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Mail Merge Notices Using Delinquency Management

Keystone's Delinquency Management function allows you to review delinquency information and export and print that information in Microsoft Word so you can send notices to delinquent homeowners. You can customize these mail merge letters and mailing labels to suit your affiliate’s needs. Different notices are available and may be sent based on the number of payments the homeowner is currently in arrears.

You also can log when you send these notices using a simple, automated process. This helps you keep records of everything that happens while a homeowner is delinquent.

To generate and log delinquency letters

1. Review homeowners’ delinquency information on the Delinquency Letter Data screen.
   To access the Delinquency Letter Data screen, open the Families tab in the Keystone ribbon and click Delinquency Mgmt.
   
   This screen shows the names of all delinquent homeowners and how much they are in arrears as of the date shown in the Last Updated area at the top of the Delinquency Letter Data screen. If the homeowner has made any payments that have not yet been recorded in Keystone, or if you have other changes to enter for them, you should enter them on the Payments screen before proceeding. The amounts owed cannot be edited.
   
   If you have entered payments or other changes since the Last Updated date, click the Update button to recalculate the delinquencies and refresh the data shown here.  It is a good idea to click the Update button every time before you generate delinquency letters to make sure you have the most current information for the homeowner.
   

By default, the Send? check box is checked for all homeowners. Keystone will generate letters for any homeowners with this box checked. If there is some reason that a notice should not be sent or logged for a particular homeowner, remove the check from the Send? check box to the left of the homeowner's name.

By default, the Ltr # field is set to a number based on the number of principal plus escrow payments the homeowner is in arrears as of the Last Updated date. The number of principal plus escrow payments for each letter may be customized on the Mortgages tab of Affiliate Setup.

The value in the Ltr # field specifies the number of the letter to be sent to the delinquent homeowner, with the higher number indicating a more serious warning. You may modify which letter you want to send to a particular homeowner by changing the number in this field. You can see a list of available letters by opening the Ltr # drop-down list. The names of the letters appear in that list.

If a homeowner is under a special payment plan, they will appear on this list with a letter number of 99. This allows you to review their performance against their plan and manually set the letter they should receive, if any.

Once you’ve completed your review and made any adjustments, you are ready to proceed. 

2. Click the Letters and Labels button to open the Select Delinquency Documents window.
   Select the letters you want to process by checking the Include check box next to those letters.
   Only the letters you check are generated. Uncheck any letters you don’t want to process at this time.
   
   The exported data file includes the following data for each homeowner:
• LetterNumber - the number of the letter to be sent.
• Date - the Last Updated date as shown on the Delinquency Letter Data screen.
• Salutation - the combined first names as applicable.
• Name - the complete name of the delinquent homeowner, combined with the name of a co-owner, if applicable.
• Address, City, State, and PostalCode - specify the mailing information for the homeowner.
• MonthlyPrincipal - the currently scheduled principal payment for a single month.
• MonthlyEscrow - the currently scheduled escrow payment for a single month.
• MonthlyOther - any other currently scheduled payment for a single month.
• MonthlyPmt - the currently scheduled total payment for a single month.
• MonthlyLateFee - the currently scheduled late fee payment for a single month.
• PrincipalDue - the amount of principal past due as of the date in the Date field.
• EscrowDue - the amount of escrow due as of the date in the Date field.
• OtherDue - the amount of other payment due as of the date in the Date field.
• LateFeeDue - the amount of late fees due as of the date in the Date field.
• TotalDue - the total amount due as of the date in the Date field.
• LastName - the last name of Family Partner 1, used for sorting.
• FirstName - the first name of Family Partner 1, used for sorting.
• NoteValue - the original amount of the note.
• NoteDate - the origination date of the mortgage note.
• NoteMaturity - the original note payoff date.
• NoteBalance - the remaining balance of the note.
• NoteEstimatedPayoff - the estimated payoff date of the note based on current balance and monthly principal.
• Email - the e-mail address of Family Partner 1, if it exists; otherwise, of Family Partner 2.
3. Click the Letters button.
   This exports the delinquency data and produces delinquency letters for each of the selected letter groups. The data is exported as comma-separated text to the file ...My Documents/MoreThanData/Exported Data.csv in Windows.
   
   Once this export is complete, Microsoft Word opens and a separate merge letter is created for each letter you selected.
4. Review the letters in Word and merge them to the printer.
5. When you are done, close Word.
   You now return to the Select Delinquency Documents window in Keystone.
6. Click the Labels or Envelopes button on the Select Delinquency Documents window to produce labels or envelopes for the selected letters.
7. Once you’ve printed the delinquency letters and labels, click the Post button to automatically record to the homeowners’ logs all notices sent.
   
   If your affiliate is using Open Security in Keystone, you are asked to supply the initials of the person you want attached to the log entries. If your affiliate is using User-Level Security in Keystone, no dialog box appears and your initials, or the initials of the person you are currently logged into Keystone as, are used automatically.
   
   If you are asked to select initials for the log entry, select them from the drop-down list and click OK.
   
   The message posted to the log consists of the name of the letter sent, the Past Due amount (PD=), and the Date of Last Payment (DLP=). Duplicate log entries are not recorded.