Creating a mail merge for emails

You can use the Mail Merge Wizard to send bulk emails to clients.

- You're able to send an email only, attach a standard document such as a newsletter or checklist or create a document based on a Word template; for example, a debtor statement.
- You have a record of the email stored in Practice Manager which you can access at any time. These can be accessed from the Client page > Documents tab.
- You can send emails to the primary email address or invoice email address (AE/AO) or a custom email address (AE). New Zealand AO Tax sites can send emails to a Tax email address.

Stage 1—Select your clients and launch the Mail Merge Wizard

To select your clients and launch the Mail merge wizard:

Choose your relevant option:

For a client merge, in the toolbar, click Contacts. The Find Clients page opens.
For a contacts merge, in the toolbar, click the Contacts drop-down and choose Open > Contacts. The Find Contacts page open.

You have a number of ways of creating this list:

Help topic	Link to help topic	Use
Reports	Using a report to select clients for a mail merge	Recommended for bulk emails. Categorise clients via their extra tab and include the extra field or list in a report. The report an be filtered on the extra field or list value. Use existing data in a report for your mail merge. For example, use a Debtor Statement report to email statements to your clients.
Append to Search	Append to Search Mail Merge	Used to print mailing labels. Can be used where clients are not categorised and you want to select specific clients to email.
Mail Merge lists (AE)	Mail merge lists	You may have a saved list of clients that you wish to email. Mail merge lists are user specific and can't be used by other employees.

On the Tasks bar, click Mail merge wizard. The Mail Merge Wizard — Select the mail merge method window opens.

Stage 2—Work through the mail merge wizard

Step 1—Select the mail merge method for emails

Don't close Outlook while sending emails. If you close Outlook during the mailing process, see Troubleshooting email issues.

From the Mail Merge wizard window, select Email.
Click the drop down to select the Send emails to email type.
Click Next. The email addresses of the selected clients and contacts are verified. If any clients or contacts don't have an email address or the email address is invalid, an error window appears listing the number of clients that don't have a valid email address.
Either:
- Click Continue to go to the next stage. The listed clients or contacts will not be sent an email.
- Click Cancel to exit the Mail Merge Wizard and enter a valid email address before restarting the mail merge procedure again.

Step 2—Select the email template

When you create your first mail merge for emails, you will create a new email template which you can re-use. You can create new email templates using the Mail Merge Wizard when required.

Choose one of the following options:
- Select the email template from the list
- Click Add new email template to Creating a new email template.
- To edit or delete an email template:
  - 1. Highlight the required email template.
    2. Right-click and select either Edit template or Delete template. See Editing and deleting email templates for more information.
Click Next.

Step 3—Confirm the email details

If needed, change the Email subject.

This is a mandatory field. The default text comes from the selected email template.

If you want to attach a file to the email, select one of the options:
1. If you click the Create and attach a Word document to this email checkbox, you select the Microsoft Word template to attach to the email in the next window.
2. If you select the Attach a file to the email checkbox, click the ellipsis to find and select a file and click Open to select the file attachment.
If you don't select a checkbox, an email will be generated based on the email template you selected.
In Email address to be sent from, if you want to change the email, click the drop-down and select a new email.
Emails in this list are retrieved from your Microsoft Outlook profile. We’ll remember the most recent email you selected.

The Company column lists the companies assigned to the contacts you have selected.
The Email account column shows the email used for sending emails. A separate email can be assigned for each company in the list.

If you wish to use a different Outlook profile:
Click Back.
Close and reopen Microsoft Outlook.
Select a different Outlook profile containing the email account you wish to send from.
In the Mail Merge wizard, click Next, then click the Email account dropdown to see the new list of email accounts to email from.
To configure the shared mailbox settings, click Configure a shared or delegate mailbox. The table in this window contains a list of manually-configured shared mailboxes.
To create a new shared mailbox:
1. Enter a name in Shared mailbox/On behalf of (for example, accounts@myob.com).
2. In Send using, select an email from the drop-down to assign an email to the shared mailbox (for example, username@yourpractice.com).
  
  Make sure that the email account in the Send using column is authorised in Outlook. Click the How do I do this? link for steps on verifying your email.
3. To save the entry, press [Enter]. The entry appears in the Email account drop-down.
  After creating the new shared mailbox entry, you will need to select the account in the Email account to be sent from section.
4. To delete a shared mailbox entry, highlight the row and press [Delete].
5. After creating the new shared mailbox entry, you will need to select the account in the Email account to be sent from section.
Click Next.

Step 4—Select the Word template for the letters or labels (if applicable)

The Mail Merge Wizard — Select the Word template for the letters or labels window opens only if you ticked the checkbox Create and attach a Word document to this email.

Either:
- - Highlight the required template or
  - To create a new template, click Add New Template. Word opens and prompts you to insert your merge fields. See Creating new document templates.
Click Next.

Step 5—Select the address to use (if applicable)

The Mail Merge Wizard — Select the address to be used opens only if you ticked the checkbox Create and attach a Word document to this email.

Here you select the address types to be used and their order.

The default is your primary address type; usually the postal address. You can be change this by selecting another available address that becomes the first address in the list. The system uses this address first. If this address doesn't exist for the client, the system default address will be used.

You cannot remove the system default address.

You can add several address types to the Address list. The first address found for each client will be used.

In the Available panel, select the address type required for the email.
Click the right arrow
. The address moves to the Selected panel.

The default, Postal, is used for any contact that may not have another type of address selected as their mailing address. If a number of Available address types are selected, you can order them in the list with the up and down arrows.
Click Next.

Step 6—Select the contact precedence

Here you select the associated contact type to be used and the sequence. You can select to send the Word document or email to someone in the company.

For example, to send a letter or email to someone in the company that has an association type of has Mailing Contact or has Director, the system addresses the letter or email to each contact that has this role (multiple letters or emails will be sent).

The default is the Main contact, who is the client or contact selected from the Find Clients or Find Contacts list.

If you are not using has Mailing Contact under Associations, leave the value as default and click Next to continue.

You can add several association types to the contact list. The first association type found for each client will be used.
If no contacts are found with any of the selected association types, the letter or email will be sent to the Main contact.

If you selected an association at this contact precedence stage, the following merge fields are to be taken from the associated contact and not the main selected client:

- <<AddresseeLine1>>
- <<Salutation>>
- <<AddresseeMailingName>>
- <<AssociatedAddress>>

Select the contact precedence required as the addressee from the Available panel if not using the Main contact name.
Click the right arrow
. The contact type to the Selected panel.
If a number of Available contact precedence types are selected they can be ordered in the list with the up and down arrows.

The contact types available for selection are those defined as Relationship Types in the system, for example Has director or Has wife.
Click Next.

Step 7—Save the email to client's documents

Here you apply the system defaults.

Document options are set to Multiple documents and can't be changed.

Under Other information, the Description comes from the Email Subject.

What happens during the email process?

When you send an email?

Any documents generated or attached by this process are saved with the client’s files. You can view these in the Client > Document tab of each client.
Emails and documents are sent to the selected email address if available. Otherwise, they are emailed to the client’s primary email address.

Run into any issues? See Troubleshooting emailing issues.