EFax is a service that allows you to email to a fax machine. Once setup, you can send an email to

with an attached PDF or Word document and it will then send the fax to the fax number in the email. For more information on the service, including pricing, see http://www.efax.com.

The challenge was to configure the email address using the fax address. The email address supports the use of mail merge fields, but unfortunately I was not able to get the fax number to work and build the address there. It had problems of containing dashes, spaces, etc. which are rejected by eFax.

So, I created a contact UDF to store the formatted fax number and used a SQL Query (attached to the menu) to update the eFax numbers before I sent them out. Then I referenced the UDF field in the email address and it took care of the problem.

Perfect this with one order before sending it en masse'.

1. Create a Contact UDF called EFax Number (with a space between) of type text.
2. Restart Control so the UDF is created.
3. Create a SQL Report in the main menu with query in the next section.
4. Run the SQL Report to update the UDFs. (Note, because this happens in SQL and Control doesn't know about it, you may not see it if you already had the customer record open. If you close Control and restart it should be there.)
5. Open a test order (preferably one where you are the ordered).
6. Send a test email, using the UDF containing the efax email address …

UPDATE AccountContactUserField
SET eFax_Number = (SELECT 
                      CASE WHEN SUBSTRING(FaxNumber, 1, 1) NOT IN ('0', '1') 
                      THEN '1'+FaxNumber 
                      ELSE FaxNumber 
                      END + '@eFaxSend.com' 
                    FROM
                    (
                        SELECT ID AS ContactID, AccountID,
                           SecondaryNumber, SecNumberTypeID, SecNumberTypeText,
                           REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(SecondaryNumber, '(', ''),')', ''), '-', ''),' ', ''), '.', ''), '011+', '011'), '+', '011')
                           AS FaxNumber
                        FROM AccountContact AC
                        WHERE SecondaryNumber IS NOT NULL 
                          AND LEN(RTrim(SecondaryNumber)) > 12
                          AND SecNumberTypeID = 11
                    ) TempFax
                    WHERE ContactID = ID
                    )
WHERE ID IN (SELECT ID 
             FROM AccountContact AC
             WHERE SecondaryNumber IS NOT NULL 
                   AND LEN(RTrim(SecondaryNumber)) > 12
                   AND SecNumberTypeID = 11
             )

Contributor: Team Cyrious

Date: 5/2010

Version: Control 5.0+