How To Batch Email Debtor Letters

Related Information

Create A Letter Contact Plan Select Debtors For Batch Print Letter Batch To Email Customizing Email Subject Line Letter Contact And Notes Email Content See Also

Examples & Tutorials

Enter A New Debtor Search For Records Group Debtors Use Pick Lists Use The Attachment Form Attach Files To Records Schedule Debtor Letters Schedule Contacts Setup Debtor Related Areas Manage Promised Payments Learn More About Working Accounts In Collect!

How To Batch Email Debtor Letters

This topic describes a way to use the Email feature to send emails to a list of debtors. It requires that you have a properly set up and fully functioning email program installed on your computer.

There are several ways to send email in a batch. This topic shows how to select a list of Debtors and schedule a letter to send to each, using a contact plan. Then the entire batch is sent via EMAIL. We will also use the Batch ID feature of the Batch Letter Options to prepare the letter batch.

We will:

Create a Letter Contact Plan
Select Debtors for Batch
Print Letter Batch to Email

It is recommended that you have an operator set up specifically for doing your email batch jobs. This is for control purposes so that only emails get printed during your email batch process.

It is recommended that you enable SMTP when printing batches of email. Please refer to How To Setup Sending Email in Collect! for details.

Create A Letter Contact Plan

1. Make sure that you have a letter that you want to use in your list of Report Definitions. The text of the letter will be sent as the body of your email. By default, the email Subject will be the Report Definition Name for the letter.

2. Make sure you have set up an operator as your email operator in the list of Operators.

3. Create a contact plan with a Letter type Event. In the Description field, choose the letter that you want to send as an email.

4. In this Letter Event make sure that "Assign to Specific Operator" is selected and select your email operator.

Select Debtors For Batch

1. Select Browse from the top menu bar and then select All Debtors from the drop-down choices.

2. Press F6 to create a list of debtors using search criteria. After choosing criteria, Press F8 to filter the list or press the Search button. Your list of chosen debtors is displayed.

OR

Use the spacebar and arrow keys to choose and tag debtors. Select Edit from the top menu bar and then select View Tags to filter the list. Your list of chosen debtors is displayed.

3. From the Tools menu at the top of the Collect! screen, choose Batch Processing.

4. Select ' Run contact plans' from the list of choices that are presented to you. Press the Next button.

5. The Select Accounts To Process dialog is displayed. Please make sure that 'Tag individual records' is selected. You have already chosen your debtors in the previous steps. Collect! will use these previously chosen debtors.

6. Press the NEXT button and choose the appropriate contact plan from the drop-down pick list. Press Next.

7. Press the START button and the contact plan will run. This will schedule a letter to each one of your chosen debtors.

Print Letter Batch To Email

1. Exit to the Main Menu and choose Daily Administration.

2. From the next menu, choose Daily Batch Processes.

3. From the next menu, choose Scheduled Batch Letters.

4. You will be asked whether you want to print reports/letters or mailing labels. Choose Letters.

5. Now the Batch Letter Options dialog will display. Choose the ID of your email operator for the Batch ID. Press Print.

6. In the Print Options dialog be sure that 'Email' is selected. Then press the PRINT button.

7. Collect! will ask you if you want to 'Mark this batch as completed.' Before doing so, it is recommended that you go to your email program and confirm that it has sent the emails. (You can check the Sent Items area to confirm this.)

8. If you are satisfied that your emails have been sent, you can choose 'Yes' to mark the contacts completed and Collect! will tell you how many emails were sent.

Customizing Email Subject Line

By default, the email Subject will be the Report Definition Name for the letter. You can personalize the Subject using the @SUBJECT command in your letter's Report Body. Please refer to Help topic, How to Add a Subject When Printing to Email, for details.

Letter Contact And Notes

When a letter is printed to Email, the Class field on the Letter Contact will display the value for "Email" from the Type pick list. This is "19" and you can attach a pick list to the Class field to display this as the word "Email." This will let your operators know that the letter was printed to Email, not to the printer.

Also, when a letter is printed to Email, the Debtor's Notes will display "printed to Email" in addition to the name of the Letter that was printed.

Email Content

The content of the Email letter will be saved to the Letter Contact. The Email contents are not turned into a metafile. They are stored as text only. When opening the Email blob, Collect! uses its standard Text Editor.

The Data field will contain the words "Email: {File Number}." This is the Debtor or Client Number and is the same convention used when sending an Email directly from a Debtor or Client.

The Email content will only be attached to the Letter Contact if the Email was successfully sent to the mail server AND the Letter Contact is marked 'Done'.