Summary

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

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

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

Step by Step

1     Open or create a new Letters batch.

• Open the Letters Batches window (SA> Letters). The Batches window will display all the open Letters batches.
• Select a batch and click DETAILS to open the selected batch.
• Select a batch and click the Delete button to delete the selected batch. Any uncommitted data in the batch will be deleted.
• Click the Create New Batch button to create a new batch. This will open the Create Batch window.
  • If there are open batches in the Letters process, you can create a new batch without affecting the open batches.
• The Batch Month and Batch Year fields default to the current date and are used for reference only and are not necessarily the fiscal month and year the transactions in the batch will be posted to.
• Click the Create New Batch button to create the new Letters batch.

2     Open the Batch Overview page.

• The Batch Overview page provides a general overview of the selected batch.
• The left navigation menu displays all the steps in the Letters process.
• In the main section you'll see information about batch steps that are currently processing, next available batch steps, and the last completed batch step.
  • Batch steps that are currently processing will display a blue indicator bar to alert you that the step has not yet completed.
  • Once the preceding batch step is complete, the next available batch steps will be enabled and you can select the next step you would like to run.
    • While some batch steps are optional, any batch step that includes the Required tag   must be completed before the batch is allowed to proceed through to the Commit step.
• The Batch Outputs section on the right will display any reports or exports that have already been generated in the Letters process.

3     Generate the Letters.

• Open the Generate Letters window (SA> Letters> Generate).
• Check the Type toggles for each of the assessment types you would like to include in the Letters batch. All assessment types will be checked by default. You may decide to process a new Letters batch for each group of similar assessment types. This can help prevent overlapping records and redundant letters.
  • Assessment types are used to group similar assessments together into logical associations.
  • Assessment types are created and maintained on the Assessment Type Maintenance window (SA> Maintenance> Assessment Type).
• Check the Status toggles for each of the assessment statuses you would like to include in the Letters batch. All assessment statuses will be checked by default.
  • Assessment statuses are primarily used for informational and reporting purposes. Assessments can be set up to automatically change to a particular status when a specified event takes place.
  • Assessment statuses are created and maintained on the Assessment Status Maintenance window (SA> Maintenance> Assessment Status).
• Check the Cycle toggles for each of the billing cycles you would like to include in the Letters batch. All cycles will be checked by default.
  • Billing cycles are used to group customer accounts that should be billed in the same billing batch.
  • Billing cycles are created and maintained on the Billing Cycle Maintenance window (SA> Maintenance> Billing Cycle).
• Check the Principal Fee and Interest Fee toggles for each principal and interest fee you would like to include in the batch. All principal and interest fees will be checked by default.
  • If the Principal and Interest Fee fields do not display any fees, you will need to create them.
  • Fees are created and maintained on the Fee Maintenance window (SA> Maintenance> Fee).
• Specify a Letter Transaction Date for the Letters batch.
  • This date will be associated with the Letters line item on the Assessment Maintenance window (SA> Maintenance> Assessment> History tab).
• Enter a Letter Transaction Description for the Letters batch. This description will display in the letters line item on the History tab of the Assessment Maintenance window.
  • This field can be up to 60 characters long.
• Enter a status in the Change Status To field or click the field search button   to select one from a list.
  • When the Letters batch is committed, any assessments included will update to the selected status.

4     Complete the optional Filters and Permit tabs.

• The General, Location and Tran tabs are used to filter the assessments that will be included in the batch by general assessment details, lot location details, or assessment transaction history details.
• The Assessment data grid below is used to add specific assessments to the batch.
  • Click ADD ASSESSMENT to choose an assessment from the Assessment Selection window. Filter and select the assessment you would like to add to the batch and click the Select button to return to the Generate Letters window.
  • The Assessment data grid overrides all other filters. If you use the Assessment data grid to add assessments to the batch, only those assessments will be included.
• Click the Submit button to generate the letters.

5     Edit and print the Letters.