In addition to printing and mailing letters, you can use e-mail to respond to incoming correspondence, whether it arrived in your office via e-mail or postal mail. You can use e-mail to respond to mail that's been logged in, or record the incoming mail and send an e-mail response as described in the steps below. You can also initiate correspondence that's not in response to incoming mail with an e-mail message.
To send an e-mail message:
Search for or add the correspondent's People record.
Select the Add Mail action on the People Record page.
Complete fields under the Incoming section. If you're initiating mail that's not in response to incoming correspondence, click in the In Method field and select No Incoming.
Enter response information in the Outgoing section. Select E-Mail in the Out Method field to create an e-mail response. When you select this method, the page refreshes to provide additional fields that apply only to e-mail correspondence. If the correspondent has multiple e-mail addresses, the primary address appears in the E-Mail To field. You can select a different address by clicking in that field and selecting another address from the list.
You cannot send an e-mail message if the People record does not have an e-mail address. If the E-Mail To field does not contain a valid e-mail address, the Send E-Mail action is unavailable.
Select a form letter by clicking the search icon next to the Form Letter field. In the Select Form Letter dialog that appears, click the letter you want to use. To view only those letters associated with the issue code or codes you selected, select the Limit by Codes button. Form letters with a status of Approved appear in the list; those with a status of Inactive do not. Form letters with any other status will appear if they're assignable and will be labeled as follows: -d- for Draft, -ra- for Request Approval, and -da- for Denied Approval. Form letters with these three status codes can be assigned but not sent via e-mail until their status is changed to Approved.
Once you've selected a letter, you can customize it by selecting the Customize HTML or Customize Word link. If you select Customize HTML, IQ displays the contents of the selected form letter in an HTML editor in the Mail record page. If you select Customize Word, IQ launches Microsoft's Word with the contents of the selected form letter.
Route the correspondence for approval if your office uses an approval process for mail, and if you need approval of the correspondence before it can be sent. You can do this in one of two ways:
Click in the Status field and select Request Approval to use the status approval process. A field will appear next to the Status field with one of two entries, Any Form/Custom Letter Approver or the name of your default approver for form or custom letters as set in your user Preferences, and select the Close action. This routes the letter to the person or persons with review and approval authority for your mail and lets them locate and approve it. Depending on the process established by your office, they might print it, add it to a batch, or return it to you for final processing.
OR
Select the Request Approval WF action to use the workflow approval process. This action launches a workflow that routes your mail to the person or persons who have authority to review and approve it. The workflow that is used with this action is assigned in your user Preferences.
Preview the e-mail by selecting the Preview E-Mail action. IQ displays the Preview E-Mail dialog with a field to enter the email addresses you want to send the preview to. Enter each address on a separate line and click Continue to send the preview. Note: IQ retains the list of email addresses for future previews.
Send the e-mail by selecting the Send E-Mail action, or add the mail to a batch. Note: If the letter status is anything other than Approved, or the letter has required fill-ins, you will not be able to send an e-mail message containing the letter. If the letter is added to a batch, it cannot be sent from the batch until the status is changed to Approved or it is checked back into the server.
If you add the letter to a batch, the status remains Approved until the letter is sent from the batch when the status will be changed to Completed. Select the Close action to close the page.
If you send an e-mail, the status of the mail record is automatically changed to Completed. Select the Close action to close the page.
If you print a draft or preview of the letter, the selected status remains. Select the Close action to close the page.