Author Archive

Export Fax Records from A5 Fax

If you need to export your fax data outside of Salesforce or from the A5 Fax application, you can can use Data Loader to export data from SF.

Also under Setup, Data Export you can create a backup of data and select attachments. It is important to know when you want attachments specifically of received faxes or sent faxes depending on what you are doing with the data afterwards. All the data is available but you need to know how to work with it depending on what you are doing. There are other tools probably for helping with this and can search AppExchange for “data export”or “data backup.”

Assign a group of users to process incoming faxes

Use Case:
We have a couple groups of users who process incoming faxes. We are hoping to be able to assign the faxes to groups of users instead of just individual users. I know this can be done with tasks in Salesforce by assigning them to queues. I was hoping that faxes could also be assigned to queues rather than just a single user.

App Expert Reply:
You can create a Queue for the Received Fax object and assign a queue as the owner of the record instead of a user. You should also consider why you need to create a group for incoming faxes, for example determine if different types of faxes are going to certain group. Rather than creating a queue for assigned user group, you could have one list of faxes that need to be processed and whichever user can process the incoming faxes from refreshed list view, for example.

Using OCR Technology

Use Case:
I would like to receive a fax with data in form filled that our customer filled out and would like to be that data to automatically be enterted into Salesforce without us manually having to do it. What are my options for this?

Premium support team reply:
You can configure what is called OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology to read PDFs received from faxes. You would need to use another application or software or custom code something. A5 Fax will get the PDF into SF. Now you can process that PDF with some OCR technology to read values on the PDF. Depending on your form and what you are reading, you can get better results and there are a few options around this. There is some dev effort to build this and you can certainly get great efficiencies when you have a high quantity of records and the received fax is consistent. We recommend to test out some example PDF forms you would want to read data from with different services to see how well they read them. One example is https://docparser.com/blog/pdf-salesforce-integration/ or Google has an API: https://cloud.google.com/vision/docs/ocr . There are other options depending on what works best for you.

You can also setup a Console view in Salesforce to best go through a list of unprocessed received faxes and you click a received fax record in top frame and loads the fax PDF in the large frame below and then and easily update the related record fields you define in the left frame. This process allows for quick viewing and updating of records to create an efficient process of manual review. You need to do some analysis of the accuracy of OCR and the cost to get setup and decide what makes sense. Let support know if you may want some assistance to talk through process or help you get it setup with paid premium support.

Setup a Fax Forward

If you need to forward your incoming faxes to another fax number you can configure this as described below. Note that you will be charged for the received fax pages as well as the forwarded sent fax pages.

Create a field on Received Fax object called “Fax Attachment ID”, a formula text field with formula: Right(efaxapp__Fax_URL__c,18)
Create a lookup field on Sent Fax called “Fax Forwarded”, a lookup to Received Fax object. This is optional but would allow you to see which fax was forwarded from sent fax.
Create a process builder on Received Fax called “Forward Fax” when record created and Status is “Received” and Fax URL is not null and Sent To equals the fax number receiving the fax you want to forward. The immediate action should be to create a record in Sent Fax object:
Attachment ID = field reference to Received Fax.Fax Attachment ID
Fax Number = string type, type the fax number you want to forward to. Or could configure a formula or field to merge.
Send Date = insert function Now()
Subject = as you desire, but suggest the Record ID of the received fax.
Status = Sending
Sent With Out Message = True
Fax Forwarded = field reference type, the record ID of the received fax.
Ensure that the Outbound Message “Send Fax Attachment” related Workflow is active.
Give it a test by sending a fax into the org on the matching fax number.

Move A5 Fax Activation to a New Salesforce Org

If you have the A5 Fax app configured in one Salesforce org and you need to move the activation over to a new Salesforce Org, you will need to do the following steps:

Install A5 Fax app into new Salesforce org(s) from AppExchange.
Go to fax configuration tab and click “grant access” to authorize the app. Only one active Salesforce user needs to authorize the app for all users. Usually this is an admin user or user that will have proper permissions to installed components and any other fax processes in place.
After you have done step #3, create a case to A5 Apps support saying that you want your activation moved over to a new Salesforce org (provide the old org ID, the new org ID, and if you want the same fax number(s) moved over to the new org that were assigned in previous org).

