How to schedule a fax

Why we built fax scheduling

Most online fax services work on a single assumption: you want your fax sent right now. That works fine when the recipient is in your time zone and their office is open. But the real world is messier than that.

You might be preparing a document at midnight for a government office that opens at 8 a.m. You might be in Sydney sending to a law firm in Berlin, and you want the fax to land on their machine first thing Monday morning, not on Saturday night. You might have a filing deadline at a specific hour and need to know the fax will go out at precisely that time, not whenever you remember to hit send.

We built scheduling because timing matters. A fax that arrives during business hours is picked up sooner, routed faster, and less likely to sit in an unattended tray. unofax lets you do all the preparation on your own schedule and trust the delivery to happen on the recipient's schedule.

When scheduling matters

Scheduling is useful in more situations than you might expect:

• Different time zones: you are awake but the recipient's office is closed. Schedule the fax to arrive when they open, so it is at the top of the pile rather than buried under overnight traffic.
• Deadlines: some filings, applications, and legal submissions must be received by a specific date and time. Scheduling lets you prepare the document in advance and guarantee it is sent at the right moment.
• Batch preparation: if you need to send several faxes to different numbers, you can prepare and schedule them all in one sitting, even if they need to arrive at different times.
• Peace of mind: schedule the fax, close your laptop, and move on. unofax handles the rest. No alarms, no reminders, no second login.

How to schedule a fax with unofax

The process is almost identical to sending a fax immediately. With one extra step:

• Upload your document: drag and drop or tap to select your file, just like a normal fax.
• Enter the fax number: select the destination country and type the recipient's number.
• Choose "Schedule for later": below the fax number, switch from "Send now" to "Schedule for later". A date and time picker appears. Select when you want the fax to be sent. You can schedule up to 7 days in advance.
• Preview and pay: check the page preview, add a cover sheet if needed, and pay. The confirmation screen shows the exact scheduled time in your local time zone.
• Done: your fax is queued. unofax sends it automatically at the scheduled time and notifies you once the receiving machine acknowledges delivery.

The price is the same whether you send now or schedule for later. There is no extra charge for scheduling.

What happens after you pay

Once you complete payment, your fax enters a scheduled queue. At the exact time you selected, unofax initiates the fax transmission. Dialling the recipient's number, negotiating the connection, and transmitting your pages. The entire process is automatic.

If the receiving fax line is busy or does not answer, unofax retries automatically, just as it would for an immediate fax. You receive a delivery confirmation once the transmission is complete. If delivery fails after all retry attempts, you are notified and a refund is issued.

Your scheduled time is stored in UTC and converted to your local time zone for display. This means if you schedule a fax while travelling and then change time zones, the fax still goes out at the original intended moment.

Common questions

Quick answers about fax scheduling:

• How far in advance can I schedule?: Up to 7 days. The minimum is 5 minutes from now.
• What time zone is used?: The date and time picker uses your device's local time zone. The scheduled time is shown in your time zone on the confirmation screen. Internally, unofax converts everything to UTC so the fax goes out at the correct moment regardless of where you are.
• Can I cancel a scheduled fax?: Yes. Email support@unofax.com with your file name and fax number. Cancellation is available on a best-efforts basis and depends on how close the request is to the scheduled send time. A full refund is issued if the fax has not yet been sent.
• Does scheduling cost extra?: No. The per-page price is the same whether you send immediately or schedule for later.