This article explains in detail the Mail Merge section of Resident and also guides you through the process of creating and sending customised letters.
This feature allows users to create and send customised letters via Resident. It allows you to create a word document template with codes that will pull data directly from the system into a letter such as salutations and addresses etc so that you can create one letter and it will create one for each Leaseholder based on this.
Before we begin please note the following:
- If your letter does not require you to pull data from Resident then please see our section on messaging as this feature is not for sending static letters.
- The only attachment that can be sent with a mail merge letter is the unit statement. Nothing more can be attached.
- To begin creating a mail merge you must first have a word file letter template set up to be able to pull the details and create the letter. Please see our example letter and codes at the bottom of this article if you need a place to start.
We recommend that a new template only be created if the letter you are sending differs greatly from the prior letter. Once you have created a template for an instance such as sending out AGM letters, we recommend that you simply change the words on the letter template each time you send a new one rather than creating a whole new mail merge template. Please see instructions below for clarification.
Stage 1 - Creating a template
Here we will show you how to set up a mail merge template.
Things you need to start:
1. Your word document letter template
2. The details of your margins, header height, footer height. If you do not know these please simply navigate to 'Settings' > 'Templates' > 'Document Templates' and open your service charge template. This page will give you all of the margins and header/footer details you currently use for your service charge demands.
If you already have a template set up and you would simply like to know how to send it please skip to stage 2 further down the page.
To begin setting up a mail merge template you must first navigate to ‘Settings’ > ‘Templates’ > ‘Mail Merge Templates’
Here you will find a list of any existing templates. You can open and amend these at any time. To create a new template, simply click on either the ‘Create New Leaseholder Template’ button or the ‘Create New Director Template’ button depending on your requirements.
Once open you will be met with the Mail Merge Template creation screen.
We will break this screen into 2 parts:
1. The email wording – This will be the details of the email subject and body should you choose to email your clients a copy of this letter. The letter will be attached to the email as a PDF.
2. The letter layout and template – This section requires you to provide the letter you wish to create a mail merge from and allows you to customise the layout etc.
We will start by giving our mail merge a title. This will allow you to select it later on from the list of templates so it should be related to the letter content. For example ‘AGM Invitation’.
The next box lets you know what template type you have selected. In our case it was for the Leaseholder. This cannot be changed here. If you wish to change this to a Director you must start again. Now we will move on to the first section:
Section1: The email wording
Here we must fill out the subject and body of the email with whatever we would like it to say. This may be something as simple as 'Please see attached' or it may be something more substantial.
Note: This section is mandatory. If you will not be emailing these out please feel free to type something small and simple such as 'NA' into the subject and body.
The tags section found at the top will aid you in personalising the content if you so wish. Entering a tag into the template here will pull data from Resident into the email. Please see example below:
I would like to pull my clients salutation into the beginning of the email like so:
Dear Mr Smith
The 'Dear' can be written by me but after that I will need to tell Resident to pull the salutation of whomever it is being sent to for each client. To do this I will need to find a tag that will do this for me. If I type what I am looking for into the 'Available Tags' search bar it will bring up all available tags it thinks I could be looking for.
Here, I have typed 'salutation' and it is letting me know it can give me a tag for the owner salutation (Leaseholder) or user salutation (my own salutation as an administrator on the system). I would like the owner salutation.
To add this tag onto the email all I need to do now is to left-click once on the option I would like and it will be copied ready for me to paste into the email. I will see confirmation of this pop up on the very bottom right hand side of Resident like so:
Now that this is copied I can type 'Dear' into the email body template and then paste (either right-click and 'paste' or CTRL+V) the copied code after it. It will then look like this:
Tags in the email section will always have two ## either side and must not be amended otherwise they will not pull the data you require.
Once I have filled out the email body and subject with everything I would like to and included tags if I require, I will be ready to move on to the letter.
Note that Resident automatically attaches a signature to all outgoing emails which consists of your logo (taken from 'Settings' > 'Branding') and your agency details (taken from 'Settings' > 'Agency Details').
Section 2: The Letter layout and template
This section is where I will add my mail merge letter. It is important at this stage that you have a word document letter prepared with the codes to pull the information you require.
If your letter does not require you to pull data then please see our section on messaging as this feature is not for sending static letters.
We recommend that you use the letter template provided at the bottom of this article as it provides a letter layout with all of the codes you would find on a standard letter. You can then simply fill out the body of the letter with the message you require and save it to your computer. You will also find attached a file with all of the codes you can use in the letter to pull different data. These codes are longer and may look slightly more complicated but they work in the same way as the tags on the email body. You simply need to copy and paste them where you require the data to be pulled and this will work. Please ensure you copy and paste the whole line to avoid any errors.
