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     Create a batch.

• Select the Letters palette in SA> 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.
• 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 (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.
• Select a status from the Change status to drop-down menu.
  • When the Letters batch is committed, any assessments included will update to the selected status.

3     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 tab is used to add specific assessments to the batch.
  • Click the Create icon to choose an assessment from the Assessment Selection window. Highlight the assessment you would like to add to the batch and click the Confirm icon to return to the Generate Letters window.
  • The Assessment tab overrides all other filters. If you use the Assessment tab to add assessments to the batch, only those assessments 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.