Receive faxes by email

With the Fax add-on, faxes sent to your company can arrive as emails instead of paper. Each one shows up in an inbox with the pages attached, so you can read, save or forward it like any other email.

This feature needs the Fax add-on on your account. See plans and pricing

Some labels in your portal or apps may look slightly different from this guide.

How a fax reaches an inbox

A fax comes in on one of your company's phone numbers. That number, or a choice in your phone menu, sends it to an email address. The address can be a shared one, such as a front desk inbox, or the email on one person's extension.

It can be set up in one of three ways:

• A number used only for fax. The number points straight at fax to email, so what comes in on it is delivered as a fax email.
• A number shared by voice and fax. Fax detection listens for fax tones and hands those calls to an extension you choose. Other calls go where the number normally sends them. Ask support how detected faxes reach an inbox on your account.
• A phone menu option. Callers who reach your menu can pick an option that sends their fax to email.

If your company kept a fax machine on an analog fax line instead, faxes print there as before. This page covers faxes that arrive by email.

What you get

Each fax arrives as an email, usually with a PDF and a TIFF copy of the pages attached. Communicator also keeps a fax history with a view for received faxes, if fax is turned on for you there. See send a fax from Communicator.

Save any fax you need to keep. CallSprout keeps faxes for a limited time. See how long faxes are kept.

Send a number's faxes to email (admins)

Phone numbers are managed by CallSprout support, so support makes this change for you.

1. 1
   Step 1:

   Pick the inbox

   Decide where faxes should go: a shared address or a person's extension.
2. 2
   Step 2:

   Decide how the number works

   Note whether the number takes only faxes, or both calls and faxes and needs fax detection.
3. 3
   Step 3:

   Ask support

   Contact CallSprout support with the phone number, the email address or extension, and whether the number is fax only or shared.
4. 4
   Step 4:

   Test it

   When support confirms, send a test fax to the number and check that it reaches the inbox.

To send faxes from your phone menu instead, add a menu option for them. Build your main phone menu shows how.

Find received faxes in the admin portal (admins)

Go to Fax, then Received. Each row shows who sent the fax, the number it came from, the email address it went to, when it arrived and how many pages it has. The sender is often shown as the name in their fax header, such as a company name.

To act on faxes, tick them and choose Download PDF, Download TIFF or Delete.

Don't see this option? Contact support and we'll set it up for you.