How to create a mail merge for July payment on account

As a TaxCalc user, reminding client's of their payment on account due by 31st July can now be complete using the Communication Centre option available.

If you have purchased the Communications Centre add-on module you can use a system template for July Payment on Account. Follow Can I create a Mailing List to show me all clients that have had a payment on account? to create your mailing list.

If not, you will have the ability to create mail merge letters with the required information. Firstly, you will need to create the mail merge template within Word to ensure it contains the information required for your letter. 

1. Open TaxCalc
2. Open Practice Manager from the home screen.
3. Select Communications > Mail Merge Templates from the left-hand menu. 
4. Create template
5. You will need to ensure you select the Tax Year applicable in your scenario e.g. 2021 will hold the payment on account for July 2022 and then choose a mailing list
   1. If you don't have a mailing list, you will need to create one to include the applicable clients. You can choose to add All Clients, Specific clients or Advanced client selection (Data mine).
6. You will receive a dialog window confirming word will now have opened in order to begin the construction of your letter template.
7. Click OK and open the word document accordingly.
8. You can now utilise the Insert Merge Field feature to begin inputting automated fields in the letter and complete the letter construction. If you would like further follow up to this, please review article KB 2180 How do I use Mail Merge? which contains a video walkthrough too. 
9. Once you are happy with the content, save the template to your machine
10. Return to TaxCalc and click on Import
11. Browse to the file saved in Step 9 and click on Open
12. Give the template a Name and Description and ensure you assign the letter to a suitable Category
13. Click on Save
14. The file will then be available for use under the Category added within Mail Merge Templates

Once the template is available, you can begin the use of the template for your letters to your clients.

1. Open Practice Manager from the home screen.
2. Select Communications > Mail Merge Templates from the left-hand menu. 
3. Select the template from the list and then Run mail merge
4. You will need to ensure you select the Tax Year applicable in your scenario e.g. 2021 will hold the payment on account for July 2022 and then choose a mailing list
5. Once the Mailing List has been selected, preview the clients in the list and if happy, click on Choose 
6. You will receive a pop up notification to advise the TaxCalc export has been successful (as shown below)
   
7. Within Word, select Mailing (if not already applied) and Preview Results
8. Word should now display the reminder letters for those clients selected who have a July payment on account due.
   1. Note: If no payment amount is showing, please check the year that has been selected in Step 5 above. 

For more information on Communications Centre, please see KB3199 Communications Centre: Collateral.