Letters

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Collections MAX has a powerful ability that gives you the capability of either printing letters in house or exporting the data to a third party letter service.

Setting up Mail Merge templates: Collections MAX creates letters by use of a mail merge template in Microsoft Word. You can define and create an unlimited number of mail merge templates in the Collections MAX system.

Before we can set up a template, we are going to need a data source to map the data in the mail merge template to.

You will need to create a few letters prior to doing this which can be accomplished by adding a few letters in Collections MAX Collector.

From the control panel click Letters. Then at the top you will select the date from which you have scheduled the letters and then click the GO button.

If all is correct you should see some letters scheduled in the letter datagrid.

Now click on the Export to Excel button, select a filename and destination and click save.

This will be the data source that we will map our mail merge letters to.

CREATING A MAIL MERGE TEMPLATE

THE FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS ARE FOR MICROSOFT OFFICE 2003. OTHER VERSIONS OF MICROSOFT OFFICE EXCEPT OFFICE 2003 AND 2007 ARE NOT SUPPORTED.

If you are creating a mail merge letter from scratch then simply open Microsoft Word. If you already have a partial letter or letterhead that is a Microsoft Word (.doc) file then open it.

In Word, make sure that you have the mail merge toolbar visible. This can be accomplished by clicking on the top VIEW menu, then select TOOLBARS, then make sure that the MAIL MERGE toolbar has a check box in it.

After you have verified that you have the mail merge toolbar visible, Click on TOOLS (in the top menu) then click LETTERS AND MAILINGS, then select MAIL MERGE. There will be a mail merge wizard on the right hand side.

In step one of the Mail Merge wizard when it asks "What type of document are you working on?" select Letters and click Next.

In step two of the Mail Merge wizard when it asks "How do you want to set up your letters?"

if you don't have a template select use the current document, else select Start from existing document. Click Next

In step three you are going to select the recipients list. This is the same file that Collections MAX exported in the letters screen. Click the browse button and select your excel sheet. Select the entire sheet and also select the $Sheet1 option. You will see a list of recipients and click OK.

Click Next to move to step four.

In step four you are going to add the merge fields to the letter. To do this you will click the insert merge fields button on the mail merge toolbar, select the field you want and click OK.

Do this with all the fields that creates your dunning letter.

Make sure to save the letter when you are finished.

Mail Merge Database Fields

This is a break down of the letter fields that you will map to when creating dunning letters in Collections MAX.

Field	Description	Letter Type
filenumber	Account Filenumber	ALL
title	Mr., Ms, Mrs, Etc	ALL
firstname	Debtor First Name	ALL
middlename	Debtor Middle Name	ALL
lastname	Debtor Last Name	ALL
fullname	Full Name Of Debtor	(Use FULL NAME in all Address Fields) ALL
address	Address of debtor	ALL
address2	2nd line address of debtor	ALL
city	City of Debtor	ALL
state	State of Debtor	ALL
zip	Zip of Debtor	ALL
socialsecuritynumber	Social security number	ALL
creditor	Original creditor	ALL
debttype	Type of Debt	ALL
originalbalance	Original Balance	ALL
originalbalanceformat	Currency format $ of original balance	ALL
accountnumber	Account number	ALL
lastpaymentamount	Last payment amount	ALL
lastpaymentamountformat	Currency format $ of last payment amount	ALL
lastpaymentdate	Date of last payment	ALL
currentbalance	Current balance of account	ALL
currentbalanceformat	Currency format $ of current balance	ALL
letterdate	Date of letter M/DD/YYYY	ALL
letterdateformat	Date of letter M/DD/YYYY	ALL
lettername	Name of letter	ALL
makepayableto	Make payable to name	ALL
letterstatus	Status of letter	ALL
lettermonth	Month of letter number	ALL
letterday	Day of letter number	ALL
letteryear	Year of letter number	ALL
adressfull	Full address of debtor	ALL
clientname	Name of client	ALL
interestpercentage	Annual Percentage Rate (APR)	ALL
collectorname	Name of collector assigned to account	ALL
promiseamount	NOT USED	N/A
promiseamountformat	NOT USED	N/A
promisedate	NOT USED	N/A
promisedateformat	NOT USED	N/A
barcode	Barcode of filenumber	ALL
pplandownpayment	Down payment amount of payment plan	PAYMENT PLANS
pplandownpaymentformat	$ Currency format of down payment amount	PAYMENT PLANS
pplannumberofpayments	Number of payments in payment plan	PAYMENT PLANS
pplanpaymentamount	Payment amount for each payment in payment plan	PAYMENT PLANS
pplanpaymentamountformat	$ Currency format of payment amount	PAYMENT PLANS
pplandatedue	Date first payment is due in payment plan	PAYMENT PLANS
settlementamount	Amount of settlement	SETTLEMENT
settlementamountformat	$ Currency format of settlement amount	SETTLEMENT
settlementdatedue	Date settlement is due	SETTLEMENT
datedue	Date due	ALL