Sending letters

Send Letter 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. You then choose what happens to the letters: emailed to you for printing and posting, emailed to the clients, saved to their appointments or files, or sent to each client as a link by text message.

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. Sending 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. Delivering by email or text message link removes the printing and postage cost for those clients.

Before you start

Send Letter is available on Diarybook accounts only.
You need the Send SMS permission. Send Letter is not shown, or is greyed out, 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. Text messages sent with Send link by SMS text are charged as well.
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.
Email to client and Save to appointment need the DiaryPage add-on. Send link by SMS text needs an approved sender ID.

Where to start from

The Send Letter window can be opened from five places. Where you start decides who is already on the recipient list.

Start from	How	Recipients already listed
Jobs screen	Messaging area → Jobs → Send Letter on the toolbar	None
Appointments list	Tick the appointments → Appointments Menu → Send Letter	The clients in the selected appointments
Clients list	Tick the clients → Client Menu → Send Letter	The selected clients
A client’s record	Send Letter on the client’s toolbar	That client
Removing a client from a waiting list	Change the status to Removed, then select Generate letter in the Discharge Letter window	That waiting list entry, with Save to client’s secure files ticked

The discharge letter is described under Status and Suspensions. Diarybook doesn’t supply a discharge template: upload your own and choose it under Letter template each time. A letter sent for a waiting list entry can use the waiting list merge fields.

One letter is generated for each client, and one per client per appointment. A client in two of the selected appointments gets two letters.

Steps

The window is laid out as four numbered steps. Each step shows a tick when it is complete.

Open the Send Letter window from one of the places above.
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:.
If the template has a ^^dictation^^ field, open Letter text and type or record the text for it. See Letter text and dictation. This step is optional.
Under Who the letters are for, check the recipients. The heading shows how many recipients are listed. To add more, type into the search box to find clients, groups, appointments or a mobile number and select each one. To add whole client groups, select Add Groups. Each entry is listed with its Size. Select remove against an entry to take it off.
A mobile number is a recipient with no client record. When one is listed, the window notes “Letters to mobile numbers can only be emailed to you or sent as an SMS link - use the document link (dplink:doc)”, and the other actions are unavailable.
Under Actions, tick one or more of the options. See Choosing the actions.
Select Next. It stays unavailable until a template, at least one recipient and at least one action are in place, along with anything the chosen actions need.
Check the Letter summary panel that opens above the buttons:
- Letter template, with the number of pages and the price per page.
- Letters, the number of letters that will be generated.
- Emailed to, if you ticked Email to me.
- Emailed to clients or Saved to appointments, if you ticked those actions.
- Saved to client’s secure files or Saved to client’s public files, if you ticked those actions.
- Link by SMS, with the sender ID, if you ticked Send link by SMS text.
- Price and Tax, where tax applies, and Total.
- A warning if any clients have opted out of letters and will be skipped.
Select Send.

The panel changes to show Job # submitted and the job’s Status:, which updates while the panel is open. Select Open Job # to go to the job, Done to close the window, or Send Another to start a new batch.

Choosing the actions

The Actions step decides what happens to the generated letters. Email to me is ticked to start with. You can tick any combination.

Action	What happens	Needs
Email to me	The letters are emailed to the address you give, for you or your colleagues to print and post	An Email Address:
Email to client	Each client is emailed their letter	The DiaryPage add-on
Save to appointment	Each letter is saved to the appointment it was generated for, where the client can see it on their DiaryPage	The DiaryPage add-on, and every recipient on the list must be an appointment
Save to client’s secure files	Each letter is kept in the client’s Secure Files, encrypted, for staff only	The Write Secure Files permission
Save to client’s public files	Each letter is kept in the client’s Public Files, where it can be shared with the client by link	The Write Files permission
Send link by SMS text	Each client gets a text message with a link to their letter	An approved sender ID and the text of the message

The two Save to client’s actions are greyed out without the permission, with a note saying which one is needed. In the User List, Write Secure Files is Can Upload New Files under Secure Client Files, and Write Files is Can Upload New Files under Files. See Client Files for the difference between the two.

When Email to me or Email to client is ticked, an Email section appears:

Email Address: is where the letters are emailed to you. It is required only when Email to me is ticked. Separate several addresses with a semicolon (;).
Email Subject: is optional. If you leave it blank, the document name is used.

When Send link by SMS text is ticked, an SMS text section appears:

Sender ID: lists your approved sender IDs. Your default sender ID is selected if it is approved. If you have none, the section says You have no confirmed SMS sender IDs.
Type the message that goes to each client with the link to their letter. The message size and number of parts are shown as you type, as when sending an SMS.

Place the link in the message with a merge field. The link isn’t added for you.

Merge field	Where the link goes	Works for
`^^dplink:doc^^`	This letter only	Every recipient, including mobile numbers
`^^dplink:client^^`	The client’s documents page, which lists everything in their Public Files	Clients
`^^dplink:appt^^`	The client’s appointment page	Appointments

What the client sees

A client who opens a ^^dplink:doc^^ link from the text message sees a page with your service’s name, a reference for the letter job, and their letter listed under Documents. Selecting the letter opens the PDF.

A ^^dplink:client^^ link opens the client’s documents page instead, listing the files in their Public Files. Tick Save to client’s public files as well, so the letter is on that page.

If the link no longer matches a letter, the client sees Document not found, with a suggestion to check that the whole link was opened and, failing that, to contact your service.

Letter text and dictation

Some letters need a paragraph written for this batch, such as the reason for a closure, while the rest of the letter stays the same. Put a ^^dictation^^ field in the Word template where that text should go, and fill it in under Letter text in the Send Letter window. The same text goes into every letter in the batch.

Select Letter text to open the step, then either type into Letter text: or record it. The text is plain text only.

To record the text, you need the Letter Dictation add-on on your account. It is added from the Billing page. Without it, the step says recording is an add on service and you can still type.

Select Record. Your browser asks for permission to use the microphone the first time.
Dictate the text, then select Stop. A single recording can be up to 5 minutes long.
Diarybook transcribes the recording and places the text in Letter text:. Read it and correct anything misheard before you select Next.
If the transcription fails, select Retry, or select Discard recording to throw it away.

Recordings are not stored. They are discarded as soon as the text comes back.

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

If Email to me is the only action ticked, 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, or tick Email to client or Send link by SMS text to deliver the letters directly.

Email to client or Save to appointment can’t be ticked

Both need the DiaryPage add-on. Save to appointment also needs every entry on the recipient list to be an appointment, so it is unavailable if you started from the clients list or added a client or group. Start from the appointments list instead.

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. Text messages for Send link by SMS text are charged on top. Check the Letter summary panel before you select Send.

More letters than expected

Starting from the appointments list gives one letter per client per appointment. If a client is in several of the selected appointments, they get several letters. Select fewer appointments, or start from the clients list instead.

Fewer letters than recipients

Clients who have opted out of letters are skipped, and the panel warns how many. See Consent and opt-outs.

Your balance is too low

The Letter summary panel stops you with a message and a Fund your account here link. Fund the account, then select Next again.

Recording doesn’t start

If the message says microphone access was blocked, allow the microphone for the Diarybook site in your browser settings. If it says no microphone was found, or the microphone is in use by another application, fix that and select Record again. Some browsers don’t support recording at all; type the text instead.

The dictated text is wrong

Transcription is not perfect, especially with names and clinical terms. The text goes into every letter in the batch, so proof it in Letter text: before you select Next.

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. Letters emailed or linked to clients go out without a chance to proof them, so try a new template first with one client and Email to me only, and check the result in the Letters view.

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