Form Letters

Accessing Form Letters

On the 360 Toolbox menu, click Form Letters.

Creating a Form Letter

For detailed information on the fields in the Form Letters data entry form see Form Letters Sections in this topic.

Creating a Form Letter Based on Customer Information

Use the following procedure to create a Form Letter based on customer information:

Open Form Letters. The Form Letters data entry form appears.
In the Document Selection section, click the name of the main document that you want to merge.
In the Customer Selection section choose Customer from the Type list.

If you open Form Letters from the Customer Center, Policy, or Claims data entry form, AMS360 pre-fills the information in step 3 and 4 for you. You can change the information if needed.
Choose a customer, policy number, effective date, and claim, if appropriate.
In the Recipient Selection section, the pre-selected Category is "Customer". The customer and entities associated with the customer appear in the list of possible recipients. Also, notice that the customer is pre-selected for you, and already appears in the List of Recipients grid. If you do not want to send the letter to the customer, click Clear Recipient List.
Add additional recipients to the List of Recipients by selecting them from the customer and other categories and clicking Add to Recipient List.
In the Activity Options section, check Log Activity if you want to add a new Activity showing the letter was created. Then choose whether you want the Summary Only or the Entire Document attached to the activity. Check Provide Default Description to see the type of merge and document name on the first line of the Activity data entry form.

In the Activity Description area, enter a description for the activity associated with this form letter.
Click Edit & Merge, Merge & View, or Merge & Print.

See the Activity Options section in this topic for important information about using the Edit & Merge and Merge & View options with activity logging.

Special information for policies that contain both scheduled and unscheduled equipment associated with multiple locations: If you choose to merge data for a specific location using the Form Letter Preview – Data Selection, your merged document will contain scheduled and unscheduled items for all locations. Delete the information you do not want to include in the final merged document.

When you are finished, close Form Letters.

Creating a Form Letter Based on Target List Information

Use this procedure to create Form Letters for members of a Target List. This procedure assumes you have already created a target list created and listed in the Home Center Target Lists view.

Open Form Letters. The Form Letters data entry form appears.
In the Document Selection section, click the name of the document that you want to send to the members of the target list.
In the Customer Selection section choose Target List from the Type list. Choose the desired target list from the Select List. Then specify One document per Customer or One document per Policy.
In the Activity Options section, check Log Activity if you want to add a new Activity for each member of the list showing the letter was created. Then choose whether you want the Summary Only or the Entire Document attached to the activity. Check the Provide Default Description to see the type of merge and document name on the first line of the Activity data entry form.

In the Activity Description area, enter a description that will appear in activities for this letter for all customers in the list.
Click Edit & Merge, Merge & View, or Merge & Print in the toolbar.
When you are finished, close Form Letters.

If you use Edit & Merge AND the Filter option inside Word AND log Activity for the target list, the Activity is logged for every participant (ie customer or client) in the target list. AMS 360 does not recognize Word’s filter feature when logging activities.

Menus

The following menus are available in a data entry form. Click each menu item to see detailed information. Note that the available menus vary depending on the form.

Form Letters Sections

Quick Letters

Quick Letters allow you to select the document category, the document, and click View or Print and create your letter very quickly. If you have a customer open and a policy selected, then Form Letters, Quick Letters recognizes that information and uses the data to merge into the letter.

You can still make additional selections on the data entry form if needed, or simply print your letter and be finished.

Field Name	What is this?
Category	Assigned when the document was created. The category is used to group the letters by the general message they contain.
Document Name	The actual file name of the document. Example: Collection.doc
View	Click to merge the data into the form letter and view the finished product in Word before printing.
Print	Click to merge the data into the form letter and print the document in Word.

Document Selection

Select the document that you want to merge with the customer/target list recipient information. To add a new document, change, or remove an existing document see Document Library.

You can sort the documents based on any of the columns. Click on a column header to sort by that column in ascending order. Click it a second time to sort in descending order. A solid arrow appears on the header to indicate the grid information is being sorted on the information in that column. The default sort is by category.

Field Name	What is this?
Category	Assigned when the document was created. The category is used to group the letters by the general message they contain.
Document Name	The actual file name of the document. Example: Collection.doc
Saved	The date the document was created or last saved.
Summary	Additional information entered when the document was added to the document library.
Author	The person who created the document.

Customer Selection

Identify the customer or target list you want to reference in the selected document. If you selected Form Letters from the Customer Center, Policy, or Claims data entry form, the appropriate information pre-fills this section.

Field Name

What is this?

Type

Choose the type information you are using to create the form letter:

Option	What is this?
Customer	An individual customer record.
Target List	A target list created. See the Target List view from the Home Center for information on creating a Target List.

Customer

If you select Customer in the Type list, then the following fields are active:

Field

What is this?

Name

The name of the customer whose information will be used to create the form letter.

If you launched the Form Letters data entry form from the Customer Center, the open customer pre-fills this field.

Search

Use this link to open the Customer Search form where you can search for a customer.

Policy #

If the form letter includes policy information, select the policy number from the list.

If you launched the Form Letters data entry form from the Policy, the customer, policy number, and effective date pre-fills this field.

Eff. Date

If the form letter includes policy information, select the appropriate transaction effective date from the list.

