How can I mail merge or print labels for multiple customer names using BrokerForce® ?

1. Select the "Customer Labels Avery 5160" report on the Customer form
2. Apply the appropriate filter(s) to the customer form by right-clicking on a value in a control e.g. <State> "NY" on the Customer form and select <Filter by Selection>.   Filters are cumulative so you could also right-click on the <Customer Type> "Big Spender" so that only "Big Spenders" in "NY" would be included.
3. One can also select values from the <Begin> and <End> zip code drop lists to further limit your list to a zip code range of customers.
4. Click <Print Preview> to preview the report.  Print the report or, if you want to just use the list for a mail merge, close the print preview and when prompted to export the results to Excel, click <Yes>.  This will be the data source for your mail merge.  Note where the file will be saved.
5. For a mail merge, open Microsoft Word, select the Mail Merge Wizard and follow the directions to setup your main merge document. 
6. When prompted for the Data Source, use the Excel sheet that you exported from BrokerForce® in step 4 above.  With the Mail Merge Wizard,  insert the appropriate fields where they belong. Save the main merge document for future use, the data source will be the same and updated each time you close the report and click <Ok> to export the data.
7. One can also print labels and/or export the customer labels for a specific vendor by choosing the "Customer Labels Avery 5160" report on the Vendor form.

For more information, see the "Merge" help topics in the index of Microsoft Word.  We do not provide support for mail merges beyond this FAQ

To Flag specific customers for labels or a Mail Merge

1. If you do not already have a field that you can use to designate specific customers to receive your mailing, you can create a user defined field for doing so.  To create custom field,  click <Tools>, <Setup>. 
2. In the lower right of the My Company Setup form, enter the field name "Mailer" as one of your user defined fields for customers as shown at right.
3. When you next open BrokerForce® to the Customer form, you will see a Mailer field just below the Note control.  If BrokerForce® is already open to this form, you must click on a tab other than the <Orders> tab and then click back to the <Customers> tab.
4. In your Mailer field, flag customers for your mailer with a value like as an "X" or other consistent designation that they are to receive the mailer.  If you want to separate customers for different mailers, you can flag customers with the name of the mailer they are to receive and then filter by that mailer's name e.g. "Fall Show" or "Big Spender".  If you designate some customers as "Fall Show" and others as "Spring Show", you can highlight just the "Show" portion of the value, right-click, select <Filter By Selection>, and all customers that have any "Show" designation will be included within that filter.
5. Filter the Customer form by right-clicking on your mailer designation e.g. "X" in your user defined Mailer control and select <Filter by Selection>.  The label report will inherit this mailer designation filter.
6. If you have filtered the Customer form by your mailer designation, when you preview and print the "Customer Labels (Avery 5160) report, it will inherit this filter so that only the Flagged customers will be included.  The <Email-Merge> button at the upper left of the Customer form will also inherit this filter if you would like to do a bulk e-mail merge.
7. When completed, click the <Remove Filter Sort> (funnel w/red X icon) on the toolbar or right-click on your filtered field and select <Remove Filter Sort>.

To Flag specific customers that attended a show a Mail Merge

1. Tag orders with the <Order Type> of "Show" as you enter them.
2. On the customer form, select the "Order Totals Crosstab" report as shown at right.
3. Select an <Order> date range for the show that you are interested in (not shown).
4. Preview and then close the report.
5. When prompted to output the results to Excel, answer <Yes>.
6. In the resulting Excel file, sort the column with the show type you want in ascending order and delete the customer that do not have order amounts.
7. Delete the columns for order types that you do not need.
8. Save your changes and use this new file as a <Mail Merge> data source in Microsoft Word. You should consult the "Mail Merge", "Labels and Envelopes" help topics help in MS Word for how to do this.  No further support is provided for this by BrokerForce for mail merges.

See also