Telephone & Fax [Friday Time Out Question]

Does your chart of accounts still have this on?

Didn't find your answer?

Some Friday_before_the bankholiday sillyness, but just updating our customised default templates for company accounts and I noted the default from our supplier STILL says "telephone & fax". 

I had this listed as  "Telephone & Internet" for the past 10 years or so, but am thinking about using the snappier "Telecoms"

Which do you use? 

If you say "Telephone and fax", you have to tell us the last time you used one.  I think about 6 or 7 years ago, which involed unplugging our whole office network to plug it in, having fished it out of the cupboard and blown the dust off.  Still got it, I think (!)

Replies (15)

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By tom123
22nd May 2020 15:25

Well, we had fax installed on our new multifunction copier - we tend to receive faxed POs from

JCB
Pratt & Whitney
Rolls Royce.

Maybe next time the contract gets renewed I won't specify a fax.

I have departmental analysis of telephones / mobiles etc.
But, I agree, I wouldn't include fax as part of the description as there is no recurring cost for it.

I am tending towards joining all our telecoms into one pot - as, these days, the costs tend to be fairly inclusive bundles, rather than varying much.

(if we ignore the £1k spend someone ran up whilst using a mobile from a cruise ship in Mexico..)

My motto is if I don't have a separate value on my invoice, I am not having one in my accounts - so I got rid of a load of apportionment routines.

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By Southwestbeancounter
22nd May 2020 15:34

Yes I think our chart of accounts defaults to 'telephone and fax' too although we customise it to 'telephone and internet' like you.

The last time someone wanted us to send them a fax message, I had to plug our all-in-one printer (like tom123) into the phone line so that we could send it - the request was from a building society if I remember correctly. They'd made their initial request via post and would not accept an email. That must have been at least 5 years ago.

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Replying to Southwestbeancounter:
By ireallyshouldknowthisbut
22nd May 2020 16:07

mine was definitely a mortgage reference. I made a big song and dance about the fact we didn't have a fax machine and they wouldn't budge, and ended up sending it whilst crawling under the desk (where the plug was for the phone socket) and I distinctly recall having to ask my assistant to pop out of the room for a coffee so I wouldn't look like a perv crawling around her legs!

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By the_fishmonger
22nd May 2020 15:46

Been using Telecoms for the past 5 or 6 years - mainly because people were getting all in one contracts from the likes of Sky, UW & others.

On most of the cloud software we use a standard chart of accounts. The sole exception being QB where, like VT, the account numbers are left off. It means that when a client calls to ask "where do I put my mobile to?", it's simple to just say Telecoms (adding 6500 if numbered). Regardless of the system in use, staff & subbies *should* know what's what

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paddle steamer
By DJKL
22nd May 2020 15:59

We still have our fax machine but no telephone line for it- the game was up for it when even the people sending us unrequested faxes about cheap cigarettes or debt recovery services stopped bothering.

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Replying to DJKL:
By ireallyshouldknowthisbut
22nd May 2020 16:11

I remember those! We used to get a debt collector's one who's logo was a muscled arm lifting up the scales of justice . Very subtle. I switched to a premium number for about 3-4 years to put them off, and unsubtly cost anyone an arm and leg to fax us anything. I used to have a solicitor who used it all the time until I spoke to his secretary and asked him to show him how to email! Once he stopped, it went in the cupboard.

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By Wanderer
22nd May 2020 16:45

Barclays PayFlow still use fax!

Real chore for salary payments, Manually write them on, often get 20p out, takes an age to find, scan then send via PDF to fax.

Cue call from PayFlow telling me I'm 30p out somewhere else. Take an age to find it. Ring them back 4 times until they answer.

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By Cheshire
22nd May 2020 17:24

Barclays chargeback team also still use fax. Insisted on one from a client, wouldnt take mail, email, phone info passed back to them, but would email the form out that they wanted completing.

I have a fax machine built into my printer. No clue how to use it but could find out if I really had to I suppose.

'Telephone and Fax' still appears on the COA.

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By SXGuy
22nd May 2020 18:24

Key time accounts production last time I used it around 2 years ago still had Telephone, Internet and Fax.

Now I use taxcalc I believe it says Telecommunications.

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Locutus of Borg
By Locutus
22nd May 2020 20:04

It is probably about 7 years since I last used a fax machine, at a client's premises (the monthly payroll mandate would get faxed to the bank). I have never owned one myself, but did have a fax to e-mail facility for a number of years.

On my charts of accounts "telephone and fax" has now generally been replaced by "telephone and internet".

I wonder what will replace internet and e-mail in a few decades' time.

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Replying to Locutus:
paddle steamer
By DJKL
22nd May 2020 21:25

Telepathy.

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By the_drookit_dug
23rd May 2020 08:58

The ONS still insist on their surveys being returned by fax or post. Dinosaurs.

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By frankfx
23rd May 2020 17:47

here is a true

fax machine tale.

Many years ago when 64-8 forms were not being processed on a timely basis.

Long Benton announced that Accountants could fax them .

Then Accountants started complaining that the faxes were not getting through.

You may have been part of that cohort.

I spoke to a manager at Long Benton

They had only 1 fax machine installed for this service, yes a solitary one.

That machine only worked 9 to 5 hours .

(engaged tone after that )

Why ? Because the risk that office cleaners may see the incoming faxes!

So ''why not place THE machine in locked room?''

''Never thought of that''

And the machine needed fresh paper fitted ( loo roll back then!), because it was sooooo busy

I said to the manager that I would pay £50 to get a second machine for them from Staples ( remember them?)

Manager declined offer, (taking it seriously to my surprise) But did provide another fax number for me to use on 'solemn' condition I did not share with other accountants !

I seem to recall the time on my chart of accounts to:

HMRC- Irrecoverable time cost

others may prefer to record it to

'Goodwill !! '

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By Clinton Lee
23rd May 2020 21:29

Why are you people unplugging the office network to send faxes?!

For decades now it's been possible to send a fax from your PC.

And if you don't have a scanner to make an electronic copy of the document, take a photo with your phone. Then zap that copy over to your PC.

Or download a fax app and send the fax directly from your mobile.

Unplugging the office router to send a fax, or physically plugging your multi-purpose printer into the phone line, suggests some of you are still living in the age of faxes even if you've retired those machines ;)

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FT
By FirstTab
24th May 2020 14:22

Chart of accounts - relaxation for accountants.

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