Online fax services

The latest technology features have simplified our lives allowing us to now send faxes online. This means you can throw out that bulky fax machine and receive everything electronically. Online faxing services can greatly reduce your overhead expenses. You no longer need to pay for ink, paper, and electricity to run the fax machine. Another great feature of online fax services is that you have the ability to save the older faxes and pull them up at a later date in case you need to reference them in meetings or use them for documentation for audits and other things.

Many businesses are switching to online fax services because you can send them for free. However, you are limited to the number of faxes you can send each month. If you send over this limit, you will need to pay more money. (Nothing in life is really free, right?)

If you want to start sending and receiving faxes, you can set it up in a matter of minutes. You will need to sign-up for a fax number. Once you have your number, the online fax service will automatically convert any faxes that are sent to that phone number and convert them into PDF files. The files will be distributed to your email account. Sound simple enough, right? In order for the service to work, you need to establish an email account and you need a computer that is connected to the internet.

So how do you find the right online fax service provider? Right now the market is literally flooded with hundreds of fax service providers so you need to research at least 3 of them before you make your decision. Find out things like how much it costs to have unlimited fax services, if they offer email services, and the initial setup procedures you need to go through to get started.

Many of the online fax service providers add on additional features and you simply need to install their desktop application to start sending faxes. Some of the companies will provide you with custom email accounts because it is easier for them to convert the files into digital format. The other reason you may want to consider using their email service is because you can store all your faxed documents here. Since PDF files take up more room, you need to have enough memory available on your computer to store them.

When the faxes are converted to digital format, it cuts down on the traditional problems you may have with faxing like smudged documents, low ink, and lost faxes. The fax will be read and converted to digital exactly as it was sent, which could be almost perfect if the sender is using digital files to send the fax.

Since more and more businesses are converting to online fax services, the rates are starting to drop. Many of the service providers are willing to offer lower rates and extra features in exchange for a one-year contract. Be careful with the contract because they often have stipulations on how many faxes you can send and receive per month. They may say you have unlimited faxes, but this may only be for the faxes you send, not the ones you receive.

When you are shopping around for the best provider, consider the memory you have on your computer. Will you need to install their software in order to send and receive faxes or will everything be done at their location and then sent to you? If your computers are already running slow, adding more software to them will just make them run even slower.