Common Errors & Issue Create your own delinquent Mail Merge Letter in Word.

Scenario: You do not want to use the delinquent letter in the system, so you are wanting to create a custom delinquent letter.  iGov allows you to export out the data in excel to be used as a mail merge source file with MS Word to create a custom letter.

Process - In a couple of easy steps, you will create an export of property records that have a balance.  Then you will use that excel export of data as a source file to merge with a Word document to produce delinquent letters. 

Note: A Notice of Delinquent Accounts word doc mail merge template has been attached to this article. It may be downloaded and use it as a template to create your own mail merge delinquent letter. 

Step 1: Create a Mail Merge Export file from iGovServices.

How to extract the desired data from iGovServices to use with MS Word Mail Merge.:

In iGovServices locate the Utility button at the bottom of the black navigation bar which is found on the far left of the screen.  Click the Mail Merge dropdown that is shown in the image above by a red arrow. 

Select the Setup button as shown above by the red arrow. 

In Mail Merge Setup, click the green (+) located in the upper right.

A selection from the Document Type dropdown must be made. In this case  Property Tax PIDN Balance has been chosen.   Then enter a Document Name like Delinquent Letter.  The Document Name will become the name of your exported excel file. 

Once this has been filled out click the green Save button located in the lower right corner of the screen.  This is a one time setup process.

Note: Using the Property tax PIDN Balance will pull data for any property table record that has a charge with a gross>0.  These are not just past due records. 

Step 2: Export your source data file to use with your mail merge.

Go back to the Utility \ Mail Merge \  Export as shown above by the red arrow.  This is where the spreadsheet is created to be used with Mail Merge within MS Word. 

To create your data export;

1. Pick your document type of Property Tax PIDN Balance (that is the query the system will use)

2. Pick your document name, Delinquent Letter.

3. OPTIONAL: if you only wanted one PIDN, enter it here but most times this will be blank.

4. Rate Code: By selecting which rate codes to include, you can control the data included.  For example if you only wanted Property Tax data then only select property tax rate codes.  If you leave it blank, the sytem will include all codes.

*The Total field in the export is the total for the charge lines included in the export.  If you don't include all years then the total in the spreadsheet could be different then the overall total on the PIDN.  Remember, this query only includes charge lines with a GROSS>0 and for the rate codes selected.

Push the Get Data button and the system will generate a download automatically.  Be patient depending upon how much data you have.  It normally takes less than 1 minute for the file to create and download.

Note: The Notice of Delinquent Accounts that is attached to this article was created with the above rate codes. If you do not wish to go back so far, the word doc will have to be adjusted. 

The instructions above are for the creation of the .csv file used with MS Word Mail Merge. 

The next steps would be to use the MS Word doc template attached to this article or start a new mail merge document in Word.  Word has a friendly wizard to walk thru the process.  Remember, the downloaded file is your SOURCE for the letter.  You type the template letter in word and it displays the excel data on the letter.  The last step in a Mail Merge is to FINISH which means it takes your template and creates a NEW word document a page for each record in the excel file.  Mail Merge has been used for 30 years and is very friendly.

To learn how to do a mail merge follow the instructions within MS Word. You can also Google the instructions. 

If you would like assistance with the creation of the Word doc letter we would be happy to assist you. There will be an additional charge associated with this since it is outside standard tech support services and you may contact iGovServices support at support@igovservices.com.