Dynamic Templates
Learn how to create, generate, and send Dynamic Templates.
When you need to communicate with hundreds or even thousands of customers about their loans, from notifying delinquent borrowers of overdue payments to providing personalized account updates. Manually looking up information and crafting individualized messages for each customer would be a massive, time-consuming task.
That's where Dynamic Templates come in. Using customer-specific data stored in the loan management system (LMS)—like loan numbers, account balances, and contact information—Dynamic Templates turns a standard boilerplate message into a highly personalized communication for each borrower.
Understanding Dynamic Templates
Dynamic Templates allow you to automate communication with your borrowers efficiently. These templates are designed to pull in borrower-specific information using variables. Variables act as placeholders within the template, and when you generate a Dynamic Template, the system replaces them with actual data from LMS. This ensures each message is personalized and accurate.
Think of it like a Mad Libs page: the template contains blank spaces that are filled with real borrower information. Here’s a simple example:
Template | Actual output |
You are [[v('status-amount-due')]] past due. On your next payment date of [[companyFormatDateTime('subsequent-due-date')]], you will owe [[v('status-full-due')]]. | You are $175.50 past due. On your next payment date of October 3, 2022, you will owe $351. |
Your Dynamic Templates, 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:
Dynamic Templates streamline your communication efforts, whether through email or Smart Mail House. Instead of spending hours manually creating individual messages, you can prepare a single Dynamic Template and use it across your borrower accounts.
While Dynamic Templates cannot be created for SMS due to legal restrictions around messaging, we do offer a variety of SMS templates you can use separately. Keep in mind that Dynamic Templates and email templates, though similar, are stored in different areas of the software. However, you can easily copy and paste the HTML from a Dynamic Template into an email template, as both formats support system variables.
If you need to modify your template after it's created, LoanPro offers tools for easy editing. You can customize your template using HTML or our Dynamic Templates editor tool, giving you flexibility over design and content.
For scenarios requiring borrower signatures, LoanPro integrates with DocuSign. This integration allows you to send documents electronically, making the signature collection process faster and more efficient.
Creating a Dynamic Template
Dynamic Templates are vital for creating personalized, consistent communication with all of your customers. Templates are created by using either HTML or a Microsoft Word .docx file. When you generate, download, or print a form, it's then converted to a PDF.
To create a Dynamic Template, navigate to Settings > Loan > Dynamic Templates > Dynamic Template Management.
Next, click 'Add' to create a new Dynamic Template.
There are a few setup options available to you when you begin creating a new Dynamic Template. It's best to determine these settings before you begin writing the body of the form. The setup options are as follows:
Options | Description |
Name | This is the name of the form. Clear, distinctive names will help servicing agents select the correct forms. |
Page Size |
This is the size of the paper that the form will be printed on, such as:
|
DocuSign Enabled | Set this field is set to ‘No’. The “DocuSign Enabled” feature uses our previous DocuSign integration, which will be deprecated in 2024. |
E-Signature Enabled | This determines whether this form can be sent to DocuSign for electronic signature. |
Section | This assigns a form to a specific section. Options are ‘System Forms’, ‘DocuSign', ‘Mail House’, ‘CCPA’. Templates sections can be managed in Settings > Loan > Dynamic Templates > Sections. |
Smart Mail House fields | Smart Mail House fields include: ‘Color’, ‘Double Sided Printing’, ‘Shipping Type’, ‘Return Envelope’, and ‘Perforated Page Number’. These fields are set and can only be adjusted by the LoanPro support team. |
Document Type | This determines if a form will be created by using either HTML or via uploading a Microsoft Word .docx file. |
The screenshots above display the difference between creating a Dynamic Template using HTML (left) and uploading a .docx file (right).
If you'd like to use HTML to create the body of your Dynamic Template, select HTML under 'Document Type'. Next, enter your text and use the available formatting options to make your form easy to read. You can also use the available variables to customize the data in the form. Like mentioned earlier, this can be a powerful tool, as the variables will input the specific details of the loan account.
If you'd instead like to upload a Microsoft Word .docx file, make sure you select Doc File from the 'Document Type' dropdown menu. Now, drag and drop the Word file that contains your template to the drop zone, or click the drop zone to browse for the file on your computer. Your .docx file can include variables as well—type the variables into your Word document as they appear in LMS, and the system will recognize them when the form is generated for a loan and printed.
If you need some help, our Context Engine Glossary article contains a full list of the available variables.
