I am a little stumped as to how I create an invoice/billing letter for capital pledge installments which are due before the end of the year.

Joanna,

In the Mail function, there is an option for Reminders.  I'm guessing you don't have a pre-printed billing form you plan to use.  You would click "New." Reminder type would be "create custom data file"  then choose whether you want one bill 'per pledge' or a bill 'per installment.'  I use 'per pledge'.

If you have a query of donors to your campaign you could select to use that query or just let it filter through all records.  For 'gift date' select 'specific range.' The start date will pick up any installments due after it (I usually have beginning of campaign to pick up any past dues) and the end date is the last date of installments you want included in the billing.  (Sounds like you would want 12/31/09.)  You would also want that as your run date to capture all the payments due before end of year.

On 'fields to include' tab choose the fields (bio and gift) that you want to include in billing.  Ex. gift date, gift amount, amount due, pledge balance...  I use total pledged, total pledge payments, running pledge balance, total due.

On 'filter' tab, select your capital campaign/fund/appeal as needed

On 'address,' gift type and format tabs make selections as desired.

Click "send to Word merge wizard," name your reminder.  Type text for your letter, inserting RE fields as needed.  After getting your letter/reminder set up, click merge.  I probably would choose not to save to reminder history the first time.  See how it turns out.  Adjust as needed and then run again and record to record history.  (Quirk in RE - filed as suggestion - date recorded in history is the run date not today, date generated)

I hope this is specific enough.  Am assuming you have some knowledge and experience with mail functions :-)  Ask, if you have more questions.

Thank you so much! Your insert fields were most helpful. I'm just playing around with the format now.