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TECHNOLOGY Q&A

columns with titles: “Email Address,” “First Name,” Mail Merge, and select Step-by-Step Mail
and “Q3 Estimate.” In those columns, we are going to Merge Wizard (see the second screenshot below).
have some sample information. I recommend that you This will open the Mail Merge wizard on the
use a few email addresses you have access to so you right side of the window. The default is Letters,
can see the emails go to the different mailboxes. Add but since this is a walk-through for using email,
in some sample names and some random numbers change it to E-mail messages and click the link
to represent a quarterly estimate (see the screenshot at the bottom, Next: Starting document.
below). The document will change layout to an empty
Save this file to a location such as your desktop white space because we have told Word that this
and name it Q3 List.xlsx. Next, open a new Word will no longer be printed on a sheet of paper and
document. Go to the Mailings tab, click on Start will be sent as an email. Removing all the margins
that simulate a sheet of paper makes it feel more
like an email.
Return to the wizard on the left. We will leave
the bullet on Use the current document and
click the link for Next: Select Recipients.
At this point, we have our email, but we need
to bring in the information from the spreadsheet
that we created earlier. Back in the wizard, we
have some different options. We will use an
existing list. You can see the other options where
you can use Outlook contacts. Typing a new list is
also an option, but, ideally, we will want to source
our information from an existing location. Click
the Browse link to open a file browser window.
Select the List file that we created in Excel and
click Open. With the Select Table screen (see
the screenshot on the left at the bottom of the
page), we only have one sheet, so click OK. The
final screen of this trio is showing you the rows
that were brought in from the spreadsheet (see
the screenshot at the top right of the next page).
We will want to send all these, so click OK.
Back in the wizard, we can see that the Cur-
rent list shows the file we brought in. Click Next:
Write your e-mail message.
Next, let’s put in the content of our email.
Since this will be a reminder email to a list of
clients with third-quarter (Q3) payments due, we
will keep it simple.

Hello <First Name>,

Hope all is well with you.

I just want to remind you to make your
quarterly estimated payment of $<Q3
Estimate>.

Let me know if you have questions.

Wesley Hartman

42 | Journal of Accountancy December 2022