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About the CASS Tool

The CASS Tool takes the input address file and checks it against the USPS Coding Accuracy Support System. The tool cleans up the data by correcting address information to the US Postal Service Standard. It also appends valuable address-specific information to the data.

By CASS certifying address files, the user can receive substantial bulk mailing discounts from the US Postal Service by submitting a CASS Report.

The CASS library is a separate data install that is only available with the Alteryx Spatial offering. It requires a special license to run. The data is released bi-monthly and expires every two months (on the last day of even months). For example the June release of CASS will expire on August 31 and the August release will expire on October 31.

For more information regarding the CASS Tool, see Credits.

Note: Records will not come out of this tool in the order they went in. This is because the records process on different threads and come out in the order they complete.

Configuration Properties

1. Choose the appropriate fields from the drop down menus. The first two fields, Company and Urbanization are optional.
2. Choose the Address fields from the next two boxes. The address field will contain a house number and the Street. Only one address field is required, but the file may have a second address field containing a building, apartment or suite number.

Note: When you pass a suite number to the address 2 property, a suite name or pre-qualifier (Ste, Apt, Unit etc) must be present in order for the CASS tool to recognize it as a suite number. The USPS has a list of acceptable pre-qualifiers listed here.

3. Last Line is a single field checkbox. Check this box if the City, State and Zip Code information are contained within a single field. Then choose the Last Line Field from the drop down list. If they are in multi-fields, go to Step 4.
4. If the City State and Zip code information are in separate fields, choose them individually from the drop down lists.
5. The next section has 4 tabs:
   • Output Fields: Check the boxes next to the fields to include in the analysis. Additionally, the user can choose Defaults for U.S. or Canadian addresses, select All fields, or Clear all fields by clicking the appropriate button on the right. The output fields are described in detail below.
   • U.S. CASS Report: The user can choose to generate a CASS report of the analysis. Just specify the file location path to save the CASS Report to. The CASS form 3553 is automatically generated when the workflow runs. This report is required to submit to the USPS for bulk mail discounts, as it proves the data has been CASS-Certified.

   After you run the workflow, you can open this report directly from the hyperlink in output window. See the Output page for more information.

   See the CASS Report page for more information regarding the contents of the CASS Report.

   • Canada SOA Report: The user can choose to generate a Canadian SOA (Statement of Accuracy) report of the analysis. Just specify the file location path to save the SOA Report to. The report is automatically generated when the workflow runs. See the Canadian SOA page for more information regarding the contents of this report.
   • Options: Force results to CAPS, when checked will return all field values in all CAPS. This is a requirement for writing the CASS Report.

Output Fields

The CASS tool can produce any or all of the following outputs (US defaults in green).

Note: An address record must have a CASS_Results value of AS01 or AS02 in order to be considered a good record. If it is not considered a good record, the returned data in CASS Address fields may not be accurate.

• CASS_Address: This field will contain the input address along with any corrections or standardizations performed by the CASS tool. This may include fixed misspellings or the insertion of missing suffixes and directionals.

  Address standardization involves the conversion of suffixes and directionals to preferred postal abbreviations (i.e. "Street" to "St.")

  If a suite name is attached to the end of an input address, it will be moved toCASS_AddressPlusSuite.

• CASS_Address2: Returns or sets a second address line associated with the input address. It can contain either a suite or a different, secondary address such as a PO Box

  If the CASS utility detects a common suite name such as #, APT, STE, and so on, it will append it to the end of the Address Property before attempting to verify the address.

  If the address entered in the Address Property is not verifiable and a separate and complete verifiable address is input in the Address2 Property, the Address and the Address2 properties will be swapped and the original Address2 property will be used to verify. Examples follow:

1. Address Property was not verifiable, therefore the Address2 Property was verified and the address properties were swapped.
   1. Input:
      Address = 123 Main St Apt 10 (could not be verified)
      Address2 = PO Box 223 (could be verified)
      Output:
      Address = PO Box 223
      Address2 = 123 Main St Apt 10
2. The Address Property could be verified, so the Address2 Property was not considered.
   

   Input:
   Address = PO Box 223 (could be verified)
   Address2 = 123 Main St Apt 10 (not looked at)
   Output:
   Address = PO Box 223
   Address2 = 123 Main St Apt 10

    

• CASS_AddressPlusSuite: If a suite name is attached to the end of an input address, it will be appended here.

• CASS_AddressRange: Parses out the House number to its own field.