If you have configurations or any automation setup in previous org and you want to deploy the data and processes over to new org, please note following steps:

If you are deploying from a Sandbox to Production org, you can create a change set in Sandbox with the configurations you made around the fax app and then deploy it to Production.
Optionally if moving to another org, you could create a Unmanaged Package and put the configuration components you made around the A5 Fax app into the Package, then using the install link and you can install that package into the new org.
A third option is that you can manually re-create the same configurations in the new org that were in the old org.
If you want to migrate the Sent Fax and Received Fax records that were in the old org into new org, you can use Data Loader to do a data migration.
Usual configurations to consider: Custom Fields on Sent Fax and Received Fax objects, custom buttons, Process Builders, workflows that execute faxing operations, and custom field settings configured under Fax Configuration tab.

Sent Fax stuck in “Sending” status

Reasons a sent fax could be stuck in Sending status:

AUTHORIZATION: You may need to re-authorize the app under Fax Configuration tab under active admin user (or user with proper permissions). There are variables as to why you would need to refresh authorization, for example when there is a change in authorized user, anything in your faxing process/Salesforce has changed, an org refresh, or updated package install. After you do this step, sent fax records will either start to be sent within 24 hour period or you may need to recreate the sent fax records after refreshing authorization.
1. If you receive an error message when trying to authorize the app that refers to “this site cannot be reached”, please review this article to resolve.
FILES OR USER PERMISSION ISSUE: If a fax is getting stuck in Sending status for no apparent reason and files are used instead of attachments, the issue might be that a user which authorized the app doesn’t have access to the file which is being sent. For more information about this, please review this article. Also, each user that is sending a fax needs proper access to Sent Fax, Received Fax and any other objects/fields being used in faxing process, and needs to have a profile permission Send Outbound Messages enabled. This permission is located in Setup > Users > Profiles > your target profile > System Permissions System, and under System while in System Permissions.
1. If you are using “Documents” rather than File format and the sent fax is getting stuck in “sending” status then the user may not have access to the Document being sent and they may be owned by another user. To resolve, you can add the “modify all documents” permission to the user profile. This permission should allow the user to have proper access to the Documents and successfully send the fax with no issues.
AUTOMATION/INACTIVE USER: If you have configured an automatic process for faxing (using process builder, flow, apex, or any other means of automation), and sent faxes are stuck in Sending status, you should check if the running user is active. It is possible that one user may be set as a default user for the specific automation, and it got deactivated. Also, check the files issue from point 2. If you would like assistance to review automation setup, we offer app premium support as a service.
API CALL LIMIT: You may have hit your daily API call limit. Go to Setup > Company Settings > Company Information > Show API Requests > Last 24 Hours. See what the limit is and see if you went past it. If you did, you will need to wait till your 24 hour mark is over to start with new limit. You can submit case to Salesforce to increase your daily API call limit if needed.

Create a Lightning Action to Send a Fax

You have the option to create a Lightning Action to send a fax with predefined values if you would like rather than using another automation method in this article to create a sent fax record. The Lightning Action could be used to save some manual steps when sending a fax and would not be used for mass document generation as you still need to click the button from record.

Here are a few example use cases you could use a Lightning Action for:

Sending same PDF file to many customers: If you have the same PDF document that you need to fax to many customers and would like to save some manual steps in sending the fax recipient this document. For example this same existing PDF you need to send to your customers or prospects could be a Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA) or W-9 form that you need to fax them.
Re-sending a Non Delivered Fax: If you have a sent fax record that was “not delivered” due to ringing timing out or maybe fax machine off, you could create a Lightning actually to resend another fax to with the same details. It is important to note that you would only use this if the fax number was correct and no other changes need to be made with the sent fax record created. Make sure you have “detailed fax status” field on your sent fax page layout so in the case a fax fails and changes to “not delivered” the detailed fax status field will give you more information for why the fax was not delivered.

