup costs that “vary depending on the size and complexity of your implementation.” If you want to know your actual price, you contact sales.

For a sole practitioner accountant or small firm, that process alone is a red flag. You shouldn’t need a sales call to find out if you can afford a document collection tool.

FileRequest pricing is on the website, in AUD, with no hidden fees and no setup costs. Solo plan: $65 AUD per month billed annually. Practice plan: $124 AUD per month. Firm plan: $207 AUD per month. That’s it. No contact sales. No surprises.

Multiple FileInvite reviewers have flagged the cost as a problem. One GetApp reviewer noted: “Price is a little expensive to just receive files.” Another said plainly: “In my opinion, stay away from, it’s expensive rubbish.”

Your clients find it complicated. That’s a problem.

The point of a document collection tool is to make it easy for your clients to submit what you need. If clients find the portal confusing, you’re back to chasing them — which is exactly the problem you were trying to solve.

FileInvite reviewers are consistent on this point. One TrustRadius reviewer noted: “Some clients have voiced their concerns about how complicated the system is on their end. It feels like it is more complicated than it needs to be.” Another flagged that clients complain about too many automated emails — reminders continuing even after clients have already started submitting.

FileRequest is designed so that a client who is not tech-savvy can receive an email, click a link, upload their documents, and submit — without confusion, without creating an account, and without needing a tutorial. That’s the bar. Everything is designed around that client experience.

Tax season means 200 requests. Not 200 individual invites.

During the Australian tax season, you’re not sending one request. You’re sending the same request — personalised with each client’s name and details — to your entire client list.

FileInvite’s workflow requires creating individual invites per client. There is no native bulk sending — no CSV upload, no mail merge, no one-click send to your full client list.

FileRequest has bulk sending built in to the Practice plan and above. Upload a CSV, map your fields, and send personalised requests to your entire client list in one action. Each client receives their own private portal, their own unique secure link, and their own reminder schedule. Built specifically for the Australian tax calendar and high-volume compliance periods.

FileInvite’s branding options are limited. FileRequest’s are included.

FileInvite offers branded client portals, but reviewers have noted that customisation options are limited compared to bespoke systems. One ITQlick analysis flagged “limited customisation options for branding” as a key weakness.

On FileRequest, every client portal displays your firm name, your logo, and your colours from the Solo plan. On Practice and Firm plans you can remove the FileRequest badge entirely — your clients never know what tool is running behind the scenes. Emails go out under your name from your domain. Your brand, front and centre, at every tier.

Built for New Zealand and US lending. Not for Australian tax season.

FileInvite is headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand, and its enterprise pivot is oriented toward the US commercial lending market — SBA loans, community banks, credit unions.

FileRequest is built in Adelaide, Australia, by an Australian founder, for Australian professional services firms. All data is stored in the ap-southeast-2 region — Sydney, Australia — in compliance with the Australian Privacy Act 1988. Pricing is in AUD. The reminder and due date system is designed around the Australian tax calendar. Xero Practice Manager, Karbon, and FYI Docs integrations are on the roadmap.

When you send a request using FileRequest, your client receives an email that looks like it came from your firm, with an Australian date format, linking to a portal branded to your firm. No confusion. No “what is FileInvite?” moments.

Where FileInvite has the advantage

We believe in being honest about this.

• E-signature — FileInvite has built-in e-signature functionality. FileRequest doesn’t have this yet — it’s on the roadmap. If collecting signed contracts alongside documents is critical to your workflow today, FileInvite has that capability.
• SOC 2 Type 2 certification — FileInvite is independently certified for information security. FileRequest uses enterprise-grade infrastructure with encryption and Australian data residency, but hasn’t yet pursued formal certification.
• Enterprise lending workflows — If you work in commercial lending and need multi-party document collection across complex loan transactions, FileInvite has genuinely purpose-built features for that use case.
• Established product — FileInvite has been around longer and has a larger existing customer base. If product longevity matters to your evaluation, that’s worth noting.

For most Australian accountants, mortgage brokers, conveyancers, and financial advisers, none of these advantages outweigh the pricing opacity, the client-side complexity complaints, the lack of bulk sending, and the fact that FileInvite’s product direction is moving away from your use case entirely. FileRequest was built for exactly where FileInvite is leaving.

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