• CASS_AddressTypeCode: The AddressType Property is a 1-character string value. This 1-character code indicates the type of address that was returned. No data will be present in this field if the CASS_Results field is AS03 (Non-USPS address).

• CASS_AddressTypeString: The Address type is a variable string containing the first word in the description listed above. (i.e. F=Firm, S=Street)

• CASS_CarrierRoute:The Carrier Route is a 4-character string appended to the file. The first character of this code is always alphabetic, and the last 3 characters are numeric. The alphabetic letter indicates the type of delivery associated with the address.

Code	Description
B	PO Box
C	City Delivery
G	General Delivery
H	Highway Contract
R	Rural Route

• CASS_City: If the City Property is not supplied in the input table, the CASS utility will use the official city or municipality name of the ZIP or Postal Code instead.

  If the City Property is supplied, the utility will only change the city name if it is incorrect or an unapproved mailing name. In these cases, the official city name for the ZIP will be returned in this field.

• CASS_CityAbbreviation: The City Abbreviation field is a 13 character string value. If the City name is longer than 13 characters, the City Abbreviation field will be populated with the official USPS abbreviation for that city. For example, "Fort Lauderdale" will return the abbreviation "Ft Lauderdale" in this field.

• CASS_CMRA: This is a one character field indicating whether or not the address is an actual private mailbox at a Commercial Mail Receiving Agency (CMRA) such as "Mailboxes, Etc."

Code	Description
N	This address does NOT belong to a CMRA
Y	This address doeselong to a CMRA b

• CASS_CongressionalDistrict: The Congressional District field is a 2-digit value that represents the congressional district for the address given and is accurate to the Zip+4 level.

  For states with only one congressional representative, the value "01" is returned.

• CASS_CountyFIPS: The County FIPS is a 5-character string value. The Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) is a 5-digit code defined by the U.S. Bureau of Census. The first two digits are the state code and the last three indicate the county within the state.

  For Example: "06037" is the County FIPS for Los Angeles, CA ("06" is the state code for California and "037" is the county code for Los Angeles).

  The CountyFipsProperty is accurate to the 9-digit ZIP+4 level.

• CASS_CountyName: The County Name is a 25-character string value. The county name is associated with the CountyFips Property and it is accurate to the 9-digit ZIP+4 level.
  

  Note: The dominant county for the 5-digit ZIP Code is returned. Since some ZIP Codes overlap multiple counties, the wrong county is sometimes returned. It is best to use the US Geocoder to determine the county an address falls in (Census ID).

• CASS_DeliveryPointCheckDigit: The Delivery Point Check Digit is a 1-character string value that makes up the 12th position of a 12-digit POSTNet barcode.

  In 12-digit POSTNet barcodes, the ZIP Code is used for positions 1 to 5, the Plus4 code for positions 6 to 9, the delivery point code for positions 10 and 11, and this check digit for position 12.

• CASS_DeliveryPointCode:The Delivery Point Code is a 2-character string value that makes up the 10th and 11th positions of a 12-digit POSTNet barcode.

• CASS_DPV Footnotes: Deprecated field - please use CASS_Results. Returns the applicable standard USPS footnote codes for the input address.

Code	Description
AA	Input Address Matched to the ZIP + 4 file.
A1	Input Address Not Matched to the ZIP + 4 file.
BB	Input Address Matched to DPV (all components)
CC	Input Address Primary Number Matched to DPV but Secondary Number not Matched (present but invalid)..
N1	Input Address Primary Number Matched to DPV but Address Missing Secondary Number.
M1	Input Address Primary Number Missing.
M3	Input Address Primary Number Invalid.
P1	Input Address Missing PO, RR, or HC Box number.
P3	Input Address PO, RR or HC number invalid.
RR	Input Address Matched to CMRA
R1	Input Address Matched to CMRA but Secondary Number not Present.
F1	Address Was Coded to a Military Address
G1	Address Was Coded to a General Delivery Address
U1	Address Was Coded to a Unique ZIP Code.

• CASS_ErrorCode: Deprecated field - please use CASS_Results. The ErrorCode Property is a one-character property that describes any problems encountered if an address cannot be verified. If the field is empty, there was no error.