How to create a Lightning Action to send a fax:

Go to Setup, and the object you want the button/action on.
Go to buttons/actions from page layout related list. Then create New Lightning action.
Add pre-defined field values for mapping fields to the sent fax record on the the Lightning Action. You will select the sent fax field from drop down list when adding a pre-defined value and then use formula editor/syntax to add the field. Some pre-defined fields are required to create the sent fax and some are optional.
The required Pre-defined fields for sent fax record from related object are:
1. Attachment ID (Text field type). This is related attachment ID you will use to send the same document in Lightning Action. For example, this can be an existing File or Document that is uploaded in your Salesforce. When looking at the Document record, there will be the unique document ID in the URL. For example URL of could be: https://na82.salesforce.com/0151R000005BPYW and the document ID you would paste into the pre-defined field value to send same PDF file each time would be:0151R000005BPYW.
  1. Another option for Attachment ID is that the attachment could be getting generated through a document generation tool like A5 Documents app. You can then have a field on your related object that stores that latest attachment ID on the record. Then you can merge this attachment ID field into the predefined field value on sent fax Lightning Action.
2. Fax Number (Phone number field type). This is the fax number field that is the fax number you will be sending fax too.
3. Organization Fax Number (Phone number field type). This is your assigned default organization fax number that you are sending fax from. The format for display of number should have no spaces or special characters. For example fax number format for this pre defined field should be: 8667779999.
4. Send Date (Date/time field type). Important to use “Send Date” pre-defined field and not the Sent Date. Formula used is Now().
5. Sent with Outbound Message (Checkbox field type marked True). You can detail a message that you want to display after the sent fax record is created.
6. Status (Picklist with status of Sending). After sent fax record is created, it will start in status of Sending. After fax is delivered, it will change to “Delivered” status on sent fax record.
7. Subject (Text field type) – this is the subject of the fax. You can add merge fields here from the related object using formula editor, for example, could be Account name merge field.

