Batch operations

Batch operations, such as batch printing or batch emailing, are actions that you perform on a group of contacts, households, companies, or users at the same time.

Batch printing or emailing streamlines the creation and distribution of documents by allowing you to automatically personalize and generate them for a number of entities at one time.

Use batch operations to:

• Print personalized documents for entities by using merge fields.
• Send batch emails in NexJ CRM to your entities in bulk. Format the content of a batch email with the rich text editor, which offers various formatting options. 
• Personalize the body of an email and the attached documents for each of the selected entities by using merge fields.
• Include attachments with your email by selecting files from your computer, the Document Manager, or your favorite documents in NexJ CRM.

Batch printing

You can batch print Microsoft Word and PDF documents for one or more entities.

Batch printing of documents can be based on any Microsoft Word template that makes use of NexJ merge fields. You can add these fields to a Word template by using NexJ Add-In. During the batch print, these fields retrieve the entity information from NexJ CRM. Merge fields are objects that references a specific piece of information, such as a contact's first name. They are used in Microsoft Word and NexJ CRM to personalize documents and emails for several entities at once.

For more information, see Using NexJ Add-In with Microsoft Word.

To print documents for multiple entities at one time, on the Contacts workspace, use the checkboxes to select one or more records in the data table, or select the Select all checkbox to select all the records currently displayed in the table. Selecting records with checkboxes reveals a different set of actions in the data table toolbar. Click Print in the data table toolbar, and provide the required information.

You can also print a document for a single entity by clicking the More Actions button

for the entity data record and selecting Print Document.

When performing a batch printing process, the New Print Job dialog includes the following tabs and fields:

Tab	Field or checkbox	Description	Required field
Detail	Add Attachment	Document templates that you want to print. Templates can be Microsoft Word or PDF documents. Click the Select button  and browse to find your document templates. To preview a document template after you select it, click on the document name in the Add Attachment field.	No
Follow-ups	Not applicable	You can add multiple follow-up activities to a batch printing process and assign them to yourself, another user, or to a selected coverage role. If you assign a follow-up activity, a task is added to the assignee's Tasks workspace for each recipient of the email. For example, if you assign a follow-up activity to yourself for an email with three recipients, three tasks are created on your Task workspace. In addition, if logging is enabled, a task is added to each recipient's Activities tab. To add a follow-up, select a template from the Add menu and fill in the required information.	Not applicable
Logging Options	Create a journal entry for each recipient with personalized copies of the specified documents	Creates an entry on the Activities tab for each selected contact. This checkbox is selected by default.	No
	Log Item Description	Description of the activity record.	Yes
	Add File Names	Appends the file names with the log item description.	No
	Related fields	Associates the print job with a related opportunity, product, or service request. Click the Select button in a related field and select the opportunity, product, or service request.	No

To start creating the documents using the attached document template, click Print Document in the New Print Job dialog and Yes in the confirmation dialog.

After your batch process request is submitted, you can choose to close the confirmation message or open the Batch Processes dialog to view the status of your batch print job by clicking the View My Requests button. You can also access the Batch Processes dialog at any time by clicking the User settings button in the navigation toolbar and selecting the Batch Processes option from the menu.

To open and print hard copies of the documents created during the batch process or to save them locally, open the Batch Processes dialog, locate your print job in the data table, and click the View Report button

If the number of entities selected for printing exceeds the threshold established by your system administrator, the system prints the documents in the background and notifies you when background printing is complete.

In addition to the report file, the batch process prints a document to each selected entity. You can access the created document for a specific entity in the entity's Activities tab. Use the All items filter and the text search field to filter the data table for print activities. To open and review the document, hover over the data record for the print activity in the activities data table and click Edit. In the edit dialog, click the attached document file to open it. To email the created document to the entity from the Activities tab, click the More Actions button for the print activity and select Email.

Sending batch emails to entities

You can use batch process and merge fields to send personalized emails to an entity or group of entities, without creating unique versions for each individual recipient. Merges fields are objects that references a specific piece of information, such as a contact's first name. They are used in Microsoft Word and NexJ CRM to personalize documents and emails for several entities at once. When sending a batch email you can use merge fields to personalize the email text. You can also attach documents that include merge fields, so that they are customized when you send them.

