Last Updated: 11/18/2025
Sub-grids in Letter Templates
This document provides a comprehensive technical guide for creating Letter Templates with sub-grids in akoyaGO.
For a quick demo of this process, you can watch this video.
Things to know:
This functionality allows dynamic display of related records, such as a list of payments, in letters generated through akoyaGO. By incorporating this feature, users can generate more informative and data-rich documents efficiently.
The process requires setting up merge fields within a Microsoft Word document, uploading the template file into akoyaGO, and selecting the appropriate data views and relationships. This integration ensures that data such as payments or requirements related to a request can be displayed directly in the final document.
For more information on template files and merge fields, please see the Generating Letters in CRM knowledge article.
Step 1: Select sub-grid views in Letter Template
Begin by navigating to the Letter Templates table by clicking Letter Templates under the Mailings section.
Step 1.1: Select or Create a Letter Template
Select a Letter Template from the list to edit an existing letter or click on +New to create a new template.
If creating new, fill in the required fields and save. Then, select or create a letter template file. See the Generating Letters in CRM knowledge article for more information on creating letter templates.
Step 1.2: Select Tables and Views for sub-grids
In the Letter Template form, there is a tab called Subgrids. This section of the form operates the same way as selecting the table and view in the general letter template setup.
Note that the relationships you can select from correspond to the table selected in the Regarding To field in the general letter template setup.
You are able to add up to three sub-grid relationships to the letter template. After the first is selected and saved, a subsequent sub-grid relationship selector will appear and so on for the third sub-grid relationship selector.
Subgrid Relationship: This is where you will select the table through which you wish to display the sub-grid. For example, if I want to show the payments made on a Request, I would select Request. On save, this field will clear but your selection will be stored in the field below.
Selected Relationship: This is a locked field that will populate with the table you selected above. The purpose of this is to store the selection while still giving users the opportunity to change their selections.
Subgrid View: Choose the system view that you want to display sub-grid data. For example, if I only want to display request payments that have been paid, I would select a view that filters on Payment Status = Paid. On save, this field will clear but your selection will be stored in the field below.
Important: We recommend that you select a view with five columns or fewer. The more columns the view contains, the smaller each column will have to be to fit the page and this can warp the look of the grid. If the view you need to use contains more than five columns, we suggest you reduce the number of columns to as few as possible.
Selected View: This is a locked field that will populate with the view you selected above. The purpose of this is to store the selection while still giving users the opportunity to change their selections.
Show Border: Sub-grids will be displayed as tables. To display the border around each data point, choose Yes. If No, borders will not be displayed.
Show Header: To display the column names in the table, choose yes. To hide column names, select No.
Step 2: Enter sub-grid merge fields in word document
You may be editing an existing letter template file to insert sub-grids. If that is the case, navigate to the letter template file that you wish to edit. You can do this through the Letter Template record, or if you have the file readily available in your local files, you can open it there, too.
If you are creating a new letter template file, you will start with a new word document.
Step 2.1: Add sub-grid merge fields
In your Word document, locate the area where you want to display sub-grid data and insert the merge fields in the following way:
This is how the sub-grid merge fields will look in the word document:
The number in the merge field corresponds to the order in which they appear in the Letter Template record. In the example below, Subgrid View 1 will display Gift Payments, Subgrid View 2 will display Connections and Subgrid View 3 will display Foundation Matching Gifts.
Step 3: Upload the letter template file
Regardless of whether you created a new file or started one from scratch, you will need to upload it to the Letter Template File record.
Click into the Letter Template File in the Letter Template.
If you edited an existing file, be sure to save the file to your device. There will likely still be a Template File uploaded. This is the old version. Delete it and upload your newer version.
If your Letter Template File is new, click the Upload button and upload the file you have just created.
Generate Letters
The addition of subgrids is complete and you may generate letters whenever you need to.
For more information on letter generation, see the Generating Letters in the CRM knowledge article.