Setting up your filters

Before you can process birthday mailers, you need to first set your filters to display the list of contacts you want to send birthday mailers to.

Basic Filters

1. Navigate to the Contacts workspace and select the Contacts tab at the top. This is the base list of all individuals in your database.
   
2. Use the Status filter button and check the boxes next to Clients (and Prospects if applicable to your business), then click Apply. This will filter the base list of Contacts to show only the clients on that list.
   
3. Click Filter Options and select Add Filter Fields.
   
4. Scroll down past the Custom Fields and check the box for Birthday in the profile section. Click OK.
   
5. Change the Operator field from equals to between.
6. Click the Calendar button in the From and To fields. Then select day and use the sliders to create a range for the filter to look at. Typically, they are to set to day+8 and day+14 to look a week into the future. Click Apply when finished.
   
7. Click the Save button.
   
8. Name the filter Weekly Birthday Mailer and click Save As.

Additional Filter Options

As each office will have its own needs, the basic filters may not be enough to retrieve an appropriate list of Contacts needing birthday mailers. Below are few additional options that can be used as well.

Custom Status

You will have three status options within G5 (Status 1, Status 2, Status 3) that we can customize for you to better fit your needs.

For example, if you want to be able to send birthday mailers to your clients’ children without having to mark the children as clients themselves, we can set one of the available status options to Child of Client that you can then apply to the children. You would then include this new status in your filter for birthday mailers.

Category

Another option would be to create a Category for Birthday Mailer. This can be added to any Contact that you want to send a birthday mailer to. And if something happens and you no longer want to send them birthday letters, all you have to do is remove them.

To create the Category:

1. Go to the Customize Workspace.
2. Click on the Categories tab.
3. Click on the add button.
   
4. Set the name to Birthday Mailer.
5. Leave the group as Profile.
6. Check the box for Show in Rule Conditions.
7. Leave the view and edit security options as Public.
8. Click OK.
   

Adding the Category to a Contact

Now that you have your Category created, you’ll need to add it to each Contact that needs it.

You can do this in a batch process to update all clients first, then manually add it as needed to other Contacts.

To run a batch process:

1. Set the basic birthday mailer filters as shown at the beginning of this article.
2. Click the top left checkbox to check everyone in the list.
   
3. Click the More Options icon from the right and choose Update>Category.
   
4. Select the Add option, then select the Category you want to add.

To manually add the Category to a Contact:

1. From the Contacts Workspace, open the record of the Contact that you want to add the Category to.
2. Click on the Detailstab.
3. Click the Add button on the Categories tile.
4. Search for Birthday Mailer, or scroll down to it, and click the check box to the left, then click OK.
   

Now that you have this Category set up for your Contacts, you can add it as a filter option.

1. Go to the Contacts Workspace and click the Weekly Birthday Mailer filter that you created earlier.
2. Click Filter Options and select Add Filter Fields.
3. Scroll down to the Categories and check the box. Click OK.
4. Set the Operator to equals and select Birthday Mailer from the drop down. Click Apply.
5. You can also now remove Status from the filter as that will no longer be needed.
6. Save the filter by clicking the save icon from the top right and then click Save in the window that appears.

Processing Birthday Mailers

1. Go to the Contacts Workspace and click on the Weekly Birthday Mailer filter.
2. Adjust the birthday filter as needed to get the upcoming week of birthdays.
3. Check the box at the top left of the data table to select everyone in the list.
4. Click on Print Birthday Mailer from the right.
   
5. Click the Add button on the right of the Folder field and select the Birthday Letters folder.
6. The two checkboxes under Logging Options are checked automatically. Leave them checked to create history items recording the birthday mailing in each Contact's record. If you do not want the history items to be created, uncheck both boxes.
   
7. Click Print Document from the top right, then click Yes.
8. Click on View My Requests.
9. In the Batch Processes screen, you can click the refresh icon   to update the status of your processes.
10. Once they are complete, click the View Report   icon next to the batch to download the merged letters.