Sending & Receiving Faxes

Practice Better allows you to send and receive faxes directly in your portal without the need for a physical fax machine. In this article we'll cover the following topics:

• Sending Faxes
• Retrying Failed Faxes
• Receiving Faxes
• Registering a Dedicated Fax Number
• Managing Sent & Received Faxes
• Fax Preferences
• Fax Pricing

Sending Faxes

Faxes can be sent on our Professional, Plus, and Team Plans. You have the option to fax session notes, forms, protocols, files from your computer or your Documents section. We do require all faxed documents to be in PDF format.

Faxing Session Notes

You can fax a session note by going to your client's Notes section. Select Fax to... from the More Options menu (3 dots) next to your notes:

Faxing a Completed Form

You can fax a completed form by going to your client's Forms & Waivers section. Select Fax to... from the More Options menu (3 dots) next to their completed form:

You can optionally include your private notes when sending faxes. Only forms/waivers created using our Form Builder can be faxed directly from your client's Forms & Waivers page. Faxed forms do not contain an audit trail.

Faxing a Published Protocol

You can fax a published protocol by going to your client's Protocols section. Select Fax to... from the More Options menu (3 dots) next to the published protocol:

Faxing PDFs from My Documents

PDF documents can be faxed directly from your Documents > My Uploads page. First, click on a document to select it:

Then select Fax to... from the right navigation menu:

Faxing PDFs from your computer

To fax a PDF from your computer, go to My Practice > Faxes then click the Fast Action Button in the bottom-right corner to select a document from your hard drive:

Retrying Failed Faxes

We'll automatically retry your fax if the recipient's line is busy or did not answer. If the automatic retry also fails, you can manually retry it by going to your Sent Faxes section.

Select the fax then click Retry fax from the right navigation menu:

Adding Recipient Information

You'll be prompted to enter recipient details once you've selected your document to fax. The recipient's fax number and name are mandatory. 

If you're faxing a client-specific document (e.g. a completed form or session note), we will allow you to auto-fill the recipient details from the list of health providers associated with your client. Just start typing the provider's name into the Recipient name field.

This list will also include any contacts you've previously saved to your Fax Contacts list.

You can also include an optional subject and message which will appear in the received fax when the Include a cover sheet option is selected.

Enable the Save contact information option to save the recipient to your Fax Contacts list. You can manage your contacts by going to Settings > All Settings & Preferences > Faxes.

Once you're satisfied with your fax details, click Send to send your fax. Optional, click the Preview button to see what your fax will look like to the recipient before delivery.

If you've enabled Instant Alerts, you will receive a notification when the status of your fax has changed (e.g. delivered, failed). 

Sender Details

If you have a dedicated fax number associated with your account, we will use this to send faxes from your account. On plans where dedicated numbers are not supported, faxes will be delivered using a number shared by all Practice Better users.

Fax Quality

We send all faxes using the "Fine" quality (204x196) fax resolution; this quality boasts wide device support. 

For notes, forms, and protocols we will optimize the PDF before sending. Optimizations may include adjusting the font colors for legibility (black and white) and rotating landscape pages to portrait mode.

Receiving Faxes

You can receive faxes as long as there is a dedicated fax number associated with your account. Dedicated numbers are available on selected plans.

Depending on your notification preferences, you will receive an email and Instant Alert whenever a new fax is available in your portal. You can view all received faxes by going to My Practice > Faxes > Received Faxes.

You can view or download the fax by clicking the View or Download button respectively next to the received fax.

Moving Received Faxes

If you've received a fax for a specific client, you can easily copy the associated PDF to their folder in your Documents section. 

1. Select the fax, then click the Copy to button:

2. From the popup, select the folder then click the Select folder button to copy the PDF:

Adding a Fax Contact

Adding fax contacts makes it easy to identify the origin of the documents received on your Received Faxes page. Select a fax, then click Save contact from the right navigation menu:

Once you've saved a contact, you will see their name appear before the number next to each received fax in the list. You can manage your fax contacts by going to Settings > All Settings & Preferences > Faxes.

Blacklisting a Fax Number

You can prevent unwanted faxes (spam) by blacklisting numbers from your Received Faxes page. Click on a fax then select the Blacklist number option from the right navigation menu.

You can remove numbers from your blacklist by going to Settings > All Settings & Preferences > Faxes.

Managing Faxes

You can keep track of sent and received faxes by going to your My Practice > Faxes page:

Deleting a Fax

You can delete a fax by first selecting it and then clicking the Trash button:

Fax Preferences

Manage your fax preferences by going to Settings > All Settings & Preferences > Faxes. On this page, you'll be able to set up cover sheet defaults and manage your existing fax contacts.