BH - Follow-Up Letters
Book Hire Follow-Up Letters Overview
This is the program used to generate letters advising students of the books that they currently have on loan.
It would normally be run to remind borrowers of overdue books.
It uses the letter template that your school has set up using program Student Admin > Book Hire > Setup Information > Book Hire Setup on the 'Follow-up Letter' tab.
Letters can be generated as PDF's directly from this program or can be exported into Microsoft Word®.
General Tab
| Fields that require a further explanation | |
|---|---|
Student Code | Use this field to print out a letter for one borrower only. If you want to run letters for all of the students who have books on loan, leave this blank. You may select the 'Lookup' (Binoculars) icon and search for a valid borrower account code. |
Year Group | Use this field to print letters for all students in a particular year group (or year groups) with current borrowings. Leave this blank to print letters for all borrowers. The 'Year Group' is a multi-select field. Holding down the 'Shift' key while clicking on your options enables a range selection, holding down the 'Ctrl' key allows individual selection of additional fields. Important! You must make a selection in either this field or the 'Student Code' field. |
*Issue Date | Follow-up letters will include a reference to any books issued up to and including this date. An alternative way to use this field is to use the 'Date Range Picker' to select a range of dates. |
Book Category | Use this field to include or exclude books of a certain category. Leave this blank to include call categories of books. The 'Book Category' is a multi-select field. Holding down the 'Shift' key while clicking on your options enables a range selection, holding down the 'Ctrl' key allows individual selection of additional fields. |
Print Tab
Sort By
Use the options to order the follow-up letters that are printed by 'Student Surname', 'Student Code' or 'Year Group'.
Formatting Options
Export to PDF/Export to Word | This allows you to choose to print the follow-up letters using Adobe® PDF or Microsoft Word®. |
Deliver via email where possible | This option will generate follow-up letters (via email) for students where the student or parent record has a valid email address. It will not generate a printed letter to PDF for the borrowers who have an email generated. If you have selected a range of follow-up letters to print, the program will automatically generate printed follow-up letters to PDF for students or parents without email addresses on their master record. The email function will also CC each emailed letter to the address set up in the 'CC Email' field in program Student Admin > Book Hire > Setup Information > Book Hire Setup on the 'Parameters' tab. |
| Address Letter to: | |
Parent/Student | Indicate whether the letter is to be addressed to the parent or the student by clicking the appropriate radio button. If you nominate the 'parent' option, the program will follow the address hierarchy until it finds a valid email address. |
Include School Logo / Name on letters | The default for this is unchecked. You would typically run the follow-up letters in this mode if you were printing the follow-up letters on a letterhead or other pre-printed form. When checked, the follow-up letter will print the school logo and address information. Refer to the help for program Student Admin > Book Hire > Setup Information > Book Hire Setup on the 'Parameters' tab for details on setting up the email address and phone number (if they are different to the main school details). |
Include book replacement costs | The default for this is unchecked. Check this box to include the cost to replace each individual book printed in follow-up letters. For more information on book replacement charges, refer to program Student Admin > Book Hire > Book Information > Books on the 'Book Information' tab. |
Update correspondence date | The default for this is unchecked. Check this box if you want the program to update the correspondence date on the borrowing record with today's date. The correspondence date is visible on loan records accessible through program Student Admin > Book Hire > Book Processing > Book Issue/Return/Inquiry. |
Address Hierarchy
This option will only be available where you have chosen to address the follow-up letters to parents using the 'Address Letter to:' option above.
The 'Address Hierarchy' will determine which address will be printed on the follow-up letters.
Billing/Account Address | Field 1. Displays the 'Billing / Account Address' as defined in Finance > Parent Accounts > Setup Information > Parent Accounts Setup. |
| Select if required | This is an optional field that allows you to nominate a secondary address that will be picked up if the parent does not have the address stipulated in 'Field 1'. |
| Default Address | Displays the default address. This is the address that will be used for any parent that does not have either of the addresses stipulated in Field 1 or 2. The 'Address Hierarchy' screen is used to print an alternate address based on the absence of the preceding address type in the hierarchy on the parent account record. |
| Second Copy of Letter | |
Select if required | This would normally be used for split families where a second copy of the follow-up letter is required. It will only print a second copy for records where it finds an address in the selected address block(s). As an example, if you used an address block called 'non-custodial parent' then it will only produce two follow-up letters for records where there is an address in that address block. All the other records will only get one. This is a multi-select picklist which will allow you to produce more than one 'second copy' of the follow-up letter. Use 'Ctrl' and mouse click to select more than one. |
After making your required selections, click the 'GO' button to generate your follow-up letters.
Word Merge
Click the 'Word Merge File' button to generate a .txt file suitable for merging with a Word® letter or label template.
Word Merge
Word Merge export files are produced from various TASS.web or Staff Kiosk programs to extract a set of merge field codes and students/parents/employees details in a format required to insert into a Word Merge document.
Word Merge documents can be used for two purposes:
To produce a personalised document for each recipient containing the recipient's own details in place of the merge fields.
Example: School enrolment letters are printed for all incoming families. Each letter includes data extracted from TASS.web and is personalised for each recipient, such as the student and parent names and addresses, entry year group etc.To attach to an Email Template A PDF is attached as each email is sent containing the recipient's own details in place of the merge fields.
Example: Attendance emails to parents regarding their child's attendance. A PDF attachment is generated and attached at the time of sending the emails, personalised for each recipient.
The PDF Conversion API is required to attach Word Merge Files to Email Templates.
Word Merge documents can be attached to the following Email Template categories: Attendance, Enrolment, Immunisation Register, Parent Accounts, Parent Lounge Licences, Pastoral Care, Student Immunisations, Student Records, and Transfer Notes (WA).
Create a Word Merge document:
Generate the Word Merge export file.
Use the selection criteria from the appropriate program to produce a file that includes the desired merge fields headings and recipient details.
Select the 'Word Merge file' export button, usually found on the Print tab. If no word merge button exists, use the Excel export option and save as a csv file.
A PDF report entitled 'Students with no Communication Rules' will display if there are issues with your selection. These must be fixed before the export can be processed.
Create your Word Merge document.
Follow the steps in Word using the Mailings > Step-by-Step Mail Merge Wizard. Select the word merge export file generated above, and insert merge fields into the document wherever the personalised data will be populated. Preview the document but do not select 'Complete the merge'.
Save the document. Print if desired.To attach the Word Merge file to an Email Template:
Create an email template and attach the Word Merge document created above.
TASS.web System Admin > Utilities > Email Settings.