A school coordinator reads your group contract, sees “Planetarium Show, 10:30 AM,” and plans to load the buses at 11:00. The show actually runs until 11:15. That gap between what’s in the group sales record and what prints on the contract or itinerary is where a lot of group-visit headaches start.
This guide covers how merge fields in Altru group sales documents work, how to see exactly which fields your own database exposes, and what to do when the field you need (end times are the usual one) isn’t on the list.
How group sales documents pull data
Altru produces group sales contracts and itineraries from document templates: Word files that hold placeholder merge fields. When you generate a contract for a reservation, Altru fills those placeholders with values from the group sales record: the group’s name and contact, the visit date, pricing, deposits and balances, and the scheduled itinerary items.
Two practical points follow from that:
- Only fields Altru offers to the template can be merged. You can rearrange, relabel, and format the fields that are available, but you can’t type in a new field name and expect Altru to resolve it.
- Itinerary data is usually the thinnest part. Organization-level and reservation-level details tend to be well covered. Per-item details inside the itinerary (each program, show, tour, or meal) are where admins most often find that what they see on screen doesn’t all reach the printed document.
Find the real list for your database
Don’t rely on a list from another organization or an old training handout. The available fields depend on your Altru version and configuration, so check your own:
- Download your current contract template from the group sales configuration area and open it in Word. The merge fields already in use show you the naming pattern.
- Find the complete list of fields the template can use. Depending on how your version handles templates, that list may be visible in Word’s merge field options or in Altru’s own template documentation. Whichever source it is, treat it, not memory, as your inventory of what can be merged.
- Generate a test contract for a reservation that has several itinerary items with different start times and durations. Compare the output against the reservation record line by line.
- Write down what’s missing. End times, room or location names, staff assignments, item notes, and per-item pricing are the ones admins most often check for.
If the field list in Word and the documentation don’t match, or you aren’t sure whether a value is exposed, ask Blackbaud support before you redesign anything. It saves a round of rework.
When end times (or other details) aren’t available
If your test shows the itinerary prints start times but not end times, you have a few options. None is perfect; pick the one that matches your volume.
Put the end time where it will print
If a description or notes field on the itinerary item does merge, staff can type the time range there, such as “10:30 to 11:15, Dome Theater.” It’s manual, but it’s reliable, and coordinators see exactly what they need. The risk is drift: if someone reschedules the item and forgets the note, the contract is wrong. Make “update the note” part of your reschedule checklist.
Standardize durations and say so
If every planetarium show runs 45 minutes and every guided tour runs an hour, you can add a short static section to the template listing standard program lengths. Coordinators do the math themselves. This works best when your program list is short and durations rarely change.
Build a separate itinerary from a query
For organizations with many multi-stop school groups, a richer itinerary can come from outside the contract template. Build a query on group sales reservations and their itinerary items that returns the fields you need, if they’re queryable in your database. Export the results and use them as the data source for a Word mail merge or a simple spreadsheet layout. Send the contract from Altru as usual, and attach the detailed itinerary alongside it.
This takes more setup, and it’s a second document to keep in sync, but it gives you full control over layout and fields. Test it in a sandbox or on past reservations before you send one to a customer.
Use a report instead of a merge
If someone on your team is comfortable building custom reports, a group itinerary report can show whatever fields the reporting data includes. Confirm what’s reachable before committing to it; whether the effort pays off depends on how many groups you book each season.
Keep the template maintainable
- Keep a master copy of each template outside Altru, with a short change log. Template edits are easy to lose.
- Label workarounds inside the document. A comment in the Word file noting “end time comes from item notes” helps the next administrator.
- Re-test after Altru updates. Generate a contract for a known reservation and compare it with the last good copy.
- Ask coordinators what they need. A five-minute call with a frequent school customer often shows that one or two fields, not ten, would fix most of the confusion.
Quick answers
Can I add my own merge field to an Altru contract template?
You can place and format the fields Altru makes available to the template. Typing a new field name into the Word file won’t make Altru fill it. If a value appears on the reservation record but not in the template’s field list, ask Blackbaud support whether it can be exposed.
Do contract and itinerary templates use the same fields?
Not necessarily. Check each template’s field list separately rather than assuming they match.
