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The advancing technology has revolutionized and streamlined the operations of businesses and organizations alike. Today, more and more organizations are shifting their focus away from traditional fax machines and switching to cloud fax services.
The idea is simple -- cloud fax services are cost-effective, convenient, and secure. If you belong to a highly regulated industry where you need to be HIPAA compliant, and even otherwise, when you need to follow utmost professionalism, fax cover sheets are highly important.
So, what are fax cover sheets, and how can CocoFax help you? Let’s find out.
What is the Fax Cover Sheet?
For starters, a fax cover sheet is a sheet that succeeds in the actual fax message. Essentially, it is a document that contains details about the sender, recipient, date, subject, among other related details.
A fax cover sheet explains who the fax is intended for, and what the fax contains. That said, it meets various important objectives like:
- Protects your fax document from being viewed by a passerby
- Protects contact info in case an unintended recipient receives it
- Displays confidential clause or HIPAA disclaimer upfront
What Should a Fax Cover Sheet Include?
Ideally, a well-designed fax cover sheet consists of the following fields and details:
Letterhead
The letterhead sits at the top of the cover sheet, and includes your company name and company details. To make it look more authentic, you can include the logo of your company. The company details section should include street address, ZIP code, phone number, fax number, and website if any. Keep it short and brief.
Sender and Receiver
The sender and receiver information is mostly written under the letterhead. Its primary motive is to inform the recipient about who has sent the fax and to whom it is intended for.
When writing about you, the sender, you should include the legally recognized name, designation, phone number, and reference. The same should be used to identify the receiver.
Call to Action
The third section provides a purpose to the recipient. After they’ve received it, how should they proceed with the fax and what is it you want them to do at the end. Do you want them just to review it, reply to it, or add comments on their own and process further?
Subject
The penultimate section is the subject. This briefly describes what the fax documents are about and the topic which it discusses. This allows the recipient to have a sense of what to expect when going through the documents. This will also help them make a better judgment.
Comments
Comments are the final section you should add in a fax cover sheet PDF. Please note that this is an option, and you can skip it without major problems. But we recommend you add it if you’ve included special documents, specific information, or want the recipient to move forward in a certain way for the best results.
Other sections to include really depends on your business needs. Therefore, better have a small, brief meeting with your team to discuss this matter.
Why is a Fax Cover Sheet Necessary?
It’s easy to dismiss a fax cover sheet at first sight. But only when you walk into an office using fax machines, you can realize its importance.
Corporate etiquette
First and foremost, fax machines are still popular among businesses. It’s a primary mode of communication between the company and its vendors, customers, authorities, and so on. And in the business environment, maintaining corporate etiquette is important. So, fax receivers would expect you to include a fax cover sheet.
Excluding a fax cover sheet from the fax documents will be looked at as highly unprofessional. This can create a negative impression, which you should avoid at any cost.
Establishes who the fax is for
Consider a mid-sized or large organization present at multiple locations with close to hundreds of employees. If you send a fax to a receptionist or if someone is required to handle incoming messages, who is he or she supposed to forward it to?
Since you’ve not provided any details, they will never know who it is intended for. Even in a small-sized organization, this can create chaos for a few minutes.
Protects the integrity of the documents
The last thing that you will ever want is that your important document is viewed by someone other than the recipient. A fax cover sheet prevents that from happening and ensures that the fax is not read or seen by a passerby.
CocoFax Has Got You Covered!
Therefore, as a good practice, always include a relevant fax cover sheet. You can use CocoFax’s vast library of predefined fax cover sheet templates for preparing fax sheet cover documents in minutes. Just sign up and start using our services!