Decision letters

Decision letters are written from letter templates kept under Plan > Form templates > Decision Letters. Each decision uses one template, and you can edit that decision's letter without changing the template.

Write a letter template

1. Go to Plan > Form templates and open the Decision Letters tab.
2. Select New Letter Template, name it and select Create.
3. Write the Letter text. Personalisation tokens fill in each application's details when the letter is generated.
4. Choose the Signatory. Their signature, name and title print at the foot of the letter. An administrator with no signature uploaded prints without a signature image; upload signatures on the administrator's page. See Administrators and permissions.
5. Select Save.

Your edits are kept as a draft until you save. Revert Edits drops them and shows the last saved text. Save as New Template makes a new template from the text on screen. Preview shows the letter; details about an application print blank there, because there is no application to fill them from.

When decisions use a template, letters not yet sent use the text you save. Save as New Template keeps every earlier version as its own template, so name versions clearly, for example "Standard offer 2026". The original stays listed with its own text, and letters already generated from it still name it.

Letters in te reo Māori and other languages

Write template names and letter text in any language. Macronised vowels (ā, ē, ī, ō, ū and their capitals) show exactly as typed in the editor and in Preview, and print the same in the generated letter, its email and its PDF.

Edit one decision's letter

1. On the decision's Select a Letter Template step, select Edit.
2. Change the letter. Your edits change the letters of this decision only; the template and other decisions that use it are not changed.
3. Select Revert Edits to go back to the template's saved text, or Save as New Template to keep this text as a new template that this decision then uses.

If your organisation has Administrator drafting switched on, Draft with AI sits under the letter. It drafts one paragraph to add to the letter as it stands, and Accept adds it after the letter's text without replacing any of your wording. It is saved with your next change, or when you preview or leave the letter. Nothing is sent. See Drafting with AI.

The preview signs with the signatory saved on the template. To change the signatory, edit the template.

Trace a sent letter

Open a stored letter from the Application Decisions section of an application's page, or from the decision's page. Above the letter you see:

• Generated from and the name of the template the letter came from.
• Who sent the decision and when.
• Review requests: each request in order, who asked whom to review, when, and its status (Pending, Completed, Forwarded or Reassigned).
• Open the Decision, which goes to the decision's page with its history and Internal Comments.
• Open the Application’s Assessment records, which goes to the Assessments section of the application's page. You see it if you can access both applications and assessments.

A revoked letter shows all of this too.

See also

• Funding decisions
• Drafting with AI