Mail Merge Data File

Mail Merge Data File (for pooled income funds)

The Mail Merge Data File function is available only if you have purchased a license for the Pooled Fund Organizer module.

The file created by Mail Merge Data File is a secondary data file suitable for merging with a primary document created, for example, in Microsoft Word. The Mail Merge Data File for pooled income funds can be produced in either of two forms:

For participants
If produced for participants, the file stores the amount and character of the income received by each pooled income fund participant during the specified tax year. This file can be used to generate a cover letter to be sent with each Schedule K-1 form or a substitute K-1 letter of your own design to be sent to each participant.

Important: If you are providing your substitute K-1 letter in lieu of a Schedule K-1 form rather than in addition to it, the letter must meet IRS requirements for substitute K-1s.

For advisors
If produced for participant advisors marked to receive copies of tax forms, the file stores contact information for the advisor, contact information for the participant, and descriptive information on the fund. This file can be used to generate a cover letter of your own design for each participant advisor who is marked to receive a copy of the participant's tax information. In this case, the tax information would be printed on a Federal Schedule K-1, California Schedule K-1, or a Massachusetts 2G enclosed with the cover letter.

Producing tax forms for advisors only

Layouts of Mail Merge Data Files

K-1 Calculations Explained

To set up data for the Mail Merge Data File for participants
The Mail Merge Data File for participants is driven off of data entered under PIF > Maintain Fund Tax Data, as well as the payments made to each participant during the selected tax year.

Prior to producing a file for participants for a specific tax year using Mail Merge Data File, you must enter fund income data for that year for each fund that you intend to include in the report. $image\chiclet.gif$ How?

To produce a Mail Merge Data File for participants or advisors

1. Click PIF > Tax Reporting.

2. Choose Mail Merge Data and a File Format in the Report Type area.

Consult your word processor manual to determine the best format in which to save your data.

3. Enter the remaining selection and sorting criteria to produce the report you desire. There is help available on each field.

4. Click OK.

5. Choose the folder in which to save the mail merge data file and enter the name of the file, then click OK.

6. Click $image\closebox.gif$ to close the Tax Reporting function.

To merge a document with a Mail Merge Data File to produce cover letters
Once you have created a data file following the instructions above, you can merge the resulting data with a primary document in order to produce personalized cover letters or other documents to be sent to all of a pooled income fund's participants or to their advisors.

Follow the instructions of your word processing software for how to merge a primary document and a secondary data file to create merged documents. Also consult your word processing software documentation for how to create new primary documents with which to merge a Mail Merge Data File created in GiftWrap.

Cover letter templates simplify production process
To facilitate the creation of cover letters for pooled income fund participants and their advisors, PG Calc has created three primary document templates for use with Microsoft Word. We encourage you to contact PG Calc Client Services (888-474-2252 or support@pgcalc.com) for information on acquiring these templates.

Once you have the templates you need, you can open them in Microsoft Word and edit their text in any way you wish so that they read exactly the way you want when merged with participant or advisor data.

They are:

K1 participant cover letter.doc
This primary document is suitable as a cover letter to be sent along with each pooled income fund participant's Federal Schedule K-1 form. The letter describes all amounts that appear on the Federal Schedule K-1 form. Merge this file with a mail merge data file created for participants.
California K1 letter.doc
This primary document is suitable as a cover letter to be sent along with each pooled income fund participant's California Schedule 541 K-1 form. The letter describes all amounts that appear on the California Schedule 541 K-1 form. Merge this file with a mail merge data file created for participants.
K1 advisor cover letter.doc
This primary document is suitable as a cover letter to be sent to advisors of pooled income fund participants along with each pooled income fund participant's Federal Schedule K-1, California Schedule 541 K-1, or Massachusetts 2G tax form. Merge this file with a mail merge data file created only for advisors marked to receive copies.

Notes:

· The .csv format works well as a file format for merging GiftWrap data with a document created in Microsoft Word.

· If you see an error log, fix the errors it identifies, then run Mail Merge Data File again.

You can print the error log or save the log in a file that you can print or review later. Click Continue and go to the next step in the procedure.