If you launched the Form Letters data entry form from the Policy, the customer, policy number, and effective date pre-fills this field.

Claim

If the form letter includes claim information, select the claim number from the list.

If you launched the Form Letters data entry form from the Claims data entry form, the customer, policy number, effective date and claim information pre-fills this field.

Search

Use this link to open the Find Claim form where you can search for a claim.

Target List

If you select Target List in the Type list, then the following fields are active:

Field/Optio

What is this?

Select List

Choose the list that you want to use to create the form letters.

One document per Customer

Target Lists often include multiple policies that meet the selection criteria for each customer. Because of this you have the option to choose whether to create one letter for each customer or a letter for each policy.

Choose the appropriate option for creating your form letters.

One document per Policy

Recipient Selection

This section is visible only if Type = Customer in the Customer Selection section. Choose one or more recipients for the letter. One letter is created per recipient.

The customer you selected in the Customer Selection section automatically appears in the List of Recipients table. To select another recipient do the following:

Field Name/ Group

What is this?

Category

The category or location where the recipient is entered.

Option	What is this?
Customer	Use to display the customer as well as contacts and dependents entered for the customer.
Policy	Use to display applicant, company (from basic policy), broker (if entered), contact, and additional interest information entered on the policy.
Setup	Use to display additional interests and master certificate holders entered in Additional Interest Setup, brokers, and companies.

View

Click to merge the data into the form letter and view the finished product in Word before printing.

Print

Click to merge the data into the form letter and print the document in Word.

CC:

Select a recipient in the grid and click CC. This recipient appears in one of the CC fields. A carbon copy of the letter you are creating is generated for them.

Select All

Click to select all of the names in the grid.

You can select multiple names in the grid by using the Ctrl (hold while clicking individual, non sequential names) or Shift (hold while clicking the first and last names in a sequential list) keys.

Add to Recipient List

After selecting the names of additional recipients, click to add the names to the List of Recipients table.

Clear Recipient List

Click to remove all of the names from the List of Recipients table. You can then begin again to add names to the list.

To remove an individual recipient, select the recipient from the grid and press the Delete key.

List of Recipients

A table that displays the names that you have selected to send a letter to. When you choose a merge option, AMS360 creates a unique letter with the name and address information for each recipient.

CC #1 & 2

If you chose to send a carbon copy of the letter to one or more recipients, the names appear in this field. An exact copy of the form letter prints for these individuals or organizations.

Activity Options

Use this section to specify whether or not to log an activity for this letter and if so, the options to use.

If you select to log an activity, the activity is logged automatically and the Activity/Suspense data entry form does not display. If you select to Edit & Merge or Merge & View the form letter, AMS360 attaches the form letter in its original form. If you make changes to the letter while in Word and want to attach those changes to an activity, you must log another activity and attach the changed letter to it manually.

Field Name/ Group

What is this?

Log Activity

Check to create an activity for this form letter.

If your agency has been set up to require activity logging for form letters, this option is checked and cannot be changed. In this situation, an activity must be logged for the form letter.

Activity Logging Options

Title

Information

Summary Only

Use this option to attach only the details entered in the Summary Information section of the main document to the activity.

Attach Entire Document

This is the default. Use this option to attach the entire compressed merge document (text and formatting codes) to the activity.

To view the attached form letter through Activity the user must have Word installed. Otherwise, they cannot view the attached document because AMS360 uses the text and formatting codes stored in the database and displays it using Word.

Provide Default Descriptions

Check this option to display the type of merge (e.g., Merge & view) and the document name on the first line of the activity description.

Activity Description

Use this area to enter an Activity Description that will appear for the customer and/or all recipients of a target list.

Permanent Main Documents

AMS360 includes the following permanent main document templates. You can use Document Library to create new documents or copy one of these documents so you can customize it for your agency's need.

Permanent Documents

Category	Document Name	Category	Document Name
Accounting	Collection	Sales	AutoCostOfIns AutoHomeNoLife AutoIncreaseLimitsNoLife AutoNoHome AutoNoLife BirthdayLifeSales BirthOfDaughter BirthOfSon BoatProspect CommercialProspect HomeIncreaseLimitsNoLife HomeNoAuto HomeNoLife HomeSales InsuranceCosts LifePurchaseOption MoveIn NewMarriage OtherInsurance PleaseCall PolicyCheckup RecVehicleProspect Umbrella WillCall
Cancellation	AgencyCollection CancellationFollowUp CancellationRequest CompanyNonPay CompanyScheduledNonPay LifeCancellation ReminderPastDue UrgentPastDue
Claims	AutoClaimNoHomeWithAgent ClaimConfirmation HomeClaimNoAutoWithAgent RequestForEstimates RequestForRepairBills
Endorsement	EndorsementConfirmation
Labels	5060AddressLabels
Lists	CustomerListWithAddresses CustomerListWithPolicyInfo
Memos	AgencyBusinessMemo CompanyClaimMemo InterofficeMemo
New Business	LifeThankYou NewBusinessFollowup RequestMedicalHistory	Welcome	Recommendation Referral Welcome
Renewal	AgencyBillRenewal AgencyServiceSurvey DirectBillRenewal RenewalAutoIncrease	Welcome	Recommendation Referral Welcome

Form Letters

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