Interlink Circulation is Full-Service

By Brad Hill
President

Earlier this month, we released Interlink Circulation version 2.3, and with it passed a major milestone as publishers of mailing software. This update, one of the most significant we have produced in recent years, includes everything necessary to submit mailings that meet the upcoming Full-Service requirements of the U.S. Postal Service.

As a reminder, after Jan. 26, 2014, all Full-Service Intelligent Mail requirements must be met in order to claim the automation rates previously granted by simply printing a barcode with the mailing address. Full-Service is about much more than automation rates, and there’s a lot of good information explaining what else Full-Service means.

Here’s what has changed in Circulation to support Full-Service:

Electronic Submission of Postage Statements (a.k.a. eDoc)
In order for a mailing to qualify as Full-Service, the postage statement must be submitted electronically. This is as easy as clicking the “Send to USPS” button from the Mailing Reports screen after selecting the issue to send.

New Tray / Sack Tags
The Intelligent Mail tray barcode, or IMtb, changes the layout and information that prints on tray and sack tags. These tags include a special serial number that links the tags to the specific mailing they were created for, meaning tray/sack tags cannot be reused or saved for future mailings as in the past.

New Setup Options
In order to submit postage statements electronically, Circulation needs to know which USPS account to use. We added a new menu item called Configure PostalOne! where USPS Business Customer Gateway account information is entered and can be verified prior to submitting a postage statement.

If, like most Interlink customers, you’re already printing the Basic IMb on your address labels, and especially if you have been submitting your postage statements electronically, the move to Full-Service using Interlink Circulation is straightforward.

Note that Circulation 2.3 offers Full-Service for Periodical Mail only. Interlink is in the final stages of our work and testing on Standard Mail and will release that in an update soon!