Is it possible to program a Brother 3900 or 2820 fax machine to date/time stamp the time RECEIVED, rather than the time it was SENT?

Is it possible to program a Brother 3900 or 2820 fax machine to date/time stamp the time RECEIVED, rather than the time it was SENT? From a legal point of view, it’s important to know when we received an item. If not, are there models out there that do date stamp receipt? Thanks



According to the Brother manuals for these machines, “the date and time displayed by your machine will be printed on every fax you send.” Presumably this is standard for most machines, which means that the people faxing to you will have the same setup, so you will see the time they sent the fax, rather than the time you received it.

If you’re in the same time zone, this shouldn’t be an issue, since unless either machine is particularly slow, the time the fax was sent should be pretty close to the time it was received. But if you’re receiving a fax from New York, and you live in Los Angeles, or if you fax internationally, obviously this becomes a bigger issue.

One option is to print a “report” of your faxes. There are several different reports available, but what you’ll be looking for is the “fax journal,” which lists information about the last incoming and outgoing faxes. This should give you a list of the incoming faxes and the times they were received. You can print this report by pressing the “Reports” button, and then using the arrow keys to select which report you want.

You can also have the machine automatically print a journal at specific intervals (such as after a certain number of faxes, hours, or days). Do this by pressing the menu button, then 2, 4, 2. Use the arrows to choose the interval you want, then press the menu button again to set it.

Do you have a question about faxing? Send me your fax question.