In an ideal world – at least from Mother Nature’s point of view – we’d all do our business on computer screens, with faxes and printouts few and far between. But for now, at least until everybody adopts and recognizes electronic signatures, faxes are still almost essential to the modern office For instance, there are some things very important to a small business owner – namely contracts which require signatures – that are often still sent via the good old fax machine. But for unintentional entrepreneurs on a shoestring budget, faxing can quickly become an issue.
There are a lot of reasons not to bother buying a fax machine. In small offices, fax machines can become another piece of equipment there to trip over. Not to mention, the majority of fax machines require a landline, preferably a dedicated landline so that all of your clients and customers don’t need to call you before sending their fax. But, if the fact that 20% of American households today only use cell phones is any indication, today’s offices are increasingly turning away from the limitations and expense of a landline.
If you are comforted by the idea of a physical fax machine in your office, you can always subscribe to a VOIP service, but be warned – fax machines and VOIP are uneasy workmates, with faxing in this manner being nearly impossible over a wireless connection, so you may find that experience more trouble than it’s worth when it comes to running your business.
There is a faxing solution that does not involve possessing a physical fax machine, and that’s the electronic fax service. Dozens, if not hundreds, of electronic faxing sites have cropped up over the past few years, and most have their upsides and drawbacks. For example, many electronic fax services allow you to send (limited) faxes for free, but require you to pay to receive faxes. So if you’re a frequent one way sender, you may be able to take care of all of your business’s fax needs for absolutely free.
Most of us though, require plain old two way faxing, and that’s where an electronic fax service comes in. Below are the pros and cons of three of the most common electronic faxing services. (All of the below services provide you with a dedicated fax number – either local or toll free – which you can use on business cards, marketing materials, etc.)
- eFax – The most popular faxing service on this list, it is also one of the more expensive and, oddly, one of the more limited electronic faxing services out there. For $16.95 per month, a subscriber gets 130 free incoming faxes per month, but must pay $.15/page after that. All outgoing faxes cost $.10/page to numbers in the U.S., with higher per page charges to international numbers. And that’s just if you choose to purchase a local number. If you choose to use a toll free fax number through eFax, you will have to pay $.20/page for incoming and outgoing pages, with no free pages thrown in. Also, eFax counts a “page” as something that can be sent in 60 seconds or less. A fax full of photos, for example, may end up costing you double if they transfer slowly. EFax is a well known brand in the electronic faxing industry, but as you’ll see below, it’s hardly the cheapest or most feature-filled choice.
- MyFax – With MyFax, you can send up to 100 pages and receive up to 200 pages for just $10.00 per month. Or, if you’re a frequent faxer, graduated plans allow you more pages for an additional charge. Pages over your limit are just $.10/page and MyFax offers a “free faxing zone” which means that faxes to Canada, and parts of Europe, Asia and South America do not incur international charges. MyFax has an extremely friendly user interface, and a walkthrough for those new to internet faxing. Handily, the service also provides a one year archive of old faxes.
- RingCentral – Rounding out the big three of internet fax services, RingCentral features the lowest monthly payment option, at $7.99 month ($6.39 if you pay annually). That price will get you 300 pages to send or receive, and if you go over, you’re only charged $.059 for any additional pages. Unlike with eFax, local or toll free numbers are the same price. Intriguingly, a RingCentral subscription also includes free software that will allow you to edit faxes. According to their FAQ, they will even help you create an electronic signature so you no longer have to go through the hassle of printing and scanning contracts if you want to fax them online. RingCentral also offers other small business services, so if you need help with more than just faxing, you may be able to combine services for a significant money savings.
EFax, MyFax and RingCentral are only three of the dozens of electronic fax services that will come up after a Google search for “electronic fax.” Before you choose a fax service, here are a few things to think about:
- How often do I send and receive faxes? How many pages do they total up to, and are a lot of those pages pictures? If you’re an occasional faxer, you can probably get away with paying $10 or less monthly for your faxing, but if you fax more than that, take the time to research different plans and customer service options
- Am I technically savvy? Some fax services give you a fax number and set you loose, while others offer tutorials for those new to electronic faxing. Remember, every electronic fax service will work a little differently, and some even require that you install special software.
- Do I send and receive important information? Most electronic faxing services we looked at guaranteed to store documents for 30 days, but if you send and receive vital documents, you may want to look for a longer storage period.
- Do I fax to more than one person at a time? Some faxing services allow you to send faxes to up to five people at a time, presumably reducing your page count. Take the ability to send one fax to multiple people into account when it comes time to decide on a monthly plan.
Happy faxing!
Outright is secure.
What do you think?
How do you send faxes?
Do you own a fax machine, use an internet faxing service, or use another option?
1
I personally send close to 0 faxes, but I have worked with a medical office that uses fax heavily (about 4,000 per month). When I first started working with them, they were printing reports and then faxing by hand, using the address book features of the fax machine to streamline a tiny bit.
Since then, I have connected them with an internet faxing service, and with some customization on my part I integrated the solution into their software, so that faxes are now handled with a single click. In addition to saving a lot of time, the savings on paper, toner, and phone calls was enough to offset the cost of the faxing service. And of course it's much greener (which from what I understand is of particular interest to you).
This client receives almost no incoming faxes so they still use the machine for that. On the other side of the coin, another client of mine receives more faxes than they send, though their overall load is light. For this we are using the built-in fax capabilities of their Windows domain controller to receive faxes and deliver them via e-mail. While they still have fax machines around for some faxing (things that need a signature or handwriting), the server also has the capability to send faxes using a printer driver, so users see a "printer" on their computer, and when they print something to it, it prompts for the relevant fax information (phone number, recipient name, cover sheet info, etc.).
Posted Apr 23, 2010 6:38:56 PM by: Mr. PC Computer Services