License Renewal Letters

This procedure applies to the set up, printing and post-mail-out management of License Renewal letters.

N.B. You cannot expire licenses unless they have passed the date set for expiry. This is a safeguard to ensure licenses are not accidentally expired early. If the issuing authority expires licenses on the same date every year and this has been set up via Administration -> License Administration, then only after this date can licenses be expired.

1. Ensure a License Renewal letter has been set up on your site. If unsure, or if it requires changes/updating, please contact [e-mail] 
2. Go to the Reports link in the left-hand menu and follow these steps:
   • Select the link labelled License.
   • Select the report entitled “License Renewal (Your site initials will appear here)” and click “Open”.
   • Select the Letter Format/Physical Location from the drop-down at the top of the page
   • Apply the desired filters:
     • Letter Format/Physical Location - set this to the Physical Location loading the letters. 
     • Expiry Date Range - the range your licenses are due to expire. 
     • Issuing Authority -  If you'd like to keep the jurisdictions separate, or if your renewal letters are only set up for a single jurisdiction, select a single option from the drop-down. Alternatively, you can select "All Issuing Authorities" to get the full result but be mindful that the result is in no particular order and won't keep different authorities separated.  
     • Generate - set this option to your preferred option, e.g. "Letter". It will show some additional options below - select the format you want the result to appear in (report, letter, postcard, letter export (excel))
   • Optional settings can be added if desired: notes to print and “avoid penalties by” date.
   • Generate Report
   • The page will take you to an email field. Enter your preferred email and click "Generate Letters"
3. Once the letters have been printed/sent, the files need to be flagged to note this has happened:
   • Go to Administration
   • Find License Administration
   • Find Flag License Letters as sent and fill in the same filters.
   • This will ensure that if the report is run again, the same letters won’t be regenerated and re-sent.
   • Once letters have been flagged as sent, use the option to “Reprint First Renewal Notice” if they need to be reprinted for any reason.
4. The option for follow-up letters is available if required:
   • The “Second Renewal Notice” will then only be printed for those flagged as having their renewal notice sent where the licenses have not yet been renewed.
   • A “Final Notice” letter would, once again, print only for those who have received the first two letters and still have not renewed their license.
   • NOTE: to run Second or Final Renewal Notices, you must first flag the preceding letters as having been sent. Once you have run through this process, subsequent letter formats will be available via this report. 
   • Both these options must first be set up by Shelter Buddy developers: they will not be available except by request as not every site will find them useful.
5. When the time frame within which the licenses can be renewed has run out, any un-renewed licenses should be set as “expired”.
   • Go to Administration
   • Find Expire Licenses
   • Apply the same filters as for the original letter run in order to expire any licenses that have not been renewed.

If you use our Online Licensing module: be aware that any customers that have received an email via this system will not appear on this report. 

However, if your licenses are set to expire (e.g.) 12 months after issue, there is a small window of time where the email may not yet have fired when you run this report, but then it fires shortly afterwards where your customers may end up with two forms, but the risk of this is low as that window of opportunity is very small.  If you sent your expiry periods for Online earlier than you would normally run your reports, this should minimise the issue further.