Products, Services and Publications
Copyright © 2006 United States Postal Service
National Customer Support Center

Certified Software Programs

The United States Postal Service, in cooperation with the mailing industry, developed software certification programs to test and evaluate the accuracy of software and equipment offered by Vendors and Licensees who provide mailing related computer services to customers.

If you, as a USPS^® customer, use mail to conduct your business, using software products that have been certified by the Postal Service can offer many advantages. In some cases, to claim postage discounts, the use of certified software is required by the USPS. With regard to addressing, mail preparation, and qualification for postage discounts, Postal regulations are very complex and tend to change frequently. Using USPS certified products can free you from the need to focus on Postal regulations and allow you to focus on your business needs, while remaining confident that your mail is prepared correctly and discounts are taken appropriately.

• CASS™ Certification - a process of evaluating address-matching software
  
  
• CASS™-MASS™ Guidelines CD-ROM - a single source for CASS- and MASS-related information
  
  
• MAC™ Certification - determines whether the manifest mailing software accurately lists and calculates postage for identical and/or nonidentical-weight permit imprint mailpieces
  
  
• MAC™ Batch - determines whether the manifest/presort mailing software accurately calculates postage for non-identical piece mailings submitted under the permit imprint payment method
  
  
• MAC™ Gold - determines whether the manifest mailing software accurately lists and calculates postage for identical and/or nonidentical-weight permit imprint mailpieces
  
  
• MASS™ Certification - an extension of the CASS system that evaluates MLOCRs, RVE systems, and encoding stations
  
  
• Periodicals Accuracy and Grading Evaluation (PAGE) - evaluates publication and print planning (ppp) software to determine its accuracy in calculating virtual copy weight and the percentage of advertising
  
  
• PAVE™ Evaluation - evaluates presort software to determine its accuracy in sorting address files according to DMM™ standards
  
  
• POSTNET Barcode - evaluates and certifies manufacturers' printers, computer software, and systems (micro, mini, or mainframe) that produce a POSTNET barcode
  
  
• Zone Analysis Program (ZAP) - assists mailers in determining the proper postage for Periodicals mailings based on the distance between the point of mailing and the destination of the pieces