The Letter Writing Assistant is one of the most useful and least utilized features within Microsoft Dynamics GP.
This feature allows users to generate multiple letters for a variety of purposes, such as sending EFT Authentications, PTO Summaries, and requests for W-9 or W-4 forms. Creating repeated letters is time consuming and this feature will save your company time on these documents as well as custom documents.
Section 1: Creating a letter
Using the Letter Writing Assistant is a simple process within Microsoft Dynamics GP. To access the feature:
1. On the navigation bar on the top of the screen, go to Reports >> Letter Writing Assistant.
2. Once you open the Letter Writing Assistant, select “Next.” Then, leave the selection on “Prepare the letters using an existing letter.” Select “Next” again.
3. Next, select the module that you letter should fall under. If it is a customer-facing letter, highlight “Customer.” If it is a Vendor, select “Vendor.” For this example, I am selecting “Customer.” Then, select “Next.”
4. The next step is to add a range of customers. You will have the options of “All Customers,” “Range of Customer Names,” “Range of Customer IDs,” and “SmartList Selection.” For the “SmartList Selection” option, Section 2 of this article will address how to prepare a SmartList to be used. After selecting a range, select “Next.”
5. In the next section, you’ll choose a customer letter template. Once you have selected the template you wish to use, select “Next.”
6. The next screen verifies which customers you have selected. After reviewing the customers, select “Next.”
7. The final screen allows you to edit your company information that will appear in the header on the final letter.
8. Once you’ve reviewed and edited this information, select “Finish.” This will generate a Word document and automatically open Word.
Here is an example of the finished letter:
Section 2: Using SmartList with the Letter Writing Assistant
To use a SmartList with the Letter Writing Assistant, you need to create a SmartList favorite. For the example using customers, you would follow these steps:
1. Select the SmartList under Sales >> Customers. Once you open the Customer SmartList, select “Search” and then select the parameters you want. For example, you can set it to only send to active customers with a purchase within the last month.
2. Once you have your selections for the SmartList, you then create a favorite for this search.
Once you’ve added the favorite, you can go to the selection screen in the Letter Writing Assistant and select “SmartList Selection.” In the window, you will now see the name of the favorite you just created.
Select the favorite and proceed to complete the steps in the Letter Writing Assistant process as discussed above in Section 1: Creating a letter.
The Letter Writing Assistant is an underutilized and overlooked feature within Microsoft Dynamics GP. Just imagine the possibilities: Sending a custom letter to all your 1099 vendors without having to perform a lookup and physically create each letter; Or requesting missing vendor information from a vendor or customer. The possibilities are endless.
There are many other features within Microsoft Dynamics GP that can improve efficiency. Do you have processes that causes your company problems? Please reach out to Enavate to speak with a consultant about which features may benefit you.
About the Author
Samantha Vislay, MCSE is an Dynamics GP Techno-Functional Consultant located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and has been working with Dynamics GP since 2015. She is skilled in training, implementation, integrations and customizations.