The Coding Accuracy Support System (CASS) enables the

United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the ...

(USPS) to evaluate the

accuracy Accuracy and precision are two measures of '' observational error''. ''Accuracy'' is how close a given set of measurements ( observations or readings) are to their '' true value'', while ''precision'' is how close the measurements are to each o ...

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consist ...

that corrects and matches street addresses. CASS

certification Certification is the provision by an independent body of written assurance (a certificate) that the product, service or system in question meets specific requirements. It is the formal attestation or confirmation of certain characteristics of a ...

is offered to all mailers,

service bureau A service bureau is a company that provides business services for a fee. The term has been extensively used to describe technology-based services to financial services companies, particularly banks. Service bureaus are a significant sector within t ...

s, and software

vendor In a supply chain, a vendor, supplier, provider or a seller, is an enterprise that contributes goods or services. Generally, a supply chain vendor manufactures inventory/stock items and sells them to the next link in the chain. Today, these terms ...

s that would like the USPS to evaluate the

quality Quality may refer to: Concepts *Quality (business), the ''non-inferiority'' or ''superiority'' of something *Quality (philosophy), an attribute or a property *Quality (physics), in response theory * Energy quality, used in various science discipl ...

of their address-matching software and improve the accuracy of their ZIP+4, carrier route, and five-digit coding. For software vendors and service bureaus, CASS Certification must be renewed annually with the USPS to meet current CASS Certification cycle requirements. CASS Certified products are listed in USPS literature and on its web site. CASS software will correct and standardize addresses. It will also add missing address information, such as ZIP codes, cities, and

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

s to ensure the address is complete. Starting with 2007 Cycle L, CASS software will also perform

delivery point In a postal system, a delivery point (sometimes DP) is a single mailbox or other place at which mail is delivered. It differs from a street address, in that each address may have several delivery points, such as an apartment, office department, ...

validation to verify whether or not an address is a deliverable address and check against the USPS

Locatable Address Conversion System Locatable Address Conversion System (LACS) is a service offered by the United States Postal Service to update mailing addresses when a street is renamed or the address is updated for 911 911 or 9/11 may refer to: Dates * AD 911 * 911 BC * Se ...

to update addresses that have been renamed or renumbered. A correct address saves the Postal Service time, money and manpower by reducing the volume of 1) non-deliverable mail; 2) unsorted mail; 3) mail that is deliverable, but requires extra effort to determine the proper location to which it should be delivered. Mailers who use CASS software to check the addresses of their mailing may be able to qualify for discounted postage rates from the USPS. An example of what CASS software will correct in an address: The input of:

1 MICROWSOFT
REDMUND WA

Produces the output of:

1 MICROSOFT WAY
REDMOND WA 98052-8300

Here the street and city name misspellings have been corrected; street suffix, ZIP code and ZIP+4 add-on have been added; and, in this case, the address was determined to be the location of a business. In addition to an updated address, CASS software can also return descriptive information about the address. The information falls into two categories: # If the address was successfully processed, or if not then why, # Information on how to deliver the mailing.

References

CASS Certification Requirements, A Mailer's Guide

External links

USPS CASS web site

List of CASS Certified Software Vendors
{{United States Postal Service United States Postal Service