In the past, you’d send a fax only to be left wondering if it arrived or if the data got lost in the digital ether. Thankfully, these days you can see your fax’s precise status by using fax tracking.
Fax tracking takes classic technology and updates it for the digital age. With eFax, it’s easy to track your fax’s progress and have peace of mind your documents are safe and secure.
What is Fax Tracking?
Fax tracking is a way to monitor the status of a fax in real-time. It’s a simple yet effective process ensuring your fax was both sent and received. If there’s an error, the system can tell you precisely where it occurred, letting you pinpoint and troubleshoot the issue.
Managing incoming and outgoing faxes is far more efficient once you’ve implemented fax tracking. Through eFax, you will receive the following information:
- When you sent the fax
- The current status of the fax
- Any errors or delivery delays
- When it reaches the final destination
If an issue pops up, you’ll know right away. This will help ensure that confidential information isn’t lost or accidentally sent to unauthorized parties.
How to Monitor Fax Delivery
Monitoring your faxes is easy, but there are a few steps you should always follow to guarantee success.
Checking the Delivery Status of Your Online Faxes
Checking your fax’s status is a vital step in ensuring you sent it successfully. It’s also quite simple. You can see the status by checking eFax’s activity log or delivery status report. Unlike traditional fax machines that don’t track this data, your digital log will display a list of all incoming and outgoing faxes. It’s also available to you 24/7, so there won’t be any issues looking up information later.
If the fax was delivered, there should be a message to that effect, along with details on the name and fax number of the recipient.
If it wasn’t delivered, the system will notify you. You may also get a note about why, such as “no answer,” “busy,” or “unable to connect.”
Keep the activity log open while you send the fax to ensure your fax is delivered successfully.
Understanding Delivery Attempts and Their Implications
Usually, a sender will receive a notification about the delivery attempt. A delivery attempt is when a sender has tried to send the fax to a recipient. If it was delivered successfully on the first try, only one attempt should be in the activity log.
If there were any issues during delivery, the system will include details about what happened. For example, you might see several attempts in your log. When this happens, it means the system encountered an error and attempted a resend. Multiple of these notifications means the system continuously ran into a blockage of some sort.
There are many reasons a fax could encounter an error. There’s a chance of an issue on your end, such as a faulty internet connection. It could also mean something is wrong with the recipient’s fax system. These issues may be frustrating, but it’s possible to solve them with a simple phone call.
Calling the Recipient
If you encounter an error and confirm the issue is not on your end, the first thing to do is to call the recipient. Confirm their fax number and ensure your information is correct. If that’s not the issue, there may still be another simple solution. The recipient may need to turn on the machine, or they may have run out of credits with their online fax provider.
It may seem obvious, but ask them if they received the fax. It may have already transmitted even if your activity log is lacking a record of it.
Elements of Managing Faxes
Faxing is essential in many business settings. eFax makes managing them simple with its intuitive format and foolproof elements.
Organizing Outbound Faxes for Efficient Tracking
eFax provides you with a system to organize all your outbound transmissions. This is especially critical when dealing with confidential information. Should an issue occur with a fax, you can quickly look up its entry and review the recorded data.
Using a central logbook is an excellent way to keep track of your outbound faxes. This can be an Excel spreadsheet, a screenshot of your activity log, or another way to record the faxes you sent out on a particular day. At the least, it should include:
- Name
- Company
- Fax number
- Email address
- Time and date of fax
Keep this updated and mark when you confirm the fax was received.
With efax, this is all provided for you. You can utilize a folder system to organize by recipient, date, or subject, simplifying organization.
The key is to have a streamlined process for tracking. This way, you’ll never have to wonder what fax is where.
Handling Return Faxes and Their Impact on Fax Tracking
You’ll want to consider return faxes’ impact on your system. A return fax happens when a recipient does not receive the document or you send a fax to the correct email address or fax number.
Be sure to have a place in your system to record these faxes as well, as well as procedures for following up on the error.
Streamlining Business Faxes for Optimal Performance
Organize your system to prioritize efficiency. An easy-to-use, straightforward system will help ensure you send documents on time and nothing is lost.
The best way to do this is to use a dedicated fax server to send secure faxes via email. Online fax services like eFax ensure you send, receive, and track faxes with minimal chance of error.
Even the most basic fax services can handle a high volume of faxes, so you’ll never be slowed down if multiple team members send and receive faxes simultaneously.
Use Email Notifications to Keep You Informed
With email notifications, you can have status updates about your faxes sent right to your inbox. This is a great way to stay informed if anything goes wrong during transmission. It’s also an excellent backup log that you can organize within your email application.
Ensure a Smooth Online Fax Experience with eFax
If you want to get a head start on fax tracking, eFax is ready. Eliminate the need for a fax machine and the worry of information getting into the wrong hands. With comprehensive fax services, you’ll never worry about where your fax went again. Now’s the time to get on the fast track to fax tracking.
