The Transactions grid allows you to acknowledge a batch of transactions at once using the Actions menu and Print/Email Mail Merge. You will need to have at least once Mail Merge Gift Template letter created in order to utilize this feature. This is typically used when you have manually recorded several invoice payments or donations via check and wish to generate the letters at one time.
Invoices and donations that are made via a credit card using the invoice payment page or donation page will receive an automatic email thank you message. Sending an additional thank you would be optional for credit card payments.
Printing mail merge letters to Word and PDF requires that your browser's pop-up blocker is off. If you have trouble producing your letters, be sure to check that your pop-up blockers is off.
Begin by filtering you grid to identify the transactions you wish to include in your batch. This can include applying:
- A Date query where you select the specific date range, today's date, or a range like This Week, Last Week or Last 30 days.
- Choosing a transaction Type from the Quick Queries menu. For example, selecting only Invoice Payment or General type transactions to ensure you are sending thank you messages just for invoice payments and donations and not including any memberships or event purchases.
- You can also use filters applied to the Acknowledged column. If you would like to exclude all transactions that have already been acknowledged, add a filter to that column for “Is false” which means that there is no checkmark in that column and the transaction has not already been marked as acknowledged.
After you have identified the transactions you wish to acknowledge, go to Actions then click on Print/Email Mail Merge. A new window will open allowing you to select the letter to send to all of the constituents. Everyone on your list will receive the same letter, personalized with their information.
You will have all the same fields available as when you are sending an acknowledgement immediately with one addition - the Combine Split Gifts.
If you have any split gifts in your transaction list, each split will be listed separately to account for each transactions revenue categories. You have the option to combine them into one letter. If you turn this toggle to NO, a separate letter will be generated for each transaction, however they will use the exact same letter.
Other field include:
Mail Merge Template - this is a dropdown list of all the mail merge gift template letters in your library. You must choose a letter to proceed.
Acknowledged - Toggle this to YES to update the record with the acknowledgement information.
Acknowledged How - Select the method you will be sending this acknowledgement letter
Acknowledged Date - defaults to today's date, but you can edit as desired.
Tribute Acknowledged and Attach the Following… should be left No and None respectively.
Delivery Options:
- Print to PDF will print the letter in PDF format and open in a new browser window so you can review the letter prior to sending or printing.
- Print to Word will download the letter. If your letter does not download, be sure you have turned OFF your browser's pop up blocker.
- Print to Word (Advanced) is not used for acknowledgement letters.
Email Link to PDF file will open an email to send once the rest of your selections are made.
Email to Primary Email - sends just one email to the primary email address for this constituent
Email to All Emails including Company Contacts will send a copy of the email to all email addresses on file for this constituent.
Archive Options:
- Save to Documents if set to YES a copy of the letter will be saved in the constituent's Documents.
- Post to Portal is used with the Advanced Portal only and would allow the constituent to download a copy of the letter from their portal account.
- Document Name is any name you would like to give the document.
- Document Category is a dropdown list to choose the appropriate category for this acknowledgement document.
Click OK to generate the letter to download to Word or PDF to view, or open the email and edit the message prior to sending.
If you are creating a large number of mail merge letters, you may see a pop-up message indicating that the mail merge is working in the background and you can recover your letters from the Mail Merge Queue page.
You will receive an email when your mail merge is complete. You can recover the document in the Mail Merge & Texting module by clicking directly on Mail Merge Queue.
On the Mail Merge Queue grid you can see columns for Template Name, Date Created, Delivery Method, and Status.
Once the mail merge is complete, you can find a link to View in the Link column if the delivery method was Print to Word or PDF. If the message was sent via email, you will see a Email link to PDF file but no link to view. The Processed Records column will also have a link for you to view the records that were included in the message.