The NexJ CRM merge functionality only works with PDF, DOC, and DOCX attachments. Merge fields in any other file type will not be resolved and updated when you send the email.

For more information, see Using NexJ Add-in with Microsoft Word.

Sending batch emails

To send a batch email, navigate to the Contacts workspace, use the checkboxes to select one or more records in the data table for entities that you want to email, or select the Select all checkbox to select all the records currently displayed in the table. Click Email in the data table toolbar.

When performing a batch email process, the New batch email dialog includes the following tabs and fields:

Tab	Field, button, or checkbox	Description	Required field
Detail	From	Email account used for sending the batch email. Select your own email account or a group email account that you have access to.	Yes
	Rich text editor toolbar	The toolbar enables you to format email text as rich text with styles such as bold, italic, and bulleted list. You can also copy and paste formatted text into the body of the email.	No
	Insert Merge Fields	Allows you to personalize the email by inserting merge fields. For example, the ${firstName} merge field personalizes the email with the recipients' first names.  To insert a merge field into the body of the email, click Insert Merge Fields and select a merge field from the list.	No
	Add Attachment	You can include multiple Microsoft Word, PDF, and CSV documents in batch emails. Documents created outside of NexJ CRM containing merge fields are populated during batch processes or when they are associated with a contact.	No
	Include Email Signature	When selected, adds your email signature to the email.	No
	Manage Email Signature	Opens the Add a user preference dialog to the Email Signature tab, where you can create or modify your email signature and choose to include it in all outgoing emails.	No
Follow-ups	Add	You can add multiple follow-up activities to a batch email and assign them to yourself, another user, or to a selected coverage role. If you assign a follow-up activity, a task is added to the assignee's Tasks workspace for each recipient of the email. For example, if you assign a follow-up activity to yourself for an email with three recipients, three tasks are created on your Task workspace. In addition, if logging is enabled, a task is added to each recipient's Activities tab. To add a follow-up, select a template from the Add menu and fill in the required information.	No
Logging Options and Touches	Add Subject	Appends the subject of the email to the log item description. This checkbox is selected by default.	No
	Create a journal entry for each recipient with personalized copies of the specified document	Creates an entry on the Activities tab for each selected contact. This checkbox is selected by default.	No
	Log Item Description	The name that you want to use for logging the record.	Yes
	Related fields	You can choose to associate the print job with a related opportunity, product, or service request. Click the Select button  in a related field and select the opportunity, product, or service request.	No
Recipients	Add	If your administrator enables the optional Email Recipients feature, then you can use the Recipients tab to view, add, and remove message recipients. Click the Add button  and choose either of the following options: Select individual recipients to add and remove recipients. Select recipients from a list to select a previously saved list of contacts to add to the message recipients. If you select a large number of recipients, you may receive a message stating that the Recipients tab is taking longer to load than expected and asking if you want to continue. Click Yes to continue.	No

After your batch operation request is submitted, you can choose to close the confirmation message or open the Batch Processes dialog to view the status of your batch email process by clicking the View My Requests button. You can also access the Batch Processes dialog at any time by clicking the User settings button in the navigation toolbar and selecting the Batch Processes option from the menu.

Creating an email signature

You can create and use an email signature when sending batch emails to entities and when sending emails from the Document Manager workspace.

To create an email signature, click the User settings button

You can also create an email signature directly in the New batch email dialog by clicking the Manage Email Signature button.

You can click the Image button

in the toolbar and upload images from your computer to use in email signatures. The images cannot exceed 2MB in size. The images must be in JPG, JPEG, or PNG format. To specify additional image settings, navigate to the Advanced tab. For example, you can specify the size of an image and its alignment.

Viewing batch process status

To view the status of a batch process,  select User settings and Batch processes, and use the text search field and filter chips to search for records in the data table.

For example, you can search for batch emails that were sent successfully and have a status of Completed using the Type and Status filter chips.

Related links

Managing documents - Use the Document Manager to store, organize, modify, and share documents.
Using tokens - Use tokens in merge fields to personalize documents, and batch emails.

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