SOFTWARE BYTE
PREVENTING BY/FOR ERRORS BY JEFF PEOPLES
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ne of the critical data elements in electronically submitted mailings to PostalOne! is the identification of the various entities involved in the mailing job, specifically the mail owner, the mail preparer, and the eDoc submitter. Combined, this information is known as the “By/For” relationship. In other words, the United States Postal Service (USPS) is asking that electronic documentation identify who is preparing the mail and who is submitting the eDoc (this is the “By” portion) as well as who is responsible for the content of the mail piece and ultimate payment of the postage for the mailings (the “For” portion). These entities may be identified in the eDoc using their Mailing Identification number (MID) or their Customer Registration Identification number (CRID). In the case of the mail owner identification, there are several places in the eDoc where this needs to be identified. For mail service providers (MSPs), getting all of this straight can be a challenge, and it can be difficult to collect all of these critical pieces of information for their clients, too. By/For data is a common area for mailers to have errors on their Mailer Scorecard. So let’s take a deeper look at this information, its uses, and how to reduce the errors. Uses of Mail Owner Information The USPS uses the mail owner data in eDoc for three main purposes:
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SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2019 | MailingSystemsTechnology.com
1. To identify the mail owner for Full-Service compliance (this is the “For” part of the “By/For” relationship). 2. To validate nonprofit price eligibility when nonprofit prices are claimed. 3. To display the mail owners on postage statements. Means of Identification By/For Relationship: Currently, the mail owner MID, CRID, or permit data may be used to identify the mail owner for this purpose. The mail owner is required to be identified when the owner represents 5,000 or more pieces in a mailing. Nonprofit Price Validation: For each nonprofit mailing, all mail owners must
be identified and must have a valid nonprofit authorization number, regardless of the number of pieces per owner in the mailing. For mailings consisting of multiple mail owners, all of the mail owners must be identified in the eDoc. The mail owner permit may be used to identify the mail owner if the mail owner is paying their own postage using their own permit. For mail owners using a MSP permit to pay postage, the MSP must identify the mail owner using the mail owner’s MID/CRID information. Display Owner on Postage Statements: On the first page of postage statements, there are three blocks for the mailer’s information. The first block is the permit holder, and the data displayed in this block is that of the owner of the permit used to pay for the mailing. The second block is the mailing agent or mail preparer. This is identified by the CRID or MID of the mail preparer in the eDoc. The third block is the name and address of the organization for which the mailing is prepared, also known as the mail owner. This block is populated using the mail owner MID or CRID in the eDoc. If the mail owner uses their own permit to pay the postage, this data should be identical to the data in the first block. However, if the mail owner uses the postal permit of the mail preparer, then the company associated with the mail owner MID/CRID in the eDoc should appear in this block. Mail Service Provider Challenges If you are an MSP, you need to obtain the CRIDs and MIDs of your clients in order to ensure the Mail.dat files are correctly populated.
Resources So, how do you try to make sense of all of this? The best resources are the Business Customer Gateway (https://gateway.usps.com/eAdmin/view/signin) and PostalOne! A mail service provider (MSP) may also verify or gather the MID and CRID data for their clients using the Business Customer Gateway. The USPS PostalPro website (https://postalpro.usps.com/) also has some helpful information to clarify MIDs and CRIDs. The USPS also provides guide documents, such as Guide to Mail Owners in eDoc (https://postalpro.usps.com/node/2787) and By/For Relationship in eDoc (https://postalpro.usps.com/byforfactsheet). Your mailing software providers also offer automated tools to assist mailers with obtaining, validating, and maintaining this data, so check with them to get additional information on their available solutions.