After an invoice payment transaction has been recorded, you can generate a mail merge letter to acknowledge it. This mail merge letter can allow for specific information about the transaction and constituent to be inserted into the body of the letter so it can be used for more than just acknowledgment if need be. You have two options when generating this letter, you can generate a single letter for a single transaction or generate a batch of letters for multiple transactions.
To send any acknowledgements, you must first have a cover letter created in the Mail Merge Gift Templates. You can learn more about creating a template in this article "How do I create a mail merge template." Once you have a thank you or acknowledgement cover letter created, you can proceed to the next step.
For a single letter, you will find the desired invoice payment transaction on the Transactions grid and look for the column called “Mail Merge.” In that column and on every transaction row, you will see an envelope icon. Clicking this icon on the desired transaction will launch a prompt window where you can select the setting for the single letter that will be generated for that constituent. The descriptions of the setting on the Mail Merge prompt window are below.
Your second option is to filter the Transaction grid for a batch of invoice payment transactions. Once you have filtered the grid to show only the desired transactions, you can click on the Actions menu and select “Print/Email Mail Merge.” This will launch the same prompt window as if you were generating a single letter. The only difference will be at the very bottom just above the “OK” button, you will see the total number of Mail Merge letters you will be generating within this batch. That number should match the number of invoice payment transactions you have currently displayed on the Transactions grid. The descriptions of the setting on the Mail Merge prompt window are below.
Mail Merge Template – Select which template from your Membership Mail Merge Library you wish to use for this letter.
Acknowledged – If the transaction record should show that it has been acknowledged.
Acknowledged How – How should the transaction record show it was acknowledged?
Acknowledged Date – What date should show for when the transaction was acknowledged?
Tribute Acknowledged - Set to NO as this is only used to send tribute notifications
Combine Split Gift Amounts - If the payment was a split across different For-Fund-Event-Appeal categories, the amounts will be combined in one letter when set to YES.
Delivery Options – How would you like the mail merge letter to be delivered/generated?
Print to PDF – The letter will generate/download to your device as a PDF.
Print to Word – The letter will generate/download to your device as a Word document.
Print to Word (Advanced) – The letter will generate/download to your device as a Word document. (You can use this option if the template doesn’t look correctly formatted with the standard Print to Word option.)
Email Link to PDF File – Generates an email to send to the constituent (membership owner) containing a link that will allow the email recipient to download a PDF of the letter. Be sure that everyone in your filtered list has an email address when selecting this method of delivery.
Email to Primary Email – Send the email only to the constituent’s default email address.
Email to All Emails – Send the email to all the email addresses on file within that constituent’s record.
Archive Options – Options for saving a copy of the letter.
Save to Documents – Save an internal copy of the letter in the constituent's record in their Documents tab.
Post to Portal – Allow for that saved letter to be accessed by the constituent within their portal account (must have the Advanced Portal feature activated.)
Document Name – Enter the name that will be displayed as the name of the document.
Document Category – Select which category should be assigned to the saved document record.
If you choose to send the email version of the mail merge letter, below are descriptions of the additional fields you will need to complete.
Email From Display Name – Enter the name that will show as the sender of the email, by default this is the user's name.
Email From – Enter the email address that will show as the sender of the email, by default this is the user's email.
Subject Line – Enter the text you wish to display as the subject Line of the email.
Email Body – Enter the content you wish to display within the body of the email. Note you can also insert in mail merge fields so the email will contain specific information about the membership transaction and constituent.
Note: If you accidentally delete the link for the Mail Merge letter, click the Gear icon next to the Insert Mail Merge Field dropdown. This will allow you to re-insert that link.
The attachments are password protected and the constituent (recipient) will need to enter their email address to open and view the attachment. There will be a notice that pops up indicating this for the recipient. This is intended to provide an extra layer of security and privacy protection for the recipient.
When you are ready to send the message, click the green Send button.