International Fax Page Rates

Country Code	Location	USD
1	USA	$0.15
7	Russia	$0.15
20	Egypt	$0.37
27	South Africa	$0.15
30	Greece	$0.15
30	Greece Mobile / Prem	$1.08
31	Netherlands	$0.15
31	Netherlands Mobile / Prem	$1.08
32	Belgium	$0.15
32	Belgium Mobile / Prem	$1.08
33	France	$0.15
33	France Mobile / Prem	$1.08
34	Spain	$0.15
36	Hungary	$0.15
36	Hungary Mobile / Prem	$1.08
39	Italy	$0.15
39	Italy Mobile / Prem	$1.08
40	Romania	$0.22
41	Switzerland	$0.15
41	Switzerland Mobile / Prem	$1.08
43	Austria	$0.15
43	Austria Mobile / Prem	$1.08
44	United Kingdom	$0.15
45	Denmark	$0.15
45	Denmark Mobile / Prem	$1.08
46	Sweden	$0.15
47	Norway	$0.15
47	Norway Mobile / Prem	$1.08
48	Poland	$0.15
48	Poland Mobile / Prem	$1.08
49	Germany	$0.15
49	Germany Mobile / Prem	$1.08
51	Peru	$0.70
52	Mexico	$0.15
53	Cuba	$1.24
54	Argentina	$0.15
54	Argentina Mobile / Prem	$1.61
55	Brazil	$0.15
55	Brazil Mobile / Prem	$3.08
56	Chile	$0.15
56	Chile Mobile / Prem	$1.31
57	Colombia	$0.56
58	Venezuela	$0.60
60	Malaysia	$0.15
61	Australia	$0.15
61	Australia Mobile / Prem	$1.08
62	Indonesia	$0.24
63	Philippines	$0.47
64	New Zealand	$0.15
64	New Zealand Mobile / Prem	$1.08
65	Singapore	$0.15
66	Thailand	$0.15
73	Kazakstan	$1.16
81	Japan	$0.15
81	Japan Mobile / Prem	$1.83
82	South Korea	$0.15
84	Vietnam	$0.37
86	China	$0.15
86	China Mobile / Prem	$1.58
90	Turkey	$0.27
91	India	$0.37
92	Pakistan	$0.37
93	Afghanistan	$1.86
94	Sri Lanka	$0.37
95	Myanmar	$1.94
98	Iran	$1.62
212	Morocco	$0.88
213	Algeria	$0.86
216	Tunisia	$0.92
218	Libya	$0.86
220	Gambia	$1.02
221	Senegal	$0.92
222	Mauritania	$1.32
223	Mali	$1.02
223	Mali Mobile / Prem	$0.81
224	Republic of Guinea	$1.24
225	Ivory Coast	$1.72
226	Burkina Faso	$0.84
227	Niger	$1.52
228	Togo	$1.68
229	Benin	$1.08
230	Mauritius	$1.01
230	Mauritius Mobile / Prem	$1.01
231	Liberia	$1.06
232	Sierra Leone	$1.44
233	Ghana	$1.08
233	Ghana Mobile / Prem	$1.41
234	Nigeria	$1.30
235	Chad	$1.94
236	Central African Republic	$1.74
237	Cameroon	$0.48
237	Cameroon Mobile / Prem	$0.86
238	Cape Verde Island	$1.00
240	Equatorial Guinea	$2.08
241	Gabon	$1.48
242	Congo	$1.48
243	Zaire	$1.14
244	Angola	$1.12
245	Guinea Bissau	$1.86
246	Diego Garcia	$1.28
247	Ascencion Island	$1.54
248	Seychelles	$0.89
248	Seychelles Island Mobile / Prem	$0.76
249	Sudan	$0.95
250	Rwanda	$1.62
251	Ethiopia	$1.72
252	Somalia	$1.82
253	Djibouti	$1.58
254	Kenya	$1.46
255	Tanzania	$0.94
256	Uganda	$1.22
257	Burundi	$0.58
258	Mozambique	$1.04
260	Zambia	$0.65
260	Zambia Mobile / Prem	$0.37
261	Madagascar	$1.52
261	Madagascar Mobile / Prem	$1.83
262	Reunion Island	$0.67
262	Reunion Island Mobile / Prem	$0.86
263	Zimbabwe	$1.08
264	Namibia	$1.16
265	Malawi	$1.00
266	Lesotho	$1.38
267	Botswana	$1.08
268	Swaziland	$0.82
290	St. Helena	$1.66
291	Eritrea	$1.98
298	Faroe Island	$0.74
299	Greenland	$0.72
339	Monaco	$0.22
346	Spain Mobile / Prem	$1.08
350	Gibraltar	$0.80
351	Portugal	$0.15
351	Portugal Mobile / Prem	$1.08
352	Luxembourg	$0.15
353	Ireland	$0.15
354	Iceland	$0.15
355	Albania	$0.84
356	Malta	$0.28
357	Cyprus	$0.15
358	Finland	$0.15
358	Finland Mobile / Prem	$1.08
359	Bulgaria	$0.15
359	Bulgaria Mobile / Prem	$1.08
370	Lithuania	$0.27
371	Latvia	$0.27
372	Estonia	$0.15
373	Moldova	$0.28
374	Armenia	$1.28
375	Belarus	$0.90
376	Andora	$0.56
377	Monaco	$0.22
378	San Marino	$0.74
380	Ukraine	$0.24
381	Yugoslavia	$0.82
385	Croatia	$0.15
386	Slovenia	$0.22
386	Slovenia Mobile / Prem	$8.08
387	Bosnia-Herzegovina	$0.42
389	Macedonia	$0.30
420	Czech Republic	$0.15
420	Czech Republic Mobile / Prem	$1.41
421	Slovak Republic	$0.18
421	Slovak Republic Mobile / Prem	$1.41
423	Liechtenstein	$0.15
427	Slovak Republic	$0.26
428	Slovak Republic	$0.26
429	Slovak Republic	$0.26
500	Falkland Island	$1.48
501	Belize	$1.30
501	Belize Mobile / Prem	$0.88
502	Guatemala	$1.02
502	Guatemala Mobile / Prem	$2.13
503	El Salvador	$1.02
504	Honduras	$1.04
505	Nicaragua	$1.14
505	Nicaragua Mobile / Prem	$1.51
506	Costa Rica	$0.98