Code	Error String Returned	Description
D	Demo Mode Only	While in Demo mode, you can only verify Nevada addresses.
F	DPV Offline	DPV processing was terminated due to the detection of what is determined to be an artificially created address.
M	Multiple Matches	More than one record matches the address and there is not enough information available in the input address to break the tie between multiple records.
N	No Data Available for City	The ZIP/Postal Code exists but no streets begin with the same letter in that ZIP/Postal Code.
R	Range Error	The address was found but the street number in the input address was not between the low and high range of the post office database.
T	Component Error	Either the directionals or the suffix field did not match the post office database, and there was more than one choice for correcting the address.
S	Invalid Suite	Canadian Addresses only. The suite was missing or is incorrect. Canadian addresses cannot be coded to a default site address as US addresses can.
U	Unknown Street	An exact street name match could not be found and phonetically matching the street name resulted in either no matches or matches to more than one street name.
W	Early Warning System	This address has been identified in the Early Warning System (EWS) data file, and should be included in the next national database update.
X	Undeliverable Address	The physical location exists but there are no homes on this street.
Z	Invalid Zip Code	The ZIP/Postal Code does not exist and could not be determined by the city/municipality and state/province.

• CASS_ErrorString: Deprecated field - please use CASS_Results. Returns a string value which describes the meaning of the ErrorCode field in greater detail. Actual string listed above.

• CASS_EWSFlag: Returns a one-character string value which indicates whether the current address record was found in the Early Warning System (EWS) database, "Y" if the current address was found in the EWS database.

• CASS_LACS: Returns a one-character string which indicates if the input address has undergone a LACS conversion.

  Locatable Address Conversion Service (LACS) is a process where some rural route addresses are modified to city-style addresses to allow emergency services (for example, ambulance, police, fire, and so on) to find these addresses more efficiently.

  An empty space indicates that the address has not undergone a LACS conversion. A value of "L" in the LACS field indicates that the address has undergone a conversion. After a conversion, the old address is retained in the ZIP+4 file for a period of one year. After the one year period, the old addresses will be dropped from the ZIP+4 file and the address checking logic will not assign a +4 for this address.

• CASS_LACSLinkIndicator: If the submitted address was found in the LACSLink database and changed to the new address, this function will return a “Y,” otherwise it will return an “N.” An “S” if the submitted address was corrected to a new address found in the LACSLink data but contained a suite that could not be matched. This indicator is only returned for LACS addresses (rural route addresses whether or not they have been converted).

• CASS_LACSLinkReturnCode: Returns one of the following codes only for LACS addresses (rural route addresses whether or not they have been converted.

Code	Description
A	LACS Record Match - The input record matched to a record in the master file. A new address could be furnished.
00	No Match - The input record could not be matched to a record in the master file. A new address could not be furnished.
14	Found LACS Record - New Address Would Not Convert at Run Time - The input record matched to a record in the master file. The new address could not be converted to a deliverable address.
92	LACS Record - Secondary Number Dropped from Input Address - The input record matched to a master file record, but the input address had a secondary number and the master file record did not. The record is a ZIP + 4 street level or high-rise match.

• CASS_LastLine: Sets the city, state, and ZIP Code combination and concatenates the strings into one field.

• CASS_MSA: Returns the 4-character MSA number associated with the input address.

  An MSA consists of one or more counties forming a large population with adjacent communities and having a high degree of social and economic integration.

• CASS_Plus4: Sets and returns the four-digit ZIP Code appendage associated with the input address.

• CASS_PMSA: Returns the 4-digit character string value, PMSA number associated with the input address.

  The Office of Management and Budget defines the Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area (PMSA) for regions that contain a population of more than one million.

• CASS_PostalCode: Returns the 6-character string value, Postal Code associated with the Canadian input address.

• CASS_PostDirection: Returns any geographic directional (2-character maximum) that follows the street name.

  The post-direction is a geographical directional that follows the street name. For example, in the address range of 100 N Main St E, this field will hold the "E." The post direction can be one of the following: "N", "NE", "E", "SE", "S", "SW", "W", "NW".

• CASS_PreDirection: Returns the geographic directional (2-character maximum) that precedes the street name.

• CASS_PrivateMailbox: Returns the private mail box number associated with a CMRA (Commercial Mail Receiving Agency).

  CMRAs are private businesses that provide a mailing address and "post office" box for their customers. Mail is delivered by the Postal Service to the CMRA, which then distributes the mail to the customer's private mail box.

• CASS_PrivateMailboxName: Returns the private mailbox name portion of a parsed address

• CASS_PrivateMailboxNumber: Returns the private mailbox number portion of a parsed address.

• CASS_Province: Returns the two-letter province abbreviation associated with the input address.

