How To Setup Letter Service File Format - Not Ontario Format

Collect! gives you the ability to output letter service using something other than Ontario format. This Collect! Help topic is intended to provide technical information for implementing, using and supporting the Letter Service Bureau support. It should be used by technical staff setting up Collect! and by the Service Bureau staff in interpreting the structure and content of the letter templates used in Collect!

If you are outputting in Ontario format, please refer to How To Setup Letter Service File Format - Ontario Format.

Within Collect!, letters are stored with codes that represent database information and other aspects to be printed. When a letter is being sent to a letter service bureau, Collect! only outputs the data itself, plus a letter number to identify which letter template the data is to be inserted into.

You can set up your letter reports to output CSV text. Manually insert your commas and quotes into the report body.

An example letter body might have the following codes, with quotes and commas.

"@de.na<","@de.ad<","@de.a1<","@de.ci<","@de.st<","@de.zi<"

To override the default Ontario format, you must switch ON 'Don't use Ontario format' in the Report and Printer Setup form. This alerts Collect! that you are outputting in CSV format. Access the Report and Printer Setup form by selecting Print from the top menu bar in Collect! This will display a drop-down menu. Select Report and Printer Setup to display the Report and Printer Setup form and switch ON 'Don't use Ontario format'.

File Format Output

When the Letter Service is performed through the Letter Service module, Collect! will write three CSV columns before outputting letter data to your Letter Service file.

The first column contains a 'D' and the Debtor File Number or a 'C' and the Debtor File Number when printing to cosigners.

The next column contains either ' OK' to indicate a Change of Address request is not required. Or it contains 'COA' to indicate a Change Of Address search is requested.

Change of Address is set when the Report Options for the letter specify NCOA check and the debtor or cosigner addresses have the Address OK switch turned off.

The third column contains the letter number as specified in the Report Options for the letter being printed.

The output file would look like the following:

"D1400","OK","1","Aubin, Kevin","1101-703 Eastwood Crescent","","Princeton","California","98975-0016"
"C1400","OK","1","Wilson, Gordon","45 17th Street","","Verndale","AZ","44593-6473"
"C1400","COA","1","Test, Joe","","","","",""
"D1287","COA","2","Balford, Allen","345965 Gable Road","","Neward","New Jersey","27856"

See Also

- Introduction To Letter Service
- Letter Service Topics
- NCOA Topics