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Generating letters

Generate Letter on the Jobs screen produces a batch of letters outside the reminder schedule. You pick a Word template and choose the recipients, and Diarybook generates a PDF for each client and emails the letters to an address you give. It does not post them.

Why this matters

Not every letter is tied to an appointment. A service closure, a change of venue, or a recall for a whole client group needs the same letter sent to a defined list, once. Generating it from Diarybook means the letters are built from the client records you already hold, clients who have opted out of letters are left out automatically, and the job is kept as a record of who was written to and when.

Before you start

  • You need the Send SMS permission. The Generate Letter button is not shown without it. See Users and permissions.
  • Your account needs enough balance to cover the job. Letters are priced per page, and the page count comes from the template.
  • You need a Word template (.docx). Merge fields in the document are filled in for each recipient. The template can be uploaded during the steps below, or beforehand on the Files screen.

Steps

  1. Open the Messaging area and select Jobs.
  2. Select Generate Letter on the toolbar. The Generate Letter window opens.
  3. Under Letter template, select Pick a Word Document. The Letter Templates list shows the Word documents already on your account. Select one, or upload a new .docx file. The chosen file is shown under Document Name:.
  4. Under Choose the recipients of your letter, type into Search: to find clients, groups or appointments, and select each one to add it. To add whole client groups, select Add Groups. Each entry is listed with its Size, and Total recipients: shows the running total. Select remove against an entry to take it off.
  5. Under Send the letters to, enter the Email Address: the generated letters should go to. Separate several addresses with a semicolon (;).
  6. Optionally, enter an Email Subject:. If you leave it blank, the document name is used.
  7. Select Continue. It stays unavailable until a template, at least one recipient and a valid email address are in place.
  8. Check the Send panel:
    • Letter template:, with the number of pages and the price per page.
    • Total letters: and Total price:.
    • Letters sent to:, the email address from step 5.
    • Skipped:, if any clients have opted out of letters.
  9. Select Send.

Diarybook confirms that your letters have been submitted and gives the job number.

Following the job

The letter job appears in the Jobs list. Select it to open the job. A letter job has two views in its side menu.

Job Details shows when the job was Created, its Send Date, Status, who it is From, and the Selection of recipients it was built from. Under Letters it counts the Recipients, how many Failed, and how many Opted out.

While the job is Queued, you can select Pause Job. A paused job offers Resume Job and Cancel Job. A job can’t be paused or cancelled while it is still queuing.

Letters lists each generated letter with its Recipient, Pages, Status and Date. Select the PDF icon on a row to download that letter, or Download all to download the whole batch as a zip file. Use the search box to find a single client’s letter.

What to watch for

Nothing arrives at the clients

Diarybook emails the letters to the address you entered and stops there, as with Letter reminders. Someone has to print and post them. Use an address that a person actually reads.

The price is higher than expected

The price is per page, and the page count comes from the template. A template that spills onto a second page doubles the cost of every letter in the batch. Check the page count on the Send panel before you select Send.

Fewer letters than recipients

Clients who have opted out of letters are skipped, and the number is shown under Skipped:. See Consent and opt-outs.

Your balance is too low

The Send panel stops you with a warning and a Fund your account here link. Fund the account, then send again.

The letters have gone from the job

Generated letters can be downloaded from the Letters view for 2 months. After that the documents are removed. Download anything you need to keep before then.

Parts of the letter come out blank

A merge field with no value produces nothing rather than an error. Proof the first letters in the Letters view against real clients before posting the batch.

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