“I’m not getting my mailing discount with Postalsoft.” – Missing the Leading Zero

What is happening?

Importing address lists that contain ZIP codes that start with a zero can be tricky.  Often, the leading zero will be removed before Postalsoft has a chance to acquire the data.  One example of this is when a list is imported into Excel before being imported into Postalsoft:

What are the signs?

Missing a leading zero in the ZIP code or delivery point can present different symptoms:

Fixing this with Postalsoft

Fortunately, one can re-add the leading zeroes in Business Edition and DeskTop Mailer.  The first step is to select all the records that are missing a leading zero:

1. Go to  Records > Select > By Criteria…
2. Under Field, select the affected field.
3. Under Match, select shorter than.
4. In Value:

Field Type	Example	Type in the following
5-digit ZIP	54601	5
4-digit ZIP add-on	9998	4
ZIP+4 with a dash	54601-9998	10
ZIP+4 without a dash	546019998	9
DP2	22	2

5. Click on Insert condition.
6. Click OK.

 It should look something like this example.  The following criteria will select all the ZIP+4 codes, with a dash, that are missing a leading zero:

Finally repopulate the zero:

1. Go to Records > Replace…
2. At the bottom, choose Selected.  This is important, otherwise we’ll ruin the other records that are well formed.
3. Under Field, select the field in question.
4. Under Delete, select Portion.
5. Enter 0 in From character number
6. Enter 1 in Number of characters
7. Under Insert, enter 0.
8. Check the above steps before pressing OK.

Continuing from our previous example, it would look like this:

Conclusion

This method can be used for ZIP codes with various formats and for the delivery point (DP2).  With some creativity, you can use variations of this method to modify other types of data.