In business circles, it is quite common to communicate between partners by means of formal letters. Writing such a document requires adherence to established standards, which is why the easiest solution would be to use a formal letter template. 

Types of business letters

Email makes it fast and affordable to send official letters today, and therefore this type of correspondence is extremely popular and widely used. It is the mass usage that caused the emergence of different varieties of this type of business documents. Most often you can find the following categories:

1. Guarantee letter – this document contains a request to the addressee and the guarantee obligations. 
2. Commercial offer – this sample is one of the most commonly used options. Such a document on cooperation is exchanged by companies on a daily basis and more than once.
3. Notification – this document contains certain information which is to be provided to the addressees in order to establish further cooperation with them.
4. Offer – this document usually refers to the provision of goods or services. Such a letter must mention the description, term, location, and cost of the product or service. 
5. Complaint – such a letter contains the message about the inadequate quality of the goods or services provided. Most often, when the parties draw up a cooperation agreement, punitive penalties are stipulated for the non-fulfillment of obligations by the parties. As a rule, the penalty payment period begins at the moment of sending this document in writing.
6. Cover letter – such a paper in the form of an inventory is most often drawn up when a package of papers is sent by mail. In the case of a tender, such a letter is mandatory.
7. Confirmation or acknowledgment – this document is drawn up to confirm receipt of the business papers and is not obligatory.

Official business letters can also include documents that contain a request, reminder, congratulation, or an invitation. A letter can be sent to several recipients or to one recipient only.

How to properly draft an official letter?

An official letter, like any other business documentation, should be properly composed. There should be no punctuation, grammar, spelling, or any other errors. 

Before drafting a document, it is important to decide on its type. The text should be divided into paragraphs, so the reader perceives the information better. Also, an official letter should have a neutral tone, and contain only true, accurate, complete, and verified information, as well as brief content. It is not recommended to use abbreviations of words in the letter body, except for the officially accepted ones. It is not typical for business documentation to use ambiguous phrases. The letter should have one subject matter. 

The structure of an official letter is as follows: the introductory, main, concluding part, a politeness formula, the signature, and the position of the responsible person. The document should definitely contain the name of the organization, details, contacts, date, and number of the letter. Most often you use email to send the document.

Electronic document management: why it is a good idea to take advantage of it

Today, many companies use electronic document management systems. This practice is very beneficial not only in terms of promptness of sending important papers or their processing. First of all, it ensures high security of their storage in the cloud, which is possible thanks to the software from PandaDoc.

It is possible to work with such documents at any convenient time, and the place of work does not matter much. And with the help of digital signatures, it is possible to sign documents remotely.