Once you have a word document letter ready with the codes you require it is simply a matter of uploading this to the large box near the bottom with the words 'Drop files here or click to upload' inside. Once uploaded you can click create to save this template.
Once you have your file in the box ready to be saved it will look like this:
This is ready to save but first we need to make a few more customisations to ensure it is ready to go.
We must complete the following:
1. Ensure that our page orientation is set correctly. This will almost always be portrait.
2. Set our margins. This will put white space around the content of the letter for printing purposes.
3. Set our header and footer. We can select these from the drop down boxes and select the height for each
4. Tick whether you would like the statement attached. (Since this is a mail merge no other items can be attached)
If you are not sure what to put for items 2 and 3 please navigate to 'Settings' > 'Templates' > 'Document Templates' and open your Service Charge template. You can copy the figures from that as they will be what you are already using for the service charges.
Once these are all set up you can now click 'Create' and you will have a template set up and ready to go. Now we can move onto stage 2: Sending the mail merge.
Now that we have set up this template, we can change the content of the email body or letter at any time if we wish to send out slightly different letters. We do not have to create a new mail merge template every time we wish to send a new letter.
We can, however, set up a new mail merge template if we wish to create one for a different purpose with specific letter differences.
STAGE 2 - Sending a mail merge
In this stage we have a template already set up and we simply want to send it out to our Leaseholders now.
There are two options for sending out a mail merge:
1. To Leaseholders
2. To Directors
The template you set up will only appear in the area for the clients you set it up for. To begin you must first open the block you are looking to create the mail merge for. Once open you must then click 'Block' > 'Mail Merge' to create a mail merge letter for your Leaseholders. For your Directors you must navigate to 'Company' > 'Mail Merge'.
This will open the mail merge landing page for your respective option (Leaseholder or Director). This will display all existing mail merges which have Created/Sent on this block previously.
If you want to send a new Mail Merge letter you must click the 'Create New Mail Merge' Button found at the top.
This will open the mail merge creation popup as shown below:
You can see from the 'Template Type' box that I have opened this for the Leaseholders in 'Block' > 'Mail Merge'. If you notice this is not saying the users you want then please open it in the correct manner for the user you are trying to send to.
Directors: 'Company' > 'Mail Merge'
Leaseholders: 'Block' > 'Mail Merge'
Clicking the 'List of Templates' drop down will show you all available templates for this client group (Leaseholders). If your template is not here then you have likely opened mail merge in the wrong menu.
You will notice a 'Create New Template' button. This can be used if you are creating a brand new template on the fly in the future but it is not recommended to use that until you are comfortable with creating templates.
Now we can click the 'Create New Mail Merge' button.
Once we click to create our mail merge we will be met with the mail merge screen as shown below. We must name our mail merge. In the example given for the below image we have created a mail merge template for inviting Leaseholders to an AGM meeting. The letter we are sending out today will use that template but it is specifically for the January meeting so we will give it a specific name for this of 'Jan 2020 AGM Invitation'.
We can then select the Leaseholders we would like to create this for. We can choose all, all with emails, all without emails or we can select individually.
We can then select 'Preview' to see what the body of the letter will look like. This preview will NOT show the header and footer as these are added in afterwards.
Once we click preview we will see what the body of the letter looks like and we can check that the layout looks ok and that the codes we used are pulling the data we have chosen. We can then select 'Create' or 'Create and Send'. If we select 'Create' we will still be able to send these after.
Once this has been created we will be taken back to the main mail merge screen while the system creates the mail merge. Usually this does not take long. If the mail merge is exceptionally large it can take up to a maximum of 10 minutes to create. Please refresh the page to check if this is created. Once you see your new mail merge appear on the page you can see if it has been sent to all (this will be a cross if it was only sent to some) with the 'All Emailed' column. Now we can open it with the eye icon.
Once we have opened this up we will be able to see all mail merge letters that were created for each unit and download them individually with the little download icons next to the Leaseholders name if we so wish to.
At this point we can download or send them all like so:
To send all you must click 'More Actions' > 'Send All'. These will send immediately.
To download all you must click the 'Download Options' button and you will get these options:
Download type:
Zip - Will download a zipped folder with individual files for each mail merge. This will allow you to send/save/manage these on an individual basis.
MergedPdf - Will download one large PDF file of all letters. This file makes it easy to print the letters for sending as you will only need to print one file.
Download Options allows you to choose to download only the letters that were not emailed (unticked) or to download all letters (ticked)
Your mail merge is now complete.