Everything you need to get started, understand your costs, and send mail with confidence.
Click "Start Mailing Free" on the homepage and fill out the registration form. You'll receive a verification code by email — enter it to confirm your address. After verification, you'll be prompted to add a payment method and select a plan before sending your first job.
After logging in, go to your Profile page and select "Add Payment Method." Mailavo accepts credit and debit cards (processed by Stripe) and ACH bank transfers. ACH is preferred for large top-ups — there are no processing fees on ACH payments, so your full payment goes into your credit balance.
From your dashboard, click "New Job." Upload your PDF (a multi-page document works — each page becomes one mailpiece). Mailavo will read the address from each page, run CASS/NCOA address validation, and calculate your presorted postage cost. Review the line-by-line cost summary, then click Confirm to submit the job. A matched print partner will accept and fulfill it within your plan's SLA window.
Mailavo accepts PDFs — either a single multi-page PDF (one page per mailpiece) or a ZIP archive of single-page PDFs. Your PDF should be print-ready at the correct dimensions for the envelope size you select. Mailavo reads the mailing address from each page automatically; no separate address spreadsheet is required.
Yes. Mailavo supports Job Profiles — saved configurations of your mailpiece settings (envelope size, paper stock, simplex/duplex, color/B&W, inserts). Create a profile once, select it when starting future jobs, and your settings are pre-filled automatically.
Your monthly plan fee purchases a block of print credits. Credits cover the print and processing cost for each mailpiece. Postage is NOT included in the plan price — it is billed separately at your actual presorted rate, which is always lower than retail First Class. You see the exact postage cost before confirming any job.
One credit covers the print and processing cost for one standard mailpiece: single-sided (simplex), full color, standard paper, in a #10 Large Window Envelope. Multi-page documents, duplex printing, B&W, different envelope sizes, and inserts each have their own per-piece credit cost, shown in-app when you set up the job.
After address validation, Mailavo presorts your list and assigns each piece to the best available USPS rate category — 5-Digit, 3-Digit, AADC, or Mixed AADC. Pieces that sort to 5-Digit (high-density ZIP clusters) get the deepest discount. The job cost summary shows the per-piece postage rate and total postage before you confirm.
Your billing dashboard shows cumulative postage savings on every job — the difference between what you paid at presorted rates and what the same pieces would have cost at retail First Class. Over time this gives you a running total of savings across all your mailings.
CASS (Coding Accuracy Support System) is the USPS standard for address standardization and validation. Every address in your mailing is validated against the USPS delivery file — standardizing street names, ZIP codes, and address formats to the exact format USPS expects. CASS-certified addresses qualify for presort discounts. Non-CASS addresses would be returned or rejected by USPS.
NCOA (National Change of Address) checks your list against the USPS database of address changes filed in the past 48 months. If a recipient has filed a change of address with USPS, Mailavo updates their record to the new address automatically. This prevents undeliverable mail and protects your list quality.
DPV (Delivery Point Validation) confirms that a specific address — including the exact unit, apartment, or suite number — is a real, active delivery point in the USPS system. While CASS standardizes an address to the correct format, DPV verifies that the mailpiece can actually be delivered there. If an address is CASS-valid but DPV-fails (for example, the apartment number doesn't exist in the building), Mailavo flags it as undeliverable and will not queue it for presort postage pricing. You'll see DPV-failed addresses in your job summary before you confirm, so you can correct or exclude them.
Addresses that fail CASS validation (undeliverable as addressed — UAA) are flagged in your job summary. You can review them before confirming the job. You choose whether to mail to flagged addresses at retail rates or exclude them. Excluding undeliverable pieces protects you from wasted postage spend.
Yes. Mailavo processes PO Box addresses, rural routes (RR), and highway contract routes (HC). CASS validation handles all standard USPS delivery point types. Note that some envelope and paper stock combinations may not be eligible for PO Box delivery under USPS rules — Mailavo will flag any issues before job submission.
When you confirm a job, Mailavo matches it to available print partners based on their registered equipment capabilities, paper stocks, envelope sizes, and current capacity. The matching algorithm prioritizes partners that can fulfill your specific job spec within your plan's SLA window.
SLAs vary by plan: Growth plan jobs target 48-hour fulfillment, Momentum targets 72 hours, and Launch targets 96 hours. These are goals from job submission to mailing — not delivery to the mailbox. USPS First Class delivery adds 1–5 business days after mailing, depending on destination.
If a job isn't accepted within the SLA window, our operations team is notified automatically and will work to find an alternative partner or resolve the issue. If a job cannot be fulfilled, your credits will be returned to your balance in full.
When a print partner fulfills your job, they upload fulfillment confirmation to your job record. Your job status updates to "Fulfilled" and you'll receive an email notification. Your job history retains the full audit trail — piece count, cost breakdown, and fulfillment date.
No. Credits do not expire and carry over indefinitely. If you mail less one month, your unused credits are available the following month. There is no use-it-or-lose-it policy.
Yes. You can purchase additional credits at any time from your Profile page. There is no cap on how many credits you can hold. Credits purchased outside your monthly plan are at the same per-piece rate as your current plan tier.
Credit and debit card payments are processed by Stripe and subject to Stripe's standard 2.9% + $0.30 processing fee. ACH (bank transfer) payments have no processing fee — the full amount you enter is applied to your credit balance. ACH is recommended for large credit top-ups.
Credits are generally non-refundable — they're prepaid print capacity, not a subscription fee. If you close your account with a remaining balance, contact us at support@mailavo.com and we'll review refund eligibility on a case-by-case basis.
From your Profile, you can invite team members by email. You can assign admin roles or standard user roles. Team members share the account's credit balance but have their own login credentials. There is no limit on the number of team members.