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Send a Fax Manually

  1. Access the Send a Fax Page
  2. Complete the Fax Information Fields
  3. Select the Files to Fax
  4. Configure Barcodes
  5. Track the Status of Your Sent Fax
  6. Resending Failed Faxes

Access the Send a Fax Page

To access the Send Fax page, click the “Send Fax” tab or the Send Fax button from the Sent Fax related list. The related Lookup field will automatically populate with the related record and the “Fax To Object” field will populate with the related record’s base object. If you have not yet configured this, follow the steps in our Opero Fax Basic Configuration article. Next, you will manually complete the rest of the fields in the Fax Information section.

Complete the Fax Information Fields

The Fax Information Section contains the following fields pertaining to the Sent Fax record: 

  • Fax From Number – This is the number assigned to your org. You will be sending the fax from this number. If your org has several fax numbers, select which fax number you’d like to send from by clicking the arrow icon under the field name, where it says “Select an Option”. 
  • Cover Sheet Template – To send faxes with a cover sheet, use the Standard coversheet template included with the app or configure a custom cover sheet template with Opero Documents or other document generation apps. If you have configured a custom cover sheet, you will see them listed as their Document Action name.
  • Subject – Enter text for the fax subject.
  • Comments – Enter text for the fax comments. 
  • Lookup Fields & Custom Fields – You can create and populate multiple related lookup fields as well as any custom field on the Send a Fax page. Fields can be used to also merge into your custom cover sheet templates. See the Opero Fax Basic Configuration article for steps to relate the Sent Fax and Received Fax objects to other objects and add lookups to the Send Fax page.
  • Fax To Object – This is the base object of the record that is related to the fax. It indicates which lookup to use to get the related fax to number field. For example, “Contact”.
  • Fax To Number – This is the name of a phone type field on the related lookup object where you will send the fax.

Select the Files to Fax

To select the PDF files you wish to fax, you can upload files from your computer, select related files, or search the files in your org. See below for details:

  • Upload files from your computer – Click the “Upload Files” button or drop files into the File Preview.
  • Select files related to any of the related records – For each lookup that is populated, you will see all related files listed in the Files To Fax section. Each Lookup will have its own header with the related files listed below the header.
  • Search all of the existing files in your Salesforce org – you can also use the search bar to find and add any file in your Salesforce org. Users must have access to the files. See our Opero Fax Basic Configuration article for more detail.

When you click on the file you want to fax, it will put that file in the list of files to fax and load a preview of the file in the File Preview section. To reorder the files, select a file, then drag and drop it to the desired position in the list. 

Additional Notes:

  • File Format – Opero Fax supports both TIFF and PNG as alternative sending formats to the standard PDF. Contact support to enable this feature in your org.
  • User Permissions – In order for a user to upload files from their computer while sending faxes, they need proper permissions to do this. Review the Set User Permissions section of the Basic Configuration article for details.

Configure Barcodes

Not sure whether to add a barcode? We recommend using the barcode feature if you are faxing a document that the recipient will fill out or sign and then fax back to you. Adding the barcode will auto relate the Received Fax record to the original Sent Fax record and object record you sent the fax from.

  • To add a Barcode, click the “Add Barcode” button above the fax preview.
  • To resize the barcode, click the white square at the lower right corner of the barcode and drag.
  • To remove the barcode, click the grey “x” at the upper right corner of the barcode.

Barcode Tips:

  • Add at least two barcodes, in separate areas. Sometimes when faxes come back an area of the fax gets distorted or has a hair in it.  Having two barcodes on the page increases the chance of successfully reading one.
  • Place the barcode on a white/blank area of PDF. Do not place the barcode image over other text or dark areas of the PDF.
  • Larger images of barcode allow for better resolution of barcode image.
  • Place barcodes away from the edge of your PDF in order to ensure it does not get cut off as the fax travels through the eFax platform.

Send or Cancel Your Fax

  • Click the “Send Fax” button to send your fax. You will be redirected to the new Sent Fax record.
  • Click “Cancel” button to cancel sending your fax.
    • If you accessed the Send Fax page from the “Send Fax” tab, you will be redirected to the Sent Faxes tab.
    • If you accessed the Send Fax page from a Sent Fax related list, you will be redirected to the parent record.

Track the Status of your Sent Fax

  •  The Sent Fax record will be created.
  • The Fax Status will start at Sending.  The Send Date is recorded.
  • The app will send the fax and will update the Status of the Sent Fax record to “Sent” when it is actually sent.  The Sent Date is recorded (This confirms that the app has successfully sent the fax).
  •  Once the app has confirmed the fax has been delivered successfull, it will change the Status of the Sent Fax to “Delivered” and record the Delivery Date.
  • If the fax did not go through it will change the Status to “Not Delivered”. For more specific information, add “Detailed Fax Status” and “Number of Retries” to your Sent Fax page layout. This will help you better understand why a fax may have failed. For example, there could be a problem with the fax machine or fax number which will cause it to fail. You can review more details on errors in the Errors Category.

See Sent Fax Object and Fields article for detailed information about the fields on the Sent Fax object and how to access faxed files.

Resending Failed Faxes

If a fax is not delivered successfully, you can manually resend the fax. Go to the Sent Fax record with status “Not Delivered”. Clone the record by clicking the Clone button on the record (if you do not see this button, you can add it to the page layout). Modify the fields as specified below, then click “Save”.

Set the following field values:

  • Status = Sending
  • Send Date = Current Date/Time
  • Send with Outbound Message (checkbox) = checked
  • Detailed Fax Status = none

Clear the values from the following fields:

  • DOCID
  • Sent Date
  • Number of retries

Another option would be to configure an automation tool to automatically resend failed faxes. To do this, create a custom picklist field on the Sent Fax object called “Resend Fax” with values that include “Resend” and “Resent.” Then, set up a Flow to create a new Sent Fax record when that field value changes to “Resend” (see the fax automation article for required fields) and once the Sent Fax record is created, update the “Resend Fax” field value to “Resent”.