Does anyone use the USPS' electronic address correction service (ACS)? The information about how it works is in their Publication 8. Right now we are paying .70 cents per address correction, but if you subscribe to this, it costs .20 cents per correction(maybe more with recent rate increase).
Questions: the formatting seems to be a pain and I wonder if anyone has some tips. And, are you happy with it, etc.

I have not heard of this service yet and we are using the $.70 service. Please email me offline a link and any more info about this service you may have. Thank you. Josh Luedeman Development Systems Associate Elmira College [Email Removed]

We have used the USPS' Address Change Service (ACS) for a number of years and are very happy with it because: 1) We download the changed addresses electronically from the USPS's web site, which has significantly reduced the amount of manual address corrections we have to do. 2) Not only has it saved us staff time, but it has significantly reduced the amount - and, thus, the cost - of our returned mail, AND we no longer have to have NCOA updates done. We've used ACS with the quarterly mailings of our college magazine to over 20,000 households, and our annual costs have run $400-$500 - less than 1/3 of what our last NCOA update cost us. It takes a little effort to get it set up, but not nearly as much effort as doing NCOA updates, and it saves us time and $$$$! Catherine Catherine Seebald Director of Advancement Services Houghton College One Willard Ave. Houghton, NY 14744 585-567-9395 [Email Removed]

Here's the link to the publication. http://www.usps.com/cpim/ftp/pubs/pub8.pdf  There is also a contact number at USPS on page 1 and I spoke to a very helpful person. I think the benefits....timely and less costly address corrections, are worth going forward, even though I'm very stuck on their 'keyline' algorithm (beginning on page 12) format. I'm not sure if this can be done in Raiser's Edge, either, but I'm betting it can. Lee Eshenbaugh

Do you use the keyline? Did you buy additional software to create the 'check digit,' which the USPS says most companies do. If so, which software. You mentioned you use it for your magazine, which would be the first thing we use if for, too. Do you use it for any other mailings? Thanks, Lee

Yes, we use the keyline algorithm to create the check digit. Our campus systems manager in IT (separate from our RE database coordinator) has set up this process in an Access database to create an 'ACS code ID' field, which is then imported as a constituent attribute into all our records. I have asked him to pass on to me the details of how he set this up, but I may not get an answer right away - IT is in the midst of converting the rest of the campus to a new system (which we are extremely glad WE didn't have to go to - we were able to go to RE!!). If/when I get his reply, I'll share it with the forum. More info on the ACS can be found at http://www.usps.com/ncsc/addressservices/moveupdate/acs.htm . Catherine Catherine Seebald Director of Advancement Services Houghton College One Willard Ave. Houghton, NY 14744 585-567-9395 [Email Removed]

Thanks so much. The USPS customer service person mentioned PostalSoft to me but in my initial investigation of the software, I felt like we would be purchasing something that offers most everything we already have in Raiser’s Edge and, therefore, wouldn’t need. Why buy software for only one feature unless there are no other choices? I’ll look at Access now. Maybe the answer is there for us, too. And hope to hear something from you soon. And anyone else :). Thanks, again!

BTW, I forgot to mention that, in an effort to further reduce manual searches/changes and returned mail costs, we are in the process of obtaining another ACS identification code for use with our large 1st class mailings. Catherine

My apologies! Somehow I misunderstood how the check digit for our ACS code ID was being done - not in Access, as I had thought. The reply I received from our system manager was: 'We use the SQL database scripting language to do it, not Access....It has to be run by a SQL database administrator.' If anyone would like that info, let me know. He said he would be willing to share it. Catherine Catherine Seebald Director of Advancement Services Houghton College One Willard Ave. Houghton, NY 14744 585-567-9395 [Email Removed]

Catherine,Thanks for your emails. I've given the info to our IT guy. Do you have any other tips at this time? Lee

The following process for how we handle the downloads is from our database coordinator and might also help (it sounds more complicated than it is): 1) Our keyline is our constituent ID with the check digit added at the end. When we download the address updates, we pull the download into an Access table, drop the last digit on the keyline (leaving just our ID numbers), and format the address fields from upper case to proper/title case (this only takes a few mins.). 2) In RE, we then refresh an export of ID and Address Import ID based on a query of all mailable constituents, and pull that into Access as another table. 3) In Access, we use the constituent ID to link the two tables (the download with the ID and new address to the refreshed export) in order to get the Address Import ID. Address Import ID is a required field when changing an address via import in RE. We then create a new table with all the fields we need. 4) Export the new table to a .csv file. 5) Import the .csv file into RE and update the addresses. Once it's all set up, it goes pretty quickly. Besides, this takes a VERY small amount of time each month compared to what it would take to do the updates manually for all our returns. Hope this helps! Catherine Catherine Seebald Director of Advancement Services Houghton College One Willard Ave. Houghton, NY 14744 585-567-9395 [Email Removed]

Catherine, where is your id+check digit stored in the record? In attributes? Our IT person wondered if you could send us a copy of your SQL script? :).

Yes, we store it as a constituent attribute we call 'ACS Code ID.' I've just received the SQL script from our IT dept and - if you'll provide me with your email address - I will forward it on to you. BTW, if it were not possible for our IT dept. to do it in SQL, we *would* have set it up in Access and imported it from there. Catherine