Fax

What fax does here

Send and receive faxes through the platform without a fax machine. Two modes:

• Inbound — someone faxes one of your DIDs; you get a PDF in your inbox and on the dashboard
• Outbound — you upload a PDF and a destination number; the platform faxes it for you

The whole thing operates on PDF-based "virtual fax." No actual modem in the loop.

Where fax lives

Top nav → Fax. The page has these sub-views:

• Inbox — received faxes
• Sent — outbound history
• Compose — send a new fax
• Contacts — saved fax destinations
• Settings — per-DID fax configuration

Inbox

Lists received faxes:

• From — sender phone number
• Received — date/time
• Pages — page count
• Status — New / Read
• Actions: View PDF, Download, Mark Read, Delete

Click any row to view the PDF inline.

By default, received faxes also email to a configured address (set in Settings below). So you usually don't need to live in the inbox — faxes show up as email attachments.

Sending a fax

Click Compose. Form fields:

• From — pick a fax-capable DID from the dropdown
• To — recipient fax number, or pick from Contacts
• Subject — optional, appears on cover sheet
• Notes — optional, appears on cover sheet
• Cover Sheet — toggle on to generate a cover sheet automatically (with To, From, Subject, Page Count, Date)
• File — upload the PDF to send

Click Send Fax. The fax is queued. Status appears in the Sent tab as "Sending" → "Delivered" or "Failed."

Cover sheet template

If Cover Sheet is on, the platform generates a single-page cover with:

• To — recipient name + number
• From — your tenant name + DID
• Subject — what you typed
• Notes — what you typed
• Total Pages (including cover)
• Date — auto-filled

If you want a custom cover template, you can upload your own under Settings → Cover Sheet Template.

Supported file formats

PDF is preferred. The platform also accepts:

• TIFF (single or multi-page)
• PNG / JPG (single page)
• DOCX (converted to PDF on upload)

For best results, upload PDF directly. Page size is preserved; resolution is downscaled to 200 DPI for faxing (fax standard).

Page size and orientation

Letter (8.5"x11") is standard. Legal and A4 are accepted. Mixed-page-size documents may render unexpectedly — convert to a single page size before sending.

Landscape orientation works but reduces the fax-resolution effective area. Portrait is recommended.

Sent

Lists every outbound fax with:

• Date/time sent
• To
• Subject
• Pages
• Status (Sending / Delivered / Failed)
• Failure reason (if failed)
• Actions: View PDF, Resend, Delete

Common failure reasons:

• Number busy — recipient's fax was busy. Auto-retried up to 3 times.
• No answer — recipient's fax didn't pick up
• Tone mismatch — destination wasn't actually a fax machine, or was an old machine that didn't handshake
• Carrier reject — destination carrier blocked the number

Resend manually if needed.

Contacts

A saved list of frequent recipients:

• Name
• Fax number
• Company

Click Add Contact to create. Manage in bulk via CSV import (Settings → Bulk Import Contacts).

When composing, autocomplete the To field with contact names.

Per-DID fax settings

Settings sub-tab. For each DID with fax enabled:

• Inbound email address — comma-separated emails that receive incoming faxes as PDF attachments
• Subject prefix — text added to the email subject line (e.g., "[FAX]")
• Auto-acknowledge — send a confirmation back to the sender after receipt

To enable fax on a DID that doesn't have it yet: contact your service provider. Not all carriers support fax; toll-free numbers usually don't.

Sending a fax from email

If your service provider has email-to-fax configured, you can send a fax by emailing a special address:

• To — [recipient_number]@fax.[your-provider].com
• Subject — fax subject
• Body — cover sheet notes
• Attachment — the PDF to fax

The platform receives the email, validates the sender (must come from an authorized address), and sends the fax.

This pattern is convenient for tools that already produce PDFs (invoicing software, contract management) — they send the fax automatically.

Reading a faxed PDF

Click View on any inbox row. The PDF opens in a viewer. Click Download to save locally.

For inbound faxes that arrive as email attachments, use whatever PDF viewer your email client provides.

Why fax is still a thing

Healthcare (HIPAA), legal (ESIGN), and government processes often still mandate fax. Platform-fax replaces a clunky physical machine with a pure-digital workflow that's faster and more searchable.

If your industry doesn't require fax, you probably don't need this feature. Use email instead.

Common pitfalls

• Not enabling fax on the DID — you try to send, get an error. Fax must be explicitly enabled per-DID.
• PDF too large — multi-page color PDFs can be > 50MB and time out. Compress or split before sending.
• Wrong destination number format — use 11-digit format (+15015551234), not parenthesized form
• Spam-blocked destination — some carriers aggressively block unknown fax numbers. If a destination consistently fails, it may be blacklisting your DID.