Letters & Forms

Administrators can manage letters and letter templates within the Framework by navigating to the System Management > Communication > Letters & Forms page. Letters within this page can be incorporated into Send Letter workflow steps by administrators and run by users when working persons/accounts.

By default, all letters and forms configured within the Framework are displayed within the grid, however administrators can filter results by either typing in the filter box or using the View drop-down.

The following columns display in the grid:

Column Name	Description
Letter	Displays the name of the letter in the following format: Letter Code-Letter Name.
Template	Displays the name of the template to which the letter is associated.
Category	Displays the category of the letter.
Type	Designates whether it is a letter or a form.
Last Modified	Denotes when the last modification on the letter was made.
Modified By	Denotes who made the last modification on the letter.

The Actions drop-down displays all of the functions associated to the Letter & Forms page. From actions drop-down, administrators can create, edit, copy and delete letters and templates.

Letter Attributes

All letters share common attributes that are defined when creating, editing and copying a letter.

The attributes are defined as follows:

Attribute

Description

Letter Code

Enter a Letter Code. This is a required field.

Letter Name

Enter a Letter Name. This name appears in the Send Letter workflow step when selecting the letter that is to be sent. This is a required field.

Letter Description

If desired, enter a description to provide more information about the letter.

Is this a letter or a form

From the drop-down, identify whether the document is a letter or a form.

There is no functionality difference when selecting a letter versus selecting a form.

Letter Category

From the drop-down, select a category for the letter. This is optional and is used for reporting purposes.

The Letter Category drop-down populates with the values of the Letter Category lookup defined in System Management > Field Configurations.

Show Creating a Letter

The steps to create a letter consist of defining a letter code and name then building a template.

To begin creating a letter:

Click the Actions drop-down and select Create Letter.
The Create Letter screen appears.
When finished defining the letter attributes, click Save or Save and Close to save and return to the Letters & Forms page. The new letter populates within the grid.

The next step is to build the letter template.

Show Editing a Letter

Edit letters to change the Letter Code, Letter Name, description and whether or not it is a form or letter.

To edit a letter:

Select the letter to edit within the Letters & Forms grid.
Click the Actions drop-down and select Edit Letter.
The Edit Letter screen appears. Make any necessary changes to the letter.
Click Save or Save and Close to save the letter and return to the Letters & Forms page. Click Cancel to return without saving.

Show Copying a Letter

To copy a letter:

Select the letter to copy within the Letters & Forms grid.
Click the Actions drop-down and select Copy Letter.
The Copy Letter screen appears. Make any necessary changes to the copied letter.
When finished making changes, click Save or Save and Close to save the new letter and return to the Letters & Forms page. The new letter populates in the page.

Show Deleting a Letter

To delete a letter:

Select the letter to delete within the Letters & Forms grid.
Click the Actions drop-down and select Delete Letter.
A confirmation message appears. Click Yes to delete the letter. Click No to return to the Letters & Forms page without deleting.

Letters associated within a workflow cannot be deleted. A message appears if attempting to delete a letter already associated within a workflow. To delete the letter, the workflow(s) it is associated to must be edited to remove the letter.

Show Creating/Editing a Letter or Form Template

To create or edit a letter or form template:

When a Letter is created for the first time, a default template is automatically created. The default letter template should be edited rather than creating a new template.

Select the letter within the Letters & Forms grid.
Click the Actions drop-down and select Edit Template.
The Letter Template screen displays with the General and Roles tabs enabled.

When Create Template is selected from the Actions drop-down, the Criteria tab is also enabled.

General Tab

General attributes are located within the General tab:

Attribute	Description
The letter for which the template is created	Displays the letter for which the template is being created as a read-only field.
Letter Template Code	Enter the template code for the new template. The template code carries over from what was defined when the letter was created. Akcelerant recommends keeping the code the same as the letter for consistency purposes. This is a required field.
Letter Template Description	Enter a description for the new letter template. This is a required field.
Letter Generation Method	Select one of the following letter generation methods: On Demand – This allows the user to print the letter within the workflow step. The user can edit the letter when executing the workflow step. Batch Print – The letter is sent to the Framework’s Batch Letting Printing feature. Any user that has permissions to Batch Letter Printing can print whenever he/she desires. The user does not have the option to view/edit or print the letter when executing the workflow step. Outbound Export – This method is only utilized with the Framework's Letter Export functionality. The user running the workflow does not have the option to view/edit/print the letter in the workflow step. Users are also not able to view/edit/print the letter from the Letter History screen. Letter Export settings are set in System Management > Exports > Other Actions.
Letter Category	Displays the category defined during creation of the letter as a read-only field.

Criteria

The criteria attributes are located within the Criteria tab. The Criteria tab allows administrators to define the criteria an account must meet in order for a specific letter template to be generated. For a letter/form that may have multiple templates associated to it, defining criteria specifies the conditions that determine which template should be used.

For example, an institution may have customers in three different states: New Jersey, Delaware and New York. Because of statewide regulations, the templates for each state must be designed differently to conform to the regulations for each state. When building a template for the state of New Jersey, the administrator can set the criteria to look for the primary’s home state to be New Jersey so when the letter is sent, it is only sent to appropriate customers in New Jersey.

Roles

The role attributes are located within the Roles tab. A list of all roles defined by the System Administrator in System Management > Role Types is displayed.

Attribute	Description
Assign Roles	Select the Role types that should receive the letter. The system automatically generates a letter to the person(s) with the role types selected. For example, the institution needs to send a letter on all of Audrey’s delinquent accounts and any joint owners on her accounts. The system administrator of the Framework selects Primary and Joint Owner in the Roles tab for this letter.

