A cover sheet routes
A cover sheet is a delivery label. It names the recipient and the sender, gives both fax numbers, the date, the number of pages and a one-line subject. Its reader is whoever stands at the machine, and their only job is to walk the stack to the right desk. Nothing on it needs to be persuasive.
A cover letter argues
A cover letter is part of the document. It is addressed to a person, it explains what you are sending and what you want them to do, and it is signed. Its reader is the person who will act. It belongs to the content of the fax, not to its transport.
Which to send
- Routine paperwork to a shared machine: cover sheet only.
- A request that needs a decision: cover sheet, then cover letter, then the document.
- A reply to someone who is waiting for it: cover sheet only, with their reference number in the subject.
- A formal submission with a required form: follow the recipient instructions exactly; some ask for no cover sheet at all.
If you send both, and the mistakes to avoid
Keep them separate and in order: cover sheet first, cover letter second. Count both towards the page total you write on the cover sheet.
Two mistakes are common. The first is repeating the letter on the cover sheet: that page is the one most likely to be read by people the fax is not for, so sensitive detail does not belong on it. The second is sending only a cover letter to a shared machine, where nothing on the first page says which desk the pages are for — so they sit in the tray.
Make the cover sheet
Our free cover sheet tool builds a one-page PDF in your browser, letter sized, with an optional confidentiality note. Characters outside Western European alphabets are replaced in the PDF, so check names before you download. In the console your team can save cover sheet templates and attach one to any fax. See the cover sheet guide for the fields.