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Home > About USPS & News > Forms & Publications > Postal Periodicals and Publications > Publications > Publication 8A - Address Change Service - Traditional > Participation Requirements > Keyline
Most ACS participants choose to use the keyline option, which provides an
effective means of matching ACS notifications with the appropriate records in
their address files. Although optional for COA information, keylines are
required if the mailer wants to receive electronic ACS nixie notifications. The
keyline can consist of 4 to 16 characters, including a check digit that is
calculated according to the Postal Service standard for check digit
computation (see "Postal Service Standards for Check Digit Computation,"
pg. 12).
The keyline is printed on the second line of the address block when printed
below the OEL and aligned left with beginning and ending pound sign (#)
delimiters. If the participant code is printed on the mailpiece, the keyline must
be printed on the first line of the address block. When using this option, it is
important to remember that you cannot use an OEL. The address block
should contain spaces after each fourth character to enhance readability. The
pound sign delimiters and embedded spaces after each fourth character are
not counted toward the 16-character limit and are not returned as part of an
ACS record. Any other information printed on the second line of the address
block must follow the ending pound sign delimiter and is ignored by ACS
processing.
Although the content of individual keylines must be unique to ensure
identification of a particular customer within a mailer's address file, all
keylines for a given ACS participant code must be consistent in terms of
keyline characteristics: length (4 to 16 characters) and attribute (numeric,
alpha, or alphanumeric). See "Important Note" below.
• Numeric keylines are allowed to contain only digits "0" through "9."
However, they cannot contain all zeros.
• Alpha keylines may contain the letters "A" through "Z," the forward
slash "/," and must include a numeric check digit.
• Alphanumeric keylines must contain at least one numeric and one
alpha (including the forward slash "/") character in addition to the
numeric check digit. All keylines must end with the required Postal
Service numeric check digit.
Important Note: Before making any modifications to your
NCSC-preapproved keyline characteristics (length or attribute), you must
notify the ACS Department at the NCSC. Failure to do so could result in the
total elimination of any ACS electronic corrections, and all address
corrections might be provided manually.
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