Using Mailing Labels

Overview

Physical mail is still a critical channel for client communications — particularly when it comes to personalization of service — but creating mailing labels with up-to-date addresses and suitably personalized mailing names can be a significant time investment.

The preformatted Mailing Label fields in Practifi solve this problem by allowing a firm complete control over mailing name formatting and the ability to configure label settings on a record-by-record basis. Once records are set up, use Mailing Lists from the Directory page to quickly generate a CSV file for use with mail merge tools such as Microsoft Word. This article outlines Mailing Label field functionality and how to export this information from your organization.

• Where to Find Mailing Label Fields
• Understanding Mailing Label Formatting
• Updating Display Settings 
• Exporting Mailing Labels

Where to Find Mailing Label Fields

The Mailing Label section appears in the Basics tab on all Household, Organization, Individual and Contact record pages. After searching for the Key Entity record, select the Basics tab and scroll down to the Mailing Label section to see the Mailing Label field. This field will display the Key Entity's Mailing Label in the format that your organization has specified.

Understanding Mailing Label Formatting

The first line of the Mailing Label field is the Key Entity's Mailing Name. The Mailing Name can vary in formatting based on the context:

• Individuals & Contacts show their Full Name.
• Organizations show their Organization Name and the name and title of their Primary Member.
• Households show a formatted string containing the names of the Primary Member and their Spouse - for example, Dirk & Anya Feldman - while also catering to additional scenarios such as surname differences & single-parent households.

Underneath the Mailing Name, the record's Mailing Address is displayed. If the Display Country checkbox is enabled, the Mailing Address will include the record's mailing country. 

Updating Display Settings

You can adjust settings for a label at the record level using checkboxes in the Mailing Label area of the Basics tab. The following settings are available:

• Display Country (all records) toggles the appearance of the Country as captured in the record's Mailing Address. This setting is useful when mailing information to a Client or Prospect located in another country than your organization.
• Display Employer & Title (Individuals & Contacts only) toggles the appearance of the record's Employer and Title values in a second line underneath their Mailing Name. This can be enabled when the firm primarily deals with someone on behalf of their employer.
• Replace Mailing Name With (Household, Individual and Organization records) provides a way to manually overwrite the predefined Mailing Name with some text of your choice. Use this when the mailing name requirements for the record are significantly different from the default. For example, Dirk prefers more formal communication, so his household's Mailing Name was replaced with Mr. D. & Mrs. A. Feldman. Record-level settings take precedence over organization-wide settings.
  • Please note: As of the Montepulciano release of April 2024, the Replace Mailing Name With field is available on Household, Individual and Organization records. If your firm's organization has not been upgraded to this release, this field will only be available on Household records.

Exporting Mailing Labels

To export a list of mailing labels as a CSV file, do the following:

1. Click the caret on the Navigation menu, then select Directory to open your Directory page.
   
2. From the Page View Selector in the side panel, select My Key Entities (Mailing List). The page view opens with the Mailing Label column displayed.
   
3. Above the record table, click the hyperlinked Export as CSV to export all records displayed. Alternatively, check the Name boxes of the specific records you want before selecting Export as CSV to export just those selected record's mailing labels.