506	Costa Rica Mobile / Prem	$1.41
507	Panama	$1.14
508	St. Pierre & Miquelon	$0.62
509	Haiti	$1.16
573	Colombia Mobile / Prem	$1.08
590	Guadeloupe	$0.88
591	Bolivia	$1.30
592	Guyana	$2.74
593	Ecuador	$1.16
594	French Guiana	$1.66
594	French Guiana Mobile / Prem	$1.96
595	Paraguay	$1.34
596	Martinique	$0.82
597	Suriname	$1.42
597	Suriname Mobile / Prem	$1.42
598	Uruguay	$1.23
599	Netherlands Antilles	$0.70
599	Netherlands Antilles Mobile / Prem	$1.08
601	Malaysia Mobile / Prem	$2.08
659	Singapore Mobile / Prem	$1.08
670	Marina Island	$0.98
673	Brunei	$0.19
673	Brunei Mobile / Prem	$1.08
674	Nauru	$1.48
675	Papua New Guinea	$0.88
676	Tonga	$1.86
677	Solomon Islands	$1.32
678	Vanuatu	$1.26
679	Fiji Islands	$1.18
680	Palau	$1.60
681	Wallis & Futuna	$0.68
682	Cook Island	$1.94
683	Niue Island	$2.04
684	American Samoa	$1.18
685	Western Samoa	$1.34
686	Kiribati	$1.78
687	New Caledonia	$1.38
688	Tuvalu	$1.26
689	French Polynesia	$1.38
691	Micronesia	$1.68
692	Marshall Islands	$0.96
733	Russia-Kyrgyzstan	$1.14
737	Russia-Tajikistan	$1.00
850	North Korea	$1.77
852	Hong Kong	$0.15
852	Hong Kong Mobile / Prem	$1.08
853	Macau	$0.24
855	Cambodia	$0.37
856	Laos	$0.27
870	Inmarsat	$5.08
871	Inmarsat-Atlantic Ocean East	$14.08
872	Inmarsat-Pacific Ocean	$14.08
873	Inmarsat-Indian Ocean	$14.08
874	Inmarsat-Atlantic Ocean West	$14.08
880	Bangladesh	$0.27
886	Taiwan	$0.15
960	Maldives	$1.48
961	Lebanon	$0.37
962	Jordan	$0.37
963	Syria	$0.37
964	Iraq	$1.86
965	Kuwait	$1.46
965	Kuwait Mobile / Prem	$2.08
966	Saudi Arabia	$0.37
966	Saudi Arabia Mobile / Prem	$0.85
967	Yemen	$1.48
968	Oman	$1.64
970	Palestine	$0.15
971	United Arab Emirates	$0.44
972	Israel	$0.15
972	Israel Mobile / Prem	$3.08
973	Bahrain	$0.39
974	Qatar	$0.50
974	Qatar Mobile / Prem	$1.40
975	Bhutan	$0.60
976	Mongolia	$1.86
977	Nepal	$0.50
993	Turkmenistan	$1.28
994	Azerbaijan	$0.86
995	Georgia	$0.48
996	Kyrgyzstan	$0.56
996	Kyrgyzstan Mobile / Prem	$1.08
998	Uzbekistan	$1.30
1242	Bahamas	$0.54
1246	Barbados	$1.02
1264	Anguilla	$0.96
1268	Antigua and Barbuda	$0.96
1284	British Virgin Islands	$0.74
1340	U.S. Virgin Islands	$0.26
1345	Cayman Islands	$0.86
1441	Bermuda	$0.60
1473	Grenada	$1.06
1649	Turks & Caicos Islands	$0.98
1671	Guam	$0.38
1758	St. Lucia	$1.14
1767	Dominica	$1.08
1784	St. Vincent & Grenadines	$1.22
1787	Puerto Rico	$0.26
1809	Dominican Republic	$0.29
1809	Dominican Republic Mobile / Prem	$0.54
1868	Trinidad & Tobago	$0.15
1869	St. Kitts & Nevis	$1.00
1876	Jamaica	$1.18
2012	Egypt Mobile / Prem	$1.71
2218	Senegal Mobile / Prem	$0.92
2268	Burkina Faso Mobile / Prem	$0.57
2557	Tanzania Mobile / Prem	$1.00
2696	Mayotte Island	$1.86
2697	Comoro Island	$1.72
2975	Aruba	$0.56
2978	Aruba	$0.56
2979	Aruba Mobile / Prem	$0.48
3538	Ireland Mobile / Prem	$1.08
3548	Iceland Mobile / Prem	$1.08
5038	El Salvador Mobile / Prem	$1.51
5399	Guantanamo Bay	$1.08
5924	Guyana Mobile / Prem	$1.02
5928	Guyana Mobile / Prem	$1.02
5939	Ecuador Mobile / Prem	$1.51
6033	Malaysia Mobile / Prem	$2.08
6424	Antarctica-Scott	$0.82
6702	Saipan	$0.92
6722	Cocos Island	$0.56
6723	Norfolk Island	$0.96
6724	Christmas Island	$0.98
7375	Russia-Uzbekistan	$1.30
7885	Russia-Armenia	$1.28
8551	Cambodia Mobile / Prem	$2.81
8801	Bangladesh Mobile / Prem	$3.08
9198	India Mobile / Prem	$2.41
9613	Lebanon Mobile / Prem	$3.08
9662	Saudi Arabia Jeddah	$0.27
18096	Trinidad & Tobago	$1.18
23912	Sao Tome	$2.04
24912	Sudan Mobile / Prem	$0.70
35468	Iceland Mobile / Prem	$1.08
35469	Iceland Mobile / Prem	$1.08
37321	Moldova Mobile / Prem	$0.51
38951	Macedonia Mobile / Prem	$1.02
44845	United Kingdom Mobile / Prem	$0.55
44870	United Kingdom Mobile / Prem	$0.55
44871	United Kingdom Mobile / Prem	$0.55
59112	Bolivia Mobile / Prem	$2.08
59115	Bolivia Mobile / Prem	$2.08
67913	Fiji Islands Mobile / Prem	$1.01
96279	Jordan Mobile / Prem	$1.58
97339	Bahrain Mobile / Prem	$0.72
97517	Bhutan Mobile / Prem	$0.57
3966982	Vatican City	$0.62
99528205	Georgia Mobile / Prem	$0.56

