The purpose of address scrubbing is to standardize mailing addresses and take advantages of discounted postal rates from the United States Postal Service (USPS). There are a number of CASS certified services that provide address scrubbing, but all services perform the following functions:
Once the addresses have been scrubbed by a certified service, the pieces mailed qualify for postal discounts. The user may save as much as six cents for first class mail or post cards. The only other requirement is that the mailing label include a postnet bar code, which Mastertrak does.
To review a summary of the postal rates for letters and postcards, click here
MasterTrak does not directly scrub the addresses, but provides a process to export address information to one of the certified services and then import the addresses back into the system after the addresses have been scrubbed.
First, the system creates a tab-delimited ASCII file. This file includes the service address, billing addresses and bill to/owner addresses from the active accounts. The file will be created using the file name provided on the window below.
Export file to: Enter the full path and name for the export file. The user may select the 
to display available folders on the system.
If the user selects this button, the system will create the export file. Upon completion, the system will display the following message.
If the user has Microsoft Outlook™ installed, the system will be able to create the email automatically. If the email is created, it will appear as follows:
Note: Depending upon the version of Outlook, the system may display the following window. This window relates to Outlook™ security. The user should check the box and select YES to continue.
The layout of the exported file is as follows: The specific file layout is directed toward Accumail™, but any certified service could use the file created.
Once the addresses have been scrubbed, the user imports the addresses back into the system using the window displayed below.
The system will update the addresses on the system using the following rules:
The service will also provide a facsimile of USPS Form 3553 This form will verify that the addresses have been scrubbed using CASS certified software. The form also indicates how long these addresses are certified. This form must be submitted when the mailing is submitted to USPS.
When the mailing is submitted, the user must also complete USPS Form 3600R This form indicates the number of pieces being submitted and the count for each rate level of the mailing. The Zip Code Summary that is prepared when the bills are printed provides a break-down of the counts by rate level.
At the present time USPS requires that addresses be scrubbed at least once every three months. Any address that is added to the mailing being scrubbing is considered by the MasterTrak system to be a hand-sort address and will not qualify for any discount postal rate.
If there are addresses that cannot be matched, the system will display a listing of the unmatched addresses with a reason for the problem. The report will appear as follows:
This process allows the user to project potential savings based upon having the billing addresses scrubbed by a CASS-certified process. As a normal process, the billing addresses in the database when be scrubbed as part of the conversion process. When this window is displayed, the system calculates the cost of mailing a first class letter and post card to all active customers in the database. The user may enter their current postage rate for either letters or postcards and the system will calculate the potential postage savings.