An HTML report sent as an attachment is a file that may not open, may not render, and tells you nothing once it has gone. Sharing it as a link keeps the page a page — charts, layout and links all still working — and turns “did they read it?” into a question with an answer.
You send the monthly report on the first. By the tenth nobody has replied, and on the call someone asks a question the report answered in its second section. An attachment gives you nothing to go on, so the honest answer to “did they read it?” is that you have never once known.
One link per client, reused next month
Upload the report once, then create a separate link for each client. Every link can ask for an e-mail before it opens, carry a password, or expire on a date you set. When the engagement ends, revoke the link and the report goes dark — it stops being served, not merely hidden. Next month you replace the file rather than send a new link, so each client keeps one address all year and you keep one running record of their reading. The guide on updating a document after you have sent it covers what stays the same and what does not.
An e-mail the first time a client stays
On an ungated link, nothing is recorded until the visit has lasted five seconds, which drops quick bounces and most link previews. On a gated link the session starts when the client submits their e-mail. Either way you get one e-mail, on the first open, carrying the report title and whatever the gate knows about the reader, stamped in your own timezone. Opens it recognises as repeats stay silent; you read those off the dashboard.
ruth@yourclient.com just opened Q3 client report.
On the link for Ruth Osei.
Which parts of the report they actually read
A section only accumulates time once it has been at least half on screen for a continuous second, so a scroll-past shows as glanced with nothing against it. What is left tells you which half of the report is doing the work: nearly three minutes on what changed, nine seconds on the method notes. That is what to lead with next month, and what to stop writing.
Know the moment your proposal gets read.
You sent the proposal on Tuesday. It's Friday. Do you follow up, or is that pushy? If they spent four minutes on pricing yesterday, write this morning.
One proposal, one link per client
Upload the proposal once, then create a separate tracked link per recipient — the client, their finance lead, the partner who actually decides. Each link has its own gate: require an email, set a password, restrict to their company's email domain, or set an expiry. When the engagement closes (or goes cold), revoke the link and the document goes dark.
See which sections did the selling
Everyone who opens it at the gate appears by their own address, with the time they spent on each section. You see whether their finance lead ever reached pricing.
The SOW and the spreadsheet travel with it
Attach the files that go with it; readers download them from the page. Revise the proposal after a call and replace the file: the links you already sent serve the new version automatically.
Why HTML proposals?
Because that's what your tools produce now. Proposals drafted with Claude or ChatGPT, formatted as clean HTML pages, read beautifully on the client's phone — where a wide PDF makes them pinch and zoom. If you still need a file for procurement, attach the PDF; the tracked link stays the front door.
What is recorded, and what is not
Recorded: the e-mail address a client types at the gate if you asked for one, a random identifier stored in their browser, session start and active time, how far they scrolled, which sections they dwelled on, and coarse metadata — country and city derived from the address, browser and device, referrer.
Not recorded: the raw IP address, session replay, or anything at all from outside the document you uploaded. We never record what a reader types or where they point; we only count whether the page is being read. Links on the free tier carry a small “Sent with HTMLRadar” credit; paid links carry none. The full detail is on the privacy page, and you can open our public demo report to see exactly what a recipient sees before you send one of your own.