One of the key areas of improvement of Business Central in the 2021 Wave 1 update was enhanced integration with Microsoft Office 365. In addition to improving Business Central’s interaction with Microsoft Teams, the update also includes the addition of Word’s mail merge functionality into Business Central.

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Why is this a valuable feature for Business Central?

Adding Word’s mail merge functionality into Business Central is an excellent way for users to add a personal touch to bulk communications they need to send out to contacts, whether vendors or customers, in Business Central.

For example, you can create personalised sales materials to alert customers to upcoming sales promotions, letters to inform vendors about a new purchasing policy, or invitations to attract contacts to an upcoming event.

Key details about this new feature

  • The Word Templates used for the bulk communications can only be used on devices with Microsoft Word 2019 and the Windows operating system installed.
  • Entities in Business Central are used as the data source for the mail merge template and then you add merge fields to personalise the documents for each entity.
  • To set up this functionality:
    • Go to the Word Templates page in Business Central.
    • Use the Assisted Set up guide to download a ZIP file that contacts a DataSource.text and a Word template file for an entity.
    • Once the template is set up and the merge fields are added, you can use the same Assisted Set up guide to upload the template to Word.
  • For bulk communications in Business Central, you can only use the Word template and data source files downloaded from Business Central and you must store the files in the same location.
  • When setting up the template in Word, you can add mail merge fields by selecting the Mailings tab and then choosing Insert Merge Field.
  • Once the Word template is ready, you choose Apply on the Word Templates page in Business Central. This will generate the mail merged documents. You have the option to create one Word document that contains sections for each entity or split the operation to create a new document for each entity.

How can TVision help you?

TVision is one of the largest and most experienced providers of Business Central and NAV in the UK. If you want to know more about Microsoft Business Central and how it can help improve your business processes, please feel free to contact us to arrange a demo. If you are already using Business Central but would like better support and advice than you are currently receiving, please contact us for an informal, no-strings attached chat on what TVision could do for you.