The primary role code within the database is imported into the Framework and automatically mapped to all letters upon completion of the first batch import. For more information, please see the connector guide for the applicable core interface.

At least one Role type must be selected. If no role types are selected, a message appears directing the user to assign at least one role.

Prior to designing the letter, determine if the letter is to include just the information of the person the letter is sent to or information of multiple people associated to the account. An example would be having both the Primary and Joint Owners name on the same letter.

When finished defining the information within the General, Criteria and Roles tabs, click the Click to Launch Template button at the top of the New Letter Template window. The Template Editor opens containing a Fields tab and a Grids tab.

Show Fields Tab

The Template Editor allows the user to add fields or grids to the Word document. From the Template Editor toolbar, the system administrator can also open an existing Word document and edit it using the Template Editor.

If the Word document contains pre-existing fields, the fields must be deleted and re-mapped using the Framework fields.

The Fields tab displays a list of all available fields in the Framework to add to a letter, grouped into the following folders:

Folder Name

Description

Account

Contains all fields associated to the account. The Account folder contains the Primary and Secondary folders. Select fields from these folders if more than one person is being added to the letter.

For details on when the Account > Persons fields should be used, please see the Letters and Forms: Person vs. Account > Person Fields topic within the Framework User and Administrator Guide.

Workflow

Contains all fields customized in the Configure Fields tab when building a workflow.

Person

Contains all fields associated to the person.

For details on when the Persons fields should be used, please see the Letters and Forms: Person vs. Account > Person Fields topic within the Framework User and Administrator Guide.

Case

Contains fields that are associated to a case.

Case-Custom Fields

Contains custom case fields.

Account - Promise Fields

Contains fields relative to promise amounts, such as First Promise amount, last promise amount, etc.

Use Total Promise Amount to display the total amount promised.

Account - Payment Fields

Contains fields associated to payments such as payment amount, payment date, transfer source account and transfer destination account.

End User Fields

Contains all fields that can be used in relation to the user. These fields may want to be used to sign a letter if the letter should contain the institutions employees contact information.

Date Fields

Contains Current Date Fields. These are used when the current date or a current day plus a designated amount of days date range needs to be added.

Show Grid Tab

The Grids tab displays the following grids available to use in a letter:

Outbound letter export functionality does not support the export of grid data. If a letter contains a grid, the letter exports with all content excluding the grid.

Only one grid can be on a letter at a time. Some fields displayed in these grids are not available in the field tree.

Grid Name	Description
DQ Fields for Letter	This grid contains account related delinquency information such as Balance, DQ Amount, Due Date, etc. The following fields are available in this grid: Account Link Masked Account Number Account Number Masked Account Type-Description Balance Current Late Charges DQAmount Due Date Interest Rate Payment Amount Due SSN/TIN Masked
Vehicle Fields for Letter	This grid contains vehicle collateral information such as Make, Model, VIN, etc. The Framework supports multiple pieces of Collateral. This allows the institution to place multiple collateral in a letter within a grid. These fields are not available in the field tree. The following fields are available in this grid: License Plate Number Make Model VIN Year
Real Estate Fields for Letter	This grid contains real estate fields such as address, description, Parcel Number and Property type description. These fields are not available in the field tree. The following fields are available in this grid: Address Description Parcel Number Property Type-Description
Promise to Pay Fields for Letter	This grid provides pertinent information regarding a customer's promise to pay information. This grid contains the following fields: Account Account Type Promise Date Amount Paid Date Paid Promise Status Payment Type
Most Recent Credit Risk Factors	This grid displays any credit report risk factors associated to a person when a credit report is generated. This grid contains the following field: Risk Factor Description

Select a grid and click Insert to add it to the document. Double-clicking the grid, or highlighting a grid and clicking Edit, allows the institution to:

Within the Grid Properties section, determine if a table border should display.
Within the Field Properties section, define custom labels to display within the letter for the field.
Determine the width for each individual column. By default, each column is set to 120 pixels.
Determine if columns should have left, center or right justification.
Define what fields to display on the grid.
Determine if a total amount should display.

When finished customizing the grid click Save to save and return to the template editor. Click Cancel to close the grid without saving.

For example, an institution may want to add the DQ Fields for Letter grid but not have the following fields displayed on the grid: Account Number Masked and Interest Rate. They would then deselect the check mark in the display column. An institution may want the total DQ Amount at the bottom of the grid and would select the Total check box.

Once a grid has been added to a letter template, no changes can be made to it. If changes need to be made the grid must be deleted from the template, re-configured and then added back into the template.

To Preview the letter, enter in an Account, Case or SSN/TIN number and select Preview this Letter.
Select Save to save the Letter Template. The Template Editor and Word document closes automatically.
Select Save and Close on the Letter Template window. The letter is now available to be added to a Send Letter workflow step.

Editing a letter template requires the user to save in both places defined above. If the user does not save on both the Letter Editor screen and Letter Template window, the letter does not save correctly.

Show Copying a Letter Template

To copy a letter template:

Select the letter template within the Letters & Forms grid.
Click the Actions drop-down and select Copy Template.
The Copy Template screen appears. Within the Template Editor, make any necessary changes to the template information and fields.
When finished, click Save or Save and Close to save the new template and return to the Letters & Forms page. Click Cancel to return without saving.

Show Deleting a Letter Template

To delete a letter template:

When a new letter is created, it is assigned a “default” template. Default templates cannot be deleted.

Select the letter template within the Letters & Forms grid.
Click the Actions drop-down and select Delete Template.
A confirmation message appears. Click Yes to delete the template. Click No to return to the Letters & Forms page without deleting.

Workflows

Send Letter Workflow Step