Cloudy's Favorite Apps: MORE from Apsona!

One of Cloudy's Favorite Apps just keeps getting better!

Apsona has long been one of Cloudy's top picks for enabling all kinds of easy data management tasks in salesforce.com. 
Now there is an add-on that allows easy merges to documents, spreadsheets, or email. Read on to see how easy it is to set up a merge for Thank You letters - in batches or one at a time!

(**note: this demo uses Salesforce + Non Profit Starter Pack with 1:1 model. Other data models and merge processes will vary in the details**)

First create a Word document with merge fields for the data you wish to pull in to your Thank You - this probably includes data from both the Donation record and the Contact record of the Donor. Upload this doc to the "Documents" tab in salesforce.com.

The merge fields needn't conform to any rules or format conventions - just call them whatever makes sense to you.

Next, create a report on the Donation Contact Roles tab in Apsona. Pull all of your merge field data into the report. Add any filter terms as needed, for example:

-Filter so that Donation "Stage=Posted/Closed Won"

-Consider creating a custom checkbox on donations that marks "Thank You Sent"; filter so that the report only shows un-thanked donations. 

If you don't see this tab, you must first create a custom tab "Configuration" under "Settings", then "Clear Cache" under settings to make it visible.

Run the report to preview the data. The list you see should be a complete list of un-thanked Donations. If everything looks good, you are ready to create your merge; click "Merge/Mail" at the top of your report.

Pro-Tip! If you want your Merge to *AUTOMATICALLY* update a field on a record, such as a "Thank You Sent" checkbox, you must include the ID field for that record in the report (ie. Donation ID).

The Merge Wizard that appears will walk you through the merge setup: Your uploaded Word template will be available to select, and you will be able to match your Word merge fields to the data columns in your report. Finally, note the options available in Step 4 of the merge: 

You can log a Task on each donation record, showing that a Thank You was generated. Even better, you can update a field on the record with a given value. 
For this process, check the custom "Thank You Sent" checkbox on the Donation record. You filtered the Merge report so that it only pulls donations where "Thank You Sent=False"; now you can run the Merge and it always creates a perfect set of the latest Thank Yous!

When it's time to create the next batch of Thank Yous, there is no need to go back to the report on Donation Contact Roles. Your new Merge can now be found and run under Settings>Merge Actions. 

One more amazing feature of Apsona Merge is the ability to very easily create a Merge Button on a record. For this example, a button right on the donation record can generate quick, one-off Thank Yous as needed. To create it, simply go to Settings>VF pages & buttons, look up your Merge, and click the "Generate code" button.

Copy this code into a new "Button" on Donations and add it to the Donation page layout. Now you can create a one-off Thank You on a Donation with a single click.

These Thank You letters look great, Cloudy!

If you would like some help evaluating this tool for your salesforce.com, please Contact Us!

Read about more of Cloudy's Favorite Apps:
Cloudy's Favorite Apps: Apsona (Part 1!)
Cloudy's Favorite Apps: DupeCatcher
Cloudy's Favorite Apps: Rollup Helper
Cloudy's Favorite Apps: FormAssembly
Cloudy's Favorite Apps: Conga Composer
Cloudy's Favorite Apps: FlipTop Social Profiles
Cloudy's Favorite Apps: Mass Edit + Mass Update + Mass Delete