How to do mail merge in Linux versions of TaxCalc

Mail Merge allows you to export client data into documents, including letters and forms. You can access Mail Merge via Practice Manager.

In Windows most of this is handled in Microsoft Word through automation.. In Linux there are manual elements involved in completing a mail merge. This article will guide you through creating a Mail Merge document on Ubuntu, while using Libreoffice. Other distributions and office programs may look slightly different but the basic process will be the same.

1. Open TaxCalc
2. Open Practice Manager from the home screen.
3. Select Mail Merge from the left-hand menu. To start with you will see the standard filer (all clients) but you can create custom filters later.
4. Select Create New Mail Merge, which opens the wizard. Click Continue. (If you have previously created the mail merge client list select
5. Fill in the Name and Description fields for the Mail Merge. Click Continue.
6. Select the tax year and one of All Clients, Specific clients or Advanced client selection (Data mine).
7. Choose your clients and click Continue.
8. Check that the summary of clients is correct and click Continue.
9. Select a template from the list and click on Use Template.
10. You are now shown the Window saying MS Word not found. You need to export the client data in a csv format (You will later merge the data and letter to create the finished documents/output).

Please Note: When saving the document make sure you put the file extension on the end of the filename, for example documentname.csv. If this is not done the merge will not work.

11. click export data to save the csv file.
12. Export the template you want to use
13. Select the template.
14. click export template
15. save the template (the default is the user documents folder)
16. Close the window that opens when you save it

1. When you've made all relevant changes to the template, click Finish & Merge on the top toolbar of Word.
2. Click OK.
3. Your merged document should now appear on screen with merge details of your clients.

PLEASE NOTE: You can save a list of clients that you might use frequently by clicking on Finish & Save on the Finish screen.