How to receive faxes on Colib with a dedicated number ?

Who is this article for?

With a dedicated fax number, your clinic receives its faxes directly in Colib: referrals, reports, results, requests for information. There is no fax machine to watch and no paper to scan. Each fax can be filed in the right client record in a few clicks.

This article explains how to get a dedicated number, who is alerted when a fax arrives, and how to use your fax inbox.

Before you start: receiving faxes requires a dedicated fax number, available as a monthly option. See the article Fax pricing for details.

Step 1 — Ask for your dedicated number

Write to us at support@colib.io. Colib takes care of the whole setup for you: we create your clinic's number with our fax provider and connect it to your Colib account. There is nothing to install and no line to configure on your side.

When everything is connected, we send you your new fax number, ready to use. You only have to share it with your network: referring physicians, hospitals, insurers and partner clinics. You can also add it to your letterhead, your email signature and your website.

Once your number is active:

• your clinic can receive faxes on that number;
• the faxes you send leave from that number, so your correspondents can fax you back;
• the Fax menu appears in Colib for your team.

Your number is shown in Settings > Communications > Fax, and at the top of your fax inbox.

Step 2 — Choose who is alerted when a fax arrives

1. Click Settings, then open the Communications tab. ( https://www.colib.io/Settings?show=communications )
2. Expand the Fax section.
3. In Member notified when a fax is received, choose a team member, or Clinic administrators.
4. Save.

By default, the person who created the clinic's account is alerted. You can set this up before your number is activated: it will be ready on day one.

When a fax arrives, this person receives a Colib notification, Fax received, and an email. The email never contains the fax itself: it only invites you to open your fax inbox in Colib.

Step 3 — Decide who can open the fax inbox

Every team member can open the fax inbox by default. To remove this access for someone:

1. Click Settings, then open the Team tab. ( https://www.colib.io/Settings?show=team )
2. Open the team member.
3. Turn off Access to the fax inbox, then save.

Using your fax inbox

Click Fax in the main menu (  https://www.colib.io/faxes ). The Received faxes tab opens first and shows the faxes of the last three months.

For each fax, you see:

• Received on — the date and time of receipt.
• Title — the identification header sent by the sender's fax machine, or Received fax if there is none.
• Sender — the sender's fax number. If this number is in the list of recipients saved by your team, the name is shown next to it.
• Pages, the client record where the fax is filed, and its type of content.

Use the filters to find a fax by period, by client, or by status: To file or Filed.

Who sees what: faxes that are not filed yet are visible to every team member who has access to the fax inbox. Once a fax is filed in a client record, only the team members allowed to view that client's documents can see it and open it.

New faxes

Colib checks your fax line every hour. To check right away, click Refresh: new faxes appear in the list immediately.

View a fax

Click the eye icon to open the fax in a viewer. You can browse its pages and download it.

File a fax in a client record

1. Click the folder icon (File in a client record).
2. Choose the client in the list. Type a few letters of the name to search.
3. Choose the Type of content: document, report, form, invoice, receipt or other.
4. Click File the fax.

Once filed, the fax appears in two places in the client's record:

• in the communications history, with its type of content;
• in the Documents tab, in a Faxes folder, created automatically the first time.

Filed it in the wrong record? File it again in the right one: the document moves to the new client's record, it is not duplicated.

To file a fax, you need the right to modify client documents. The list only shows the clients whose documents you can modify.

Delete a fax

Click the trash icon, then confirm. The fax and its file are permanently deleted from the inbox. If the fax was already filed, the copy in the client's documents is kept, and deleting it from the inbox requires the right to modify that client's documents.

How long are faxes kept?

Received faxes stay in your fax inbox for one year, then they are deleted automatically. Faxes filed in a client record remain in the client's documents, following the same rules as your other documents.

Security and privacy

• Our fax provider is SRFax, a Canadian company based in British Columbia. Its fax service is PHIPA compliant, and faxes are stored in Vancouver.
• Once a fax is imported into Colib, it is removed from the provider's inbox. The file is stored encrypted.
• Each view, filing and deletion of a received fax is recorded in your clinic's audit log.

Still have a question?

To get a dedicated number, or if a fax you are expecting does not show up after a refresh, contact us at support@colib.io.