While LoanPro's HTML text editor allows users to add media to their forms, the conversion to a PDF file type will remove it. Media such as photos, videos, special characters, and emoticons will appear in the form text editor, but not the final PDF of the Dynamic Template. However, this issue can be resolved by using a .docx file instead of HTML.
Once you've added your form content, click 'Save'. Once the form is saved, you can use the available tools to preview, edit, or delete the form.
If you would like to download the blank Word document that has been uploaded for an existing form, select edit next to the form and then click the 'Current document' link.
Validating your HTML text
Proofreading HTML is hard. And entering invalid HTML can cause some problems when you generate the form. To check if your HTML is valid, we recommend using W3C's Validator tool; this tool will tell you if you need to make any revisions. Just copy your text and paste it into the tool text box.
Generating a Dynamic Template
There are a few different ways to generate a Dynamic Template within LoanPro. We'll explain how to generate Dynamic Templates on individual loan accounts and with the Dynamic Templates tool.
Individual loans
This method is effective if you'd like to print multiple forms for a single loan account. To do so, navigate to the individual loan account of your choice. From there, select Servicing > Dynamic Templates to see the available Dynamic Templates.
On this page, as shown in the screenshot above, your company's list of Dynamic Templates is shown. The list consists of a checkbox, the Dynamic Template ID, the Dynamic Template title, page size, ‘Add as Document’ button, and ‘Save as PDF’ icon.
The ‘Save as PDF’ icon allows you to generate the individual Dynamic Template listed. When you click this icon, the PDF for the form will be available in the 'Generated Dynamic Templates' section at the top of the list. The forms generated within the last 24 hours will appear here.
The ‘Add as a document’ icon adds the form to the account as a document found in the ‘Documents’ section. You may also see a padlock icon. This icon is used to generate a DocuSign form.
The checkboxes allow you to select multiple Dynamic Templates at a time for download. After selecting multiple forms, use the three-dot ‘Data Options’ button located in the top right corner of the page to export the forms as either a PDF or ZIP file.
Dynamic Templates tool
The other way to generate Dynamic Templates is with the Dynamic Templates Tool. This method is effective for printing a form for multiple loans at once. To get started, open the Account Manager; it is here that you will select the loans you will be generating forms for. Using the search options, filter the loans you would like to be included in your forms list.
To add the loans listed in the manager, select their checkboxes. Then, select 'Create Dynamic Template' from the 'More' menu like shown below:
After clicking 'Create Dynamic Template', you are sent to the Dynamic Templates Tool page where you can decide which form to print. Simply choose the form you'd like to print for your customer(s) and click 'Generate Dynamic Templates'. (You can also access this page by navigating to Tools > Customer Communication > Dynamic Templates.) Clicking this button gives you a final option: you can create one PDF file containing all of your forms, or create individual PDF files for each form.
After generating the file for the Dynamic Templates, the 'Dynamic Template's text at the top of the page will show a small notification. Clicking this text will allow you to download the file you have just generated.
Sending Dynamic Templates
After generating a Dynamic Template, you can send it to the associated customer via Smart Mail House. To send a generated Dynamic Template, navigate to an individual loan. Within the loan account, navigate to Servicing > Dynamic Templates. This page allows you to select Dynamic Templates saved within your account. Select the forms you'd like to generate and click the 'PDF' button located on the right.
Next, scroll to the top of the page and locate the 'Generated Dynamic Templates' text. Clicking this text will display the 'Generated Reports' window.
The 'Generated Reports' window displays some useful information regarding your generated Dynamic Templates. Here, you can see when forms were generated, by which agent user, how they were generated, and the options for the forms.
Here are quick descriptions of what each icon in the Options column does:
Send to Smart Mail House – Sends the form to the borrower via mail using Smart Mail House.
Add as a document – Adds the form to the account as a document found in the Documents section.
Download – Downloads the form to your computer in the form of a PDF.
Delete – Deletes the form from the Dynamic Template History list.
Click the pages icon to select the section you want to assign the document. You will also be asked to give the document a name that can be customized to the individual loan.
Click the mail box icon to send the form via mail. Next, you'll have the option to verify the address of the customer. If the address is correct, click 'Send' to send the form with your Smart Mail House configuration.
Creating a Dynamic Templates Section
Dynamic Templates can be organized into sections to help you categorize them. To create a new Dynamic Templates section, navigate to Settings > Loan > Dynamic Templates > Sections inside your company account.
As shown in the image above, click 'Add' to create a new Dynamic Template section. Then, choose a name for your new section. Once you have determined a name, click 'Save' to finish.
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