Database query in e-mail or document template
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AppColl allows filtering data with database queries, which is nice. It would be terrific if we could insert database queries in e-mail and document templates.
For example, I have a template e-mail message to report a Notice of Allowance, including, "The application currently has an entity status of {Matter.EntityStatus}. ... Based on this entity status, an issue fee of $1,200 / 480 is due by {Task.RespondBy(MMMM d, yyyy)}. ... absent instruction to the contrary by {Task.RespondBy(-1m MMMM d, yyyy)}, we will pay the issue fee." Of course, I must manually edit a generated draft message to select one of the fee amounts before sending the message.
Since the database already stores the issue fee amounts (in the form of Billing Item Templates, for example: "USPTO Fee 2501: Patent - Utility issue fee - 37 CFR 1.18(a)(1) - Small entity," with columns "Title" and "UnitCost"), it would be great to automate insertion of a correct issue fee amount by querying the database. Of course, we would need a way to map "Small" to "2501" and "Large" to "1501" to form the query.
George
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Hi George,
If you are looking for automated email templates with this feature, there is a workaround that you can use to get to a similar end result. Create a transient task for each desired "flavor" of email that you want to send out and use whatever triggers you want to control under what conditions each transient task fires. Each transient task can have its own notifications set up, so you could have two different transient tasks that trigger when a Pay Issue Fee task dockets--one for small entity and one for large entity (bonus--you can include language in the small entity version reminding the client to inform you if they are no longer small entity).
But that only works if you are automatically sending these emails out, so maybe not a good fit for what you are wanting to do.
