BALTIMORE DISTRICT

SEAMLESS ACCEPTANCE

BALTIMORE BUSINESS MAIL ENTRY UNIT

What is Seamless Acceptance?

• Data is collected at 3 points in the mail stream to determine mail quality

Seamless Acceptance, is part of the Streamlined Acceptance program that automates and simplifies the entry, verification, and induction of commercial mail

through scanning, sampling, and trend-based reporting.

Undocumented: Has payment been received for each mailpiece?

Mail Preparation: Was each mailpiece prepared correctly?

DMUsØAll DMUs will be activated to Seamless Parallel beginning June 1, 2020ØFull enrollment in Seamless by May 1, 2021

ØImpact to DMU mailers that present Full-Service Eligible Mail ØNo impact to DMU Mailers that do not present Full-Service eligible mail

BMEUs ØAll CRIDs at BMEUs will be activated to Seamless Parallel July 2020

Ø61,143 CRIDs were moved to Seamless ParallelØAll Full Service mailings verified using automated sampling and verification processes by July 1, 2021

ØNo impact to mailers that do not present Full-Service mailingsNote: Auto-finalization of Seamless postage statements even if permit fees are due for renewal

Benefits of Seamless

• Seamless provides the following benefits :• Simplified verification procedures• Reduce time between acceptance and induction• Validations performed electronically• Mail Quality Reports for Mailers and USPS• Standardized verifications across customers and mailing environments• Reduce the complexity of the verification process

Seamless allows data to flow more freely between different phases of commercial mail

processing.

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ØComprehensive service performance»By plant

»By class

»By customer

»By pre-sort level

ØPoint-to-Point diagnostics

Service Performance

Barcoding & Addressing

6060 PRIMACY PKWY STE 201MEMPHIS TN 38188Address Change Service

John Doe6449 AMBERVIEW CVMEMPHIS TN 38141 - 8346

Transportation

Integrated Approach

Mail Processing &

Delivery

Acceptance

• To participate in Seamless mailers must meet the following criteria:

• Must use electronic documentation• 75% of mail volume is Full-Service• Mail must be in the following:• Mail Class: First-Class Mail, Standard Mail and Periodicals • Mail Category: Letters, Cards, and Flats

• At least 98% of containers, handling unit, and pieces must have a unique Intelligent Mail barcode• EPS Enrollment

Participation Criteria

• Mailers joining Seamless will go through an onboarding process to ensure their mail quality is high enough for them to participate

Onboarding

Mailers submit Seamless Acceptance mailings

without interruption to current operations or

processing

PostalOne! warnings will be generated instead of errors for eDoc issues

No invoicing

Continue to monitor mail quality and address

issues with mailer

Designated USPS personnel will work with

the mailers to address quality concerns

Work with mailer to achieve errors under

threshold for 1 calendar month

• Mailers participate in Seamless Parallel to demonstrate readiness for Seamless

• Mailers must be below thresholds for one month before Seamless is activated

• Invoice will not be generated unless mailer is above egregious threshold

• Please note thresholds are subject to change.

Seamless Process

• The Seamless process will vary slightly at BMEUs and DMUs, but at the following actions will need to be performed at any site:

• Verifications are run on containers, handling units and mailpieces

• Scan information captured from the FS-IMD during sampling and from MPE scans will be compared to the data submitted in the eDoc

• Errors will be logged when:• The electronic documentation provided by the mailer does not match data

captured by sampling and/or MPE scans• Mail is not prepared correctly per USPS standards

• Verification warnings and errors will be available in the MicroStrategy reports for further review by USPS personnel and the mailer

Verifications

Ø Manifest QualityØ Mailpiece CountØ Barcode QualityØ Presort ErrorsØ Address ValidityØ Address Hygiene

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Seamless Acceptance automatically verifies

Seamless Acceptance

(6) Detailed mail quality reporting

(3) Capture data by handheld scanner (FS-IMD) at acceptance or induction

(2) Auto-finalize postage statements

(1) Mailers submit eDoc for all mailings, which will include:

• Unique Barcodes• Piece data provided1

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(5) Compare data scans to electronic documentation

(4) Capture data by Mail Processing Equipment (MPE) scans

The complete Seamless process is as follows:

UNDOCUMENTED ERRORS

• Logged when a piece IMB scanned on Mail Processing Equipment cannot be linked to any eDoc submitted in the last 45 days.

• The MID, STID and Serial Number contained in the IMb are compared to the eDoc to determine if a piece is undocumented.

• If no match is found, the system continues to attempt to re-associate sampling scans and MPE scans for three days after the

scan was received.

Undocumented pieces are reported after this three day re-association has expired.

• For sampling scans, the system attempts to re-associate the FS-IMD to an eDoc for the full 45-day barcode uniqueness

period.

• As a result, some undocumented mail from sampling can be reported and later be removed from the report when a

matching IMcb, IMtb or IMb can be found in eDoc.

