Summary

The Letters process is used to generate customized, Microsoft Word-based form letters for a filtered range of LP accounts. These letters can serve a variety of purposes, such as notifying customers of changes to application rates or requesting updated permit information.

Customers associated with the LP account will only receive a letter if the Notification toggle is checked on the License Maintenance window (LP> Maintenance> License> General tab> Notification toggle). Any contacts attached to the license that also have the Notification toggle checked will receive a letter as well (LP> Maintenance> License> Contacts tab> select a contact> Notification toggle).

Once a letter is generated, the letter details will be recorded on the LP account record (LP> Maintenance> License> History tab). Follow this process to generate an LP Letters batch.

Step by Step

1     Create a batch.

• Select the Letters palette in LP> Letters. This will expand the Letters palette and display the steps in the batch process.
• Select New from the Letters batch number drop-down menu to create a new batch. This will open the New Batch window.
  • If there are open batches in the Letters process, you can create a new batch without affecting the open batches.
• Enter a Batch Month and Batch Year. These fields default to the current calendar period and are used for reference only. The transaction date of the billing is set up in the Generate step and the fiscal period the transactions are posted to is determined by the Journal Entry Date entered when creating the GL Distribution Report (LP> Letters> GL Distribution).
• Click the Generate icon to populate the Batch Number field with the next available batch number. Batch numbers are limited to five digits and must be unique within the batch month of the batch year.
  • You can also manually create a new batch by entering a Batch Number and clicking the Save icon  .
• You can delete batches by selecting a batch and pressing DELETE.

2     Generate the Letters.

• Open the Generate Letters window (LP> Letters> Generate).
• Check the License Type toggles for each of the license types you would like to include in the Letters batch. All license types will be checked by default. Hold down the SHIFT key to select multiple license types. You may decide to process a new Letters batch for each group of similar license types. This can help prevent overlapping records and redundant letters.
  • License types are used to group similar licenses together into logical associations.
  • License types are created and maintained on the License Type Maintenance window (LP> Maintenance> License Type).
• Check the Licenses Status toggles for each of the license statuses you would like to include in the Letters batch. All license statuses will be checked by default. Hold down the SHIFT key to select multiple license statuses.
  • License Statuses are primarily used for informational and reporting purposes. Licenses can be set up to automatically change to a particular status when a specified event takes place.
  • License statuses are created and maintained on the License Status Maintenance window (LP> Maintenance> License Status).
• Check the License Classes toggles for each of the license classes you would like to include in the Letters batch. All license classes will be checked by default. Hold down the SHIFT key to select multiple license classes.
  • License Classes can be used to further classify your Licenses. They are associated with License types. For example, Licenses types could be classified as residential, commercial, industrial or home based. License Classes are primarily informational and are available for reporting purposes.
  • License classes are created and maintained on the License Class Maintenance window (LP> Maintenance> License Class).
• Check the Business Type toggles for each of the business types you would like to include in the Letters batch. All business types will be checked by default. Hold down the SHIFT key to select multiple business types.
  • Business Types are created and maintained on the Business Type Maintenance window (LP> Maintenance> Business Type).
• Specify a Letter Transaction Date for the Letters batch.
  • This date will be associated with the Letters line item on the License window (LP> Maintenance> License> Select a license> History tab).
• Select a status from the Change status to drop-down menu.
  • When the Letters batch is committed, any licenses or applications included will update to the selected status.
• Enter a Description for the Letters batch. This description will display in the letters line item on the History tab of the License Maintenance window.
  • This description can be up to 60 characters long.

3     Complete the optional Filters, Tran Filters and License tabs.

• The Filters tab is used to filter the included licenses by category.
  • Select a Category from the drop-down menu.
  • Use the Application Number, License Number, Application Date, License Start, and Expiration Date fields to further filter the licenses included in the batch.
• The Pet tab will only be active if Pet is selected from the Category drop-down menu.
  • Use these filters to limit the licenses included in the batch by pet tag number and vaccination date.
• The Tran Filters tab is used to filter the included licenses by transaction type.
  • Select a Tran Type from the drop-down menu.
    • Your selection in the Tran Type field will determine which of the date range and return fields will be enabled below.
  • The Batch Process and Batch Number fields can be used to filter the transactions included in the batch by specific batches.
    • This is helpful when generating letters for web transactions, which are generally set up to populate a single batch per day.
• The Licenses tab is used to add specific licenses to the batch.
  • Click the Create icon   to choose a license from the License Selection window. Highlight the license you would like to add to the batch and click the Confirm icon   to return to the Generate Letters window.
  • The License tab overrides all other filters. If you use the license tab to add licenses to the batch, only those licenses will be included.
• Click the Confirm icon to generate the letters immediately or enter a date and time in the field next to the Confirm icon to schedule the letters to generate at a later time.

4     Edit and print the Letters.