What Is Address Verification?

Address verification is an automated feature that syncs your database with the United States Postal Service (USPS) every night. This process:

• Standardizes mailing addresses according to USPS guidelines

• Completes missing address values if found

• Updates addresses for individuals who have moved

By leveraging this tool, organizations can significantly cut postage costs and eliminate the need for manual data entry when addresses change. To learn more about the full process, take a look at our walk through video below:

How to Enable Address Verification

If you already have an Aplos subscription and you are ready to move forward with address verification, follow the below steps to get started!

1. Log into your Aplos account.
2. Go to the Settings -> Subscription.
3. Select Change Subscription button at the bottom of the screen
4. Click the plus sign next to Address Verification
5. Administrator Requirement: If you are not an Administrator, contact your Administrator to enable this feature.

Cost of Address Verification:

• Monthly Fee: $10 per month for every 1,000 contacts.
  • This fee is charged in addition to your regular Aplos subscription.
• For Contracted Accounts: If your account is in a contract, contact our Customer Care Team for access.

How to Disable Address Verification:

1. Log into your Aplos account.
2. Navigate to Settings -> Subscription.
3. Administrators can disable Address Verification from this page.

How to Set Up Address Verification

Once you have Address Verification enabled, your contacts will automatically be checked against the USPS database to be verified each night. However, there are some steps you can take to improve the success rate.

Setting Contact Addresses to Primary

When using Address Verification, you will want to review contact addresses using the Contact List Details report to ensure your contacts meet the simple requirements for their addresses to be verified. You will want to check that each individual has the following:

• First Name
• Last Name
• US Address set to Primary

After that, you are finished with setting up your Address Verification! Your Aplos contact records will be synced nightly with the United States Postal Service database to standardize your address formats, complete postal codes, and search for changes in address.

Maintaining Address Verification

With Address Verification now automating your data clean up nightly, you can see it in action from:

• individual contact cards
• address changes screen

Viewing Verified Addresses

To confirm if a contact's primary address was successfully verified, you will:

• • Navigate to a contact’s profile in the People -> Contact List section.

  • Under the contact details, a verified stamp appears next to addresses verified by USPS.

  • Clicking on the information icon provides confirmation of USPS verification.

  • If an address is not verified, it means it was either manually altered or not found in the USPS system.

How to Stop an Address from Being Verified

You have the option to turn off Address Verification for any contacts. This will keep their address the same and not update it resulting in the contact not being verified. To accomplish this, do the following:

1. Navigate to the contact's profile card
2. Click “Edit Details” and locate the address field
3. Check “Do Not Verify” and save your changes. 

Viewing Address Changes

If you want to see all changes that have been made by Address Verification follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the Contact List page.
2. Click on the box with a down arrow icon on the top right
3. Click on the button “Address Changes.”
4. View address moves or address verification
   • Each tab will display both the old address and the new address
     • Address Moves: Displays addresses that have changed due to a move
     • Address Verifications: Displays addresses that have been updated and verified by the USPS

When an address is updated via USPS verification, the system retains the previous address for reference. The contact’s profile will display both:

• The new verified address

• The previous address, labeled as “Moved”

Troubleshooting

Why is my contact’s address showing “Not Verified”?

If you enable Address Verification, the verification process will run that night, so your contacts may not be verified immediately. If you expect an address to be verified, and it still shows as “Not Verified,” here are a few options:

• Click “Edit Details” for the contact to double-check that the address you wish to verify is marked as the Primary address for the contact.
• Make sure you have as much of the address completed as possible, along with the first and last name.
• If you edited a “Verified” address, it will change the address back to “Not Verified” until the next time the verification process runs.
• If you changed the contact to “Do Not Verify,” the address will always show as “Not Verified.”

FAQs

Does Address Verification update Household addresses?

• Yes! With Address Verification the primary contact of the household will be verified. If the setting on the household is to use the address of the primary contact, it will also update the household with the new address.

What happens if I disable Address Verification? Will I keep my verified addresses?

• Yes. If you disable Address Verification, your verified addresses will still be visible. Moving forward, it will not verify current or new addresses.