Mail Merge

Abacus has a mail merge function which allows you to create personalised emails and letters for parents/carers in bulk based on the information stored in the system. This means you no longer have to type out individual letters for each child, saving you valuable time!  

To create a mail merge, do the following:

1. Click on the 'Reports' button and select 'Mail Merge'.
   This will display the Mail Merge page:
   
   
   
   
2. Enter a name for the letter/email you are creating in the 'Letter Name' field.
   
3. Begin typing your letter/email into the text box. 
   
4. You can change the font and formatting using the options above the text box.
5. To personalise the letter/email you will need to select some data fields from the 'Custom Fields' dropdown:
   
   
   
   
6. Any data fields you select will be inserted into your letter/email; these fields will be replaced by the data stored in your Abacus system when you print/email it. 
   
7. For example, a personalised letter/email inviting parents/carers to attend a progress review meeting might look as follows:
   
   
   
   
8. If you are sending your mail merge as an email you can attach a file to it by clicking on the 'Add attachment' button. 
   A window will appear for you to select a file from your device:
   
   
   Please note: You can only attach one file to your mail merge.
   
   
9. Click on the 'Choose file' button and select the file you want to attach then click on the 'Upload' button.
   
10. If you are sending your letter/email to all parents/carers make sure that all of the checkboxes are selected in the Recipients List:
    
    
    
    
11. You may notice that a parent/carer is listed more than once, this is because they are listed once for each child attending your setting e.g. if a parent has 2 children attending your setting then their name will appear twice in the list so you are able to produce a letter/email for each child.
    
12. If you want to send your letter/email to specific parents/carers only click on the 'Recipients' button.
    This will display the Recipients filters:
    
    
    
    
13. Select the required filter options to ensure that your letter/email is only sent to the relevant parents/carers.
    For example, if you needed to send an email to the parents/carers of all children who hadn't previously had Chickenpox then you could do this by selecting 'Chicken Pox' from the 'Have not had' field within the 'Illnesses' filter box.
    
14. Once you have selected the relevant filters, click on the 'Letter Details' button to return to the Mail Merge page.
    
15. If you are emailing your mail merge, click on the 'Email' button. 
    An alert will be displayed asking you to confirm that you wish to email the selected parents/carers:
    
    
    
    Click on the 'Yes' button to send the email.
    
    
16. If you are sending your mail merge as letters, click on the 'Mail Merge' button. A window will appear with a preview of each of the letters that the system has generated. For example:
    
    
    
    
17. If you would like to save your mail merge to use again in the future, click on the 'Save' button. You will be able to access this in future by selecting it from the 'Predefined Letters' dropdown. For example:
    
    
    

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