Merge Documents: From Template to Print in Seconds

Are you manually entering stored data from PensionPro into a Word document? Did you know that you can use PensionPro’s Merge Document feature to quickly insert that stored data from PensionPro into your document?

For example, let’s say you are manually entering Fee Schedule Items and their amounts in your Word document, and those values are already stored in PensionPro. The Merge Document feature will populate those fields for you, so you don’t have to manually enter the values for each Plan that has different Fee Schedule Items. All you need to do is add the Merge Fields to your Word document and upload that document to PensionPro as a Merge Document Template.

Let’s continue with the Fee Schedule Item example as mentioned above. The Merge Fields that are available are dependent on the source of the Merge Document Template. The Fee Schedule Item Merge Field is listed under the Plan level, so the source should be set to Plan. (Some Merge Fields are available from more than one source; in this case, Project may also be selected as the source to use Merge Fields under the Plan level). Then when you open a Plan > click the More icon in the top right > and select ‘Create Merge Documents’, you can choose your Template and Fee Schedule. After creating the Merge Document, the Fee Schedule Items from that Plan will be added to your document.

PensionPro has many other Merge Fields available and can be created from the Contact, Distribution, Plan, Project, and SalesPitch levels. You can check which fields are available as Merge Fields for your template by navigating to the Communications menu > select Merge Documents > open the Merge Document Template > and select the Fields tab under Views.

Many of these Merge Fields are hard-coded fields from PensionPro. However, as you may already know, you can add your own Project Fields. All Project Fields that you add are available as Merge Fields under the Project source, so any data that you’re tracking from your Projects can be added to your document. Then when you create a Merge Document from a specific Project, the Project Field values from that Project will populate into your Merge Document.

PensionPro also has a few preferences available that allow you to customize your Merge Documents:

Use Custom Formatting – PensionPro formats the data in a specific way that might not be ideal for some fields that you use, but adding customized formatting to the Merge Document Template allows you to format the data in a way that you prefer. When you add customized formatting, you can enable the ‘Use Custom Formatting’ option within the Merge Document Template preferences to override PensionPro’s formatting.

Allow Missing Data – When the ‘Allow Missing Data’ preference is set to ‘Yes’, the PensionPro Merge Fields with missing data will be pulled into the Merge Document. When the preference is disabled, the document will not be able to be created until all fields have data. Enabling this preference is a great way to make sure you’re tracking the necessary fields that you need.

If you are not currently tracking the information in PensionPro that needs to be added to your Word document, don’t worry! When you set up new Plans and complete Projects, you can review your processes and determine which fields will need to be tracked in PensionPro going forward!