Keeping Your Mailing Addresses Up to Date
Every year, over 40 million people, families, and businesses move — and in about 84% of those moves the Post Office has a valid forwarding address on file. Address Updates checks your families’ mailing addresses against the official USPS National Change of Address (NCOA) database, so you can fix addresses before you send a mailing instead of paying for returned mail afterward.
In one job, Address Updates will:
- Catch movers — find families who moved and give you their new address.
- Standardize addresses — put addresses into the official USPS format, including the full ZIP+4.
- Flag undeliverable addresses — point out addresses that are vacant or no longer receive mail.
Nothing changes automatically. Address Updates never edits a family’s address on its own. It shows you every proposed change first, and you choose which ones to apply — all of them, some of them, or none.
How It Works
1. Choose whoall families or by category
→2. USPS processesfree · takes a few minutes
→3. Preview matchesfree · see the counts
→4. Unlock resultsone flat fee
→5. Review & applyyou approve each change
Steps 1–3 are completely free. You only pay when you choose to unlock the results in step 4 — and you can see exactly what you’re getting (how many moves, standardizations, and undeliverables) before you do.
Where to Find It
In the left sidebar, open the Tools group and choose Address Updates. The main page lists your past jobs; the New job button (top right) starts a new one.
Before Your First Job
- One-time USPS authorization. The Post Office requires your organization to sign a short authorization form (a “PAF”) before your list can be checked. The first time you start a job, Address Updates walks you through it — you enter your organization’s legal name and the signer’s details and check a consent box. It takes a minute and is renewed once a year.
- At least 100 addresses. The USPS won’t process very small lists. If your selection has fewer than 100 eligible addresses, broaden it and try again.
- A prepaid balance. Jobs are paid from your account balance. You can top it up any time from the Add funds link on the page.
Who signs the USPS form? Your organization signs as the List Owner — it’s your mailing list. Chabad Management Solutions is named as your Broker/Agent that runs the check on your behalf. This is a USPS requirement, and the electronic signature counts the same as an ink signature.
Step 1 — Start a New Job
Choosing who to include
Click New job. By default the job includes all families. You can narrow it:
- Limit to Family Categories — pick one or more categories to process only those families. Choosing a category automatically includes its sub-categories.
- Address Options — sensible defaults are already chosen (current, mailable, US addresses). You can change these, but for almost every job you can leave them as they are.
As you choose, the panel shows a live Eligible addresses count so you know exactly how many addresses the job will check. When you’re ready, click Start job.
Starting a job is free. You are not charged when you start — only later, if you decide to unlock the results.
Step 2 — Let It Process
Your list is sent to the USPS to be checked. This is free and usually takes just a few minutes, though larger lists can take longer.
You don’t have to wait on the page
Once your addresses are uploaded, you can safely close the tab and come back later — the work continues on the USPS servers. We’ll email you when your results are ready to review, with a link straight back to the job.
Step 3 — Preview & Unlock
When processing finishes, you get a free preview of what the USPS found — the number of Moved, Standardized, Undeliverable, and No change addresses.
To see the actual before→after details and apply them, click Unlock results. This is the one point where the job’s flat fee is charged — the same price no matter how many addresses are in the list. The fee is shown right on the button before you confirm.
You only pay once. The flat fee covers the whole job. If you ever need to download the results again, there is no additional charge.
Step 4 — Review & Apply
The review screen lists every proposed change, with the old address and the new one side by side. Use the filter buttons at the top to view All, Moved, Undeliverable, or Standardized.
Selecting and applying
- Tick the rows you want, or use the select menu in the header to check all moves, all standardizations, or all undeliverable at once.
- Click Apply to make the selected changes. Moved and standardized addresses are updated in place; undeliverable addresses are marked No Mail and no longer current.
- Not sure about some rows? Click Ignore to skip them. The job stays open until every row is either applied or ignored, so you can handle the rest later.
What each result means
| Result | What it means | What happens when you apply it |
|---|
| Moved | The family moved and the USPS has their new forwarding address. | The address is replaced with the new one (kept on file for your records). |
| Standardized | Same location — the USPS just tidied the formatting (for example Street → ST) or added the full ZIP+4. | The address is updated to the official USPS format, with the ZIP+4 saved in its own field. |
| Undeliverable | The address is vacant or no longer receives mail, with no forwarding address. | The address is set to No Mail and marked not current, so you stop mailing it. |
| No change | The address is already correct — nothing to do. | Nothing. These aren’t listed for review. |
Every update is traceable. When you apply a change, the family’s address history is stamped “Updated via NCOA” with the date — so even a formatting-only fix leaves a record you can see later.
What It Costs
- One flat fee per job, whatever the list size. The current price is shown on the page.
- You’re charged only at the unlock step — choosing families, processing, and the match preview are all free.
- Fees come from your prepaid balance. Top it up with Add funds whenever you like.
- If your balance is too low to unlock a job, you’ll see a prompt to add funds — nothing is charged until there’s enough.
Job History & What’s Kept
The main page keeps a list of your past jobs. Open any job to see its results again. What we retain is designed to keep the meaningful history forever while trimming the routine:
- Job summaries are kept permanently — the date, the counts, and the fee.
- Every move and every undeliverable is kept permanently — these are the changes that matter, so their full before→after detail is always available.
- Standardization details (formatting-only tidy-ups) are kept for your 3 most recent jobs and up to 5 years. On older jobs those details are trimmed to save space — but the job still opens, and its moves and undeliverables remain.
Good to Know
- You’re always in control. No address is ever changed until you review and apply it.
- Free until you unlock. Start as many jobs as you like — you only pay to unlock results.
- Leave and come back. Processing runs on the USPS servers; we email you when it’s ready.
- Apply in rounds. A job stays open until every row is applied or ignored, so you can approve the easy ones now and revisit the rest later.
- Foreign addresses are skipped. NCOA is a US Postal Service program, so only US addresses are checked.
Troubleshooting
- “New job” is greyed out. You have a job that still needs attention — open it and review or ignore its rows first, then you can start a new one.
- “At least 100 addresses” message. Your selection is too small for the USPS to process. Include more families or remove a category filter.
- USPS authorization needed. Before your first job you’ll be asked to complete the one-time authorization form. Click Authorize now and fill it in.
- A job says “Needs attention.” Processing finished but the results download didn’t complete. Click Retry download — you are never charged again for a retry.
- Still stuck? Reach out to support and we’ll help you get the job through.