One or more pages was confirmed as RTN

You may see this error message under “detailed fax status field” on sent fax record and fax status is “not delivered.”

Reason for this error:
A retrain negative (RTN) message is a result of discarded data during the fax transmission due to interpage timing protocol. If a retrain message is received during the fax transmission eFax Developer will propose a new bit rate. It is up to the receiving modem to accept the newly proposed bit rate or ask for another retrain sequence. If both parties can not negotiate a bit rate the result will be “One or more pages was confirmed as RTN” failure message.

To resolve: This should be investigated by the other fax carrier that is returning this error message.

Error: Can’t Access Org

Example Full Error Message:
A5 Fax Error: Can’t Access Org

A5 Fax App could not update your Salesforce Org. Go to A5 Fax Configuration tab and click “Grant Access” to connect the app properly again. Contact Support for further help.

Attempting to update the following Record:
Salesforce Org ID: 00D1t00XXXXXXXXX
Salesforce Record ID: a081t00000BifnsXXX
RS Fax DOCID:
Status: Sending

App Support Reply to resolve Error:

You may see this error message when trying to click the “Grant Access” button under A5 Fax Configuration tab to authorize the app or receive this error message via email.

This error may be caused as you are using Salesforce Professional edition and not have API enabled which is a requirement to use A5 Fax app. You can submit a request to Salesforce support to request API to be enabled and/or convert instance org to UE from PE. Or you can use any other Salesforce edition that already has API enabled out of the box.

1. If you have API enabled and API calls available and error continues, you may have some strict IP settings and need to modify them:
  - Go to Setup > Security Controls > Session Settings and UNCHECK following boxes: 1) “Lock sessions to the IP address from which they originated” (under Session Settings Section) and also uncheck the box 2) “Enable Stricter Content Security Policy” (under Content Security Policy Prevention section).
    Setting #1:
    
    Setting #2:
  - Session Settings must enable connection.
  - API Enabled must be enabled on Profile
  - Login IP Ranges must allow connection of Azure app