Faxing

Virtual fax setup

Fax-to-email, email-to-fax, and your dedicated fax number.

3 min

Virtual fax gives you a dedicated fax number that sends and receives faxes by email. Nothing plugs in. No fax machine, no dedicated line, no paper jam at four in the afternoon.

Virtual fax is $14.95/month per fax line. One fax line is enough for most small businesses. You can add more lines if you need to send and receive at the same time often.

How incoming works

When someone faxes your number, the fax arrives as a PDF attached to an email. The email lands in the inbox you chose during setup.

The sender dials your fax number exactly like they would any fax machine. Nothing changes on their side. They do not know you are on virtual fax.

Attachments are standard PDFs. Your team can forward them, archive them, print them, or save them to your document system like any other email attachment.

How outgoing works

To send a fax, compose an email. The recipient is the destination fax number in this format:

  • To: number@fax.vocatech.com

So to fax (212) 555-0142, you would email 2125550142@fax.vocatech.com with your document attached as a PDF. The system picks up the email, converts the attachment, and transmits it to the destination fax machine.

You will get a confirmation email back when the fax completes. If the transmission fails, the confirmation tells you why. Typical causes are a busy line or a disconnected number.

Who can send

Only email addresses associated with your fax number can send outbound faxes. This is a security control. Otherwise anyone who guessed your fax-to-email address could send faxes from your number.

During setup you tell us which email addresses on your team should have send access. Adding or removing email addresses later is a support request.

Page limits

There are no strict page limits for normal business use. Send what you need to send.

Consistent usage above roughly 1,000 pages per month will trigger a conversation. Not a cutoff, a conversation. High-volume fax senders usually benefit from a dedicated setup, and we want to make sure you are on the right plan.

Supported file types

PDF is the recommended attachment format. It converts cleanly to fax. Word documents and images work in most cases but occasionally reformat in ways that surprise people.

If you need a specific document to land exactly the way it looks on screen, send it as a PDF.

HIPAA and sensitive documents

Our virtual fax is covered under the Vocatech BAA once HIPAA is enabled on your account. The fax transmission itself is standard telephony and is not more or less secure than any other fax.

The bigger question is email hygiene on your side. The email containing the fax attachment is only as secure as the inbox it lands in. Use a business email system with strong access controls for any PHI-adjacent fax traffic.

Still stuck?

A real human at Vocatech answers the phone. Usually within minutes during business hours.