Mailer Scorecard• Who is the Mailer Scorecard for?

Mail owners and Mail Service Providers participating in Full-Service

• What does the mailer scorecard do?

The Mailer Scorecard provides a dashboard view of the results of the letter and flat mailing activity with the Postal Service over a calendar month. This view is available to both the mailer who submitted the electronic documentation for the mailing (eDoc submitter) and the mail owner/mail preparer.

Reporting

• Key reports for Seamless mail quality monitoring include:

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Mailer Profile Tab

Summary of Mailings for a month for eDoc and hardcopy Postage Statement Mailings

Includes:p Mail Service Provider II Indicatorp Total Volumep Full-Service Volumep Mail Classesp Processing Categoriesp eDoc Submission Type

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Electronic Verification Tab

• Only shows verification results for mailings submitted by eDoc. Regardless of mail volume

• Provides monthly results from Full-Service preparation requirements. Move/Update

• Error Thresholds are evaluated by percentage

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eInduction Tab.

• Provides an overview of the number of eInducton validation errors

• Shows a dashboard view of these results of these validations over a calendar month.

• Provides feedback on eInduction errors at

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Seamless Tab.

• Provides an overview of the verification results, indicates any verifications exceeding the threshold volume of mail eligible for Seamless Processing

• Only for mailers on Seamless Acceptance or Seamless Parallel

ENTERPRISE PAYMENT SYSTEM (EPS)

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The U.S. Postal Service has upgraded its payment architecture for business customers to the new Enterprise Payment System (EPS). This state-of-art application provides customers enhanced security features, centralized balance and account management online, the ability to pay for all products and services with one account, and convenient payment options. EPS supports Commercial, Domestic and International products and services which includes Priority Mail, First-Class Mail®, USPS Marketing Mail™, USPS Package Services (Parcel Select, Media Mail, Library Mail, Bound Printed Matter), Periodicals, Electronic PO Boxes Online (ePOBOL), Business Reply Mail (BRM), Share Mail, Intelligent Mail barcode Accounting (IMbA), iCAPS, PC Postage, Electronic Verification System (eVS), USPS Returns, and Address Quality Products invoiced through National Customer Support Center (NCSC).

Major Selling Pointsü Keeps customers safe during

times of COVID-19ü Gives them back precious

time in their dayü Gives them power and

knowledge of their Permit accounts

ü Takes the worry out of rushing to the Post Office to make a deposit before a mailing

BEFORE

Enterprise Payment System (EPS)

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AFTER

Why EPS?

• Pay for all Products and Services with one account

• Manage accounts online• Establish permits online• Manage postage spent• Convenient payment

options

MostCAPS customers have been migrated

PHASE should be COMPLETED

Get Ready! Request EPSCreate BCG Account

Link Permits/Publications

Create EPS Account

Set-up Payment

1. Choose the best payment option for your organization

2. Get a list of all your active permits

*Contact Gloria Carmichael410.347.4372

3. Register for a Business Customer Gateway (BCG) Account

Customers already registered skip to the next step

9. Link your mailing Permits to your EPA

7. Set up the selected payment option: ACH Debit (ensure there are no fraud filters on account) orTrust via EFT, Retail Deposit or Mobile Deposit

8. Activate your payment method

6. Create an Enterprise Payment Account (EPA)

If customer does not know CAPS Pin Number, have them create new account

• CAPS is 5-digit account number

• EPS is 10-digit account number

4. Go to “Other Services” tab on your BCG Account (District BME can grant access)

5. Select “Get Access” on the “Enterprise Payment System” Tab

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Commercial Mailings on EPS – Account Setup

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EPS Reporting Features:

• “EPS Dashboard” provides a

quick glance of all EPS accountsand Real-time total spending

history grouped by products

and services.

• Real-time total of “Pending ACH Debit

transactions sent to the bank at the end

of the day and current Trust Balance on

each active EPS Account.• ACH Debit Transactions are aggregated daily at

6PM EST• CAPS Transactions were aggregated at

midnight daily

EPS Migration

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Additional Resources:

• Local BME Management, Baltimore District, refer to next slide

• Information on creating an EPS account can be found at https://postalpro.usps.com/eps

• Information about eVS can be found at https://postalpro.usps.com/shipping/evs

• Additional fact sheets and user guides for USPS products and services can be found at https://postalpro.usps.com/

eVS to EPS

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For those needing assistance, have questions or concerns, regarding the topics discussed today (Seamless Acceptance and/or Enterprise Payment System (EPS), please feel free to contact either of us.

Barbette D. Cephas, Manager Business Mail Acceptancebarbette.d.cephas@usps.gov410.347.4437

Gloria F. Carmichael, Mailing Standards Specialistgloria.f.carmichael@usps.gov (Primary means of contact)410.347.4372