• CASS_Results: Returns a code that indicates Status and Error codes for an address. These are four-character codes (two letters followed by two numbers), delimited by commas, which indicate status and errors generated by the CASS process. A Result code for a coded address record might look something like this: “AC03, AC11, AS01, AS15.” Instead of looking at multiple fields to determine the status or error of a record, you can simply look at the output of the CASS Results field. Currently there are close to 50 possible result codes.

  • AS01 is a good record.

  • See Result Codes for a complete list of codes.

• CASS_State: Returns the two-letter state abbreviation associated with the input address.

• CASS_StatusCode: Deprecated field - please use CASS_Results. Returns a 1-character value status code which indicates the level of coding that was performed on the input address.

Code	Level
D	Demo Mode
E	Expired Database
S	The address was standardized but not coded. Standardization means that some conversion was done on the address (for example, changing Post Office Box to PO Box or abbreviating street suffixes)
V	Street number validated to DPV level
X	Address was not coded
6	Canadian Address fully coded
7	There were multiple matches for the address but they were all in the same ZIP Code and carrier route. The returned ZIP Code and carrier route will be correct but you will not get any +4 information.
9	The address was fully coded

• CASS_StreetName: Returns the Street name, a 28-character maximum string, of the address record.

• CASS_Suffix: Returns the suffix, a 4-character maximum string, portion of the address record.

Typical suffix values include "ST", "RD", "AVE", "BLVD", "CIR" and "PL".

• CASS_Suite: Sets the suite name and number associated with the input address.

If the suite is found at the end of the Address Property, it will be moved to the Suite Property. This move helps maintain a clean database and allows the user to limit secondary ranges to a separate field.

If the address and suite are intended to be combined,  these two properties must be joined together. Make sure to add a space between these properties when joining them.

• CASS_SuiteName: Returns the name of the secondary unit of a parsed address, a 4-character maximum string value.

If suite numbers exist in the address range, this field will indicate the proper suite name for addresses in that range.

Possible return values are:
"#", "APT", "BLDG", "BOX", "BSMT", "DEPT", "FL", "FRNT", "HNGR","LBBY",
"LOT", "LOWR", "OFC", "PH" (Penthouse), "PIER", "REAR", "RM", "SIDE",
"SLIP", "SPC", "STE", "STOP", "TRLR", "UNIT", "UPPR".
 

• CASS_SuiteRange: Returns the range, 6-character maximum string value, of any secondary unit of an address record.

• CASS_SuiteStatus: Deprecated field - please use CASS_Results. Returns a status code which indicates the success or failure to validate the suite/apartment number of a submitted address. This value reflects whether or not the given suite number falls within the valid range of suite numbers for the address submitted.

Code	Level
M	A suite number is required for the given street address but is missing from the submitted record.
R	A suite number is present on the submitted record but is either not required or is out of range for the given street address.
V	The suite field was verified.
X	The suite field was not coded.

• CASS_TimeZone: Returns a 20-chracter maximum string describing the time zone of the input address.

• CASS_TimeZoneCode: Returns a one or two-digit code representing the time zone associated with the input address. The TimeZoneCode Property does not account for daylight savings time regardless of whether an area is affected by it or not.

Code	Zone
0	Military (APO or FPO)
4	Atlantic Time
5	Eastern Time
6	Central Time
7	Mountain Time
8	Pacific Time
9	Alaska Time
10	Hawaii Time
11	Samoa Time
12	Marshall Island Time
14	Guam Time
15	Palau Time

• CASS_Urbanization: Returns urbanization name associated with the input address. This property applies to Puerto Rican addresses only.

  The Urbanization Property is an optional property set by the user. It is only used when attempting to correct addresses in Puerto Rico. If it is not set, the address checking logic will still be able to code some records, but it may produce more multiple matches than usual for Puerto Rican addresses. This happens because the urbanization name is used to break ties when a ZIP Code is linked to multiple instances of the same address.

• CASS_ZIP: Returns the five-digit or nine-digit U.S. ZIP Code or the six-character Canadian Postal Code associated with the input address. This property can be input with the address to be verified in place of city and state.

• CASS_ZIPType: Returns a string value representing the ZIP Code type associated with the submitted address.

Code	Description
P	A ZIP Code used only for PO Boxes.
U	Unique: A ZIP Code assigned to an organization or government institution such as the IRS
M	Military: A ZIP Code assigned to an APO/FPO.
Empty	A standard ZIP Code.

Click Apply to have the configurations accepted.

Note: For information regarding Input, Output, Annotation and Error Properties, see Tool Properties.

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