Introduction

Let's say you want to communicate with dozens of customers about their loans. You want to tell your delinquent borrowers that they are late and how much they owe, but it would take hours to manually look up the information and write an individualized letter for each one.

Enter custom forms, which pull customers data, loans numbers, and other info you’ve saved in LMS to turn a boilerplate template into an individualized form with customer-specific information.

How do Custom Forms Work?

Custom forms are templates for the letters you want to send out to borrowers. These forms use variables to represent information that's specific to an individual borrower. When you generate a custom form, the system pulls real data from borrowers, loans, and other items you've saved in LMS, and merges all of that data together with your template.

The template looks a little bit like a Mad Libs page, and then the actual form you mail out to borrowers looks like normal mail.

Your custom forms, of course, can be a lot more complex. Here are two sample files showing a blank template and how it might look once the system fills it out with a customer's loan information:

• Sample Blank Custom Form
• Sample Custom Form (Filled Out)

The Process

From empty template to complete forms, the process is fairly straightforward: 

1. A lender creates a template, blending plain text with system variables. These variables will pull dynamic information from customers and loans. If the lender needs help, they can get in touch with their success specialist.
2. A user generates custom forms, either from within an individual loan, or in a large batch of search results in the loan manager.
3. The system pulls all those variables from the loan and customer and then puts them in the form. The finished letter can be saved as a loan document, sent to the Mail House, or downloaded directly.

Custom Forms can be created in Settings > Loan > Custom Forms > Form Management.

Formatting

When creating a custom form, you can edit it within our software using HTML or upload your own Microsoft Word .docx file.

HTML

HTML is an editing option that allows you to enter text using formatting options to make complex, unique forms. If you already know how to use HTML and want to use it to create your custom form, make sure to select the source code button in the formatting options. This button is next to the fullscreen option and is highlighted in red in the image below.

However, if you don't want to import your own HTML, you can also simply use the textbox as a basic text editor. There are many different formatting options available for those who would prefer this method, and the tabs at the top of the text box allow you to choose specific formatting for your text.

Microsoft Word DOCX File

This method lets you upload a Microsoft Word .docx file. When you are converting your form, make sure you select 'Doc File' in the 'Document Type' drop-down menu.

If you choose the DOC file document type, there will be a file upload area provided instead of a text box.

DocuSign

DocuSign makes it easier for customers to sign the custom forms you have created. To use DocuSign, you first need to create an enterprise account with the service. Without an account, you won't be able to use DocuSign inside of LoanPro. After creating an enterprise account, you will be able to use DocuSign's electronic signature on your custom forms.

To enter your DocuSign credentials into LoanPro, navigate to Settings > Company > Plugins > DocuSign.

Editing

While viewing your list of custom forms, you can rearrange the order of the forms by using the blue arrows. There are also a few editing options listed on the right.

The three blue editing options on the right do the following:

• Preview - Allows you to preview your custom form.
• Edit - Allows you to edit your form if changes are needed.
• Delete - Allows you to delete your form.

What's Next?

Now that you have a foundation of knowledge with custom forms, take a look at our Creating and Sending Custom Forms article to learn more. There, you will learn how to create more advanced forms using variables, apply your forms to loans, and print your forms.