postalref

Paying for packages: manifests, eVS and USPS Ship

Shippers pay package postage by sending USPS a manifest, an electronic Shipping Services File that lists each package's weight, size and postage. USPS Ship, which replaced eVS, charges that postage to the shipper's Enterprise Payment Account. It then compares each package's measured weight and size with the manifest, and charges or refunds the difference.

Updated November 5, 202675 sources

Questions

How do I get a refund for a USPS shipping label?

A PC Postage user asks its provider to refund a label with a tracking number, electronically and within 30 days of printing. The provider grants or denies the request by USPS criteria and may charge for processing it, and the user must destroy a refunded label. A shipper on USPS Ship sends an Unused Label Refund Request within 60 days of the mailing date, and a qualifying request pays a 10% fee.

How do I cancel a USPS shipping label?

A label made with the USPS Domestic Labels API can be canceled before its mailing date, with the API's Cancel Label endpoint, /label/{trackingNumber}. The API calculates each label's postage and generates its Shipping Services File. A label in a Shipping Services File that was charged to the Enterprise Payment Account but never shipped gets an Unused Label Refund Request instead.

How do I create a USPS manifest?

A shipper creates a manifest in a Shipping Services File: one Header Record, then one Detail Record 1 for each package. After label and file certification, the shipper sends it by Parcel Data Exchange, Secure File Transfer Protocol or Electronic Data Interchange Internet Applicability Standard 2. Online, PC Postage and meter shippers should create PS Form 5630, Shipment Confirmation Acceptance Notice, a printed manifest form for a group of prepaid packages.

How does USPS know the weight on the manifest is correct?

USPS Ship compares each manifest with the weight and dimensions that USPS mail processing equipment captures, and reprices packages that fall outside a tolerance. USPS does not publish that tolerance. USPS Ship uses internal algorithms that give priority to scans from the most accurate mail processing equipment.

Do I have to change my Shipping Services Files to move from eVS to USPS Ship?

No: moving from eVS to USPS Ship changes neither the content nor the transmission of the Shipping Services File. A shipper moving from eVS keeps its Mailer IDs, Customer Registration IDs and permit numbers. A new shipper may have a permit number assigned during onboarding if it chooses to use permits.

What causes a USPS manifest to be rejected?

USPS Ship rejects a package it can't auto-correct, such as one with an invalid rate ingredient or tracking number, or a wrong record length. After a non-pricing rejection, the shipper resends the fixed record in a Tracking and Postage file, Electronic File Type 1, with the same tracking number. After a pricing rejection, the shipper sends a type 4 file with the corrected field, the same tracking number and the same Electronic File Number.

How do I dispute an unmanifested package charge?

A shipper disputes an unmanifested charge in the USPS Ship Disputes and Refund Requests service, with documentation showing why it shouldn't apply. Disputes of monthly adjustments, unmanifested ones included, are filed between the 9th and the 14th of the month. Corrections sent by 11 p.m. ET on the 7th avoid the charge.

Can I pay for USPS Ship with a credit card?

No: USPS Ship accepts only ACH, while USPS APIs accept credit cards. USPS Ship charges postage through the Enterprise Payment System to an ACH debit or prefunded account, on the day it processes the manifest.

How it fits together

USPS requires the Intelligent Mail package barcode for all tracking and extra services on domestic packages. Each package label carries it, following the Parcel Labeling Guide's specifications. The shipper also sends USPS each package's data in a Shipping Services File, with a detail record for every package. Before its first live file, the shipper certifies its labels and files in a test environment.

Product Tracking and Reporting receives each file and returns a confirmation/error/warning file that shows any rejected records. eVS, the Electronic Verification System, let parcel shippers document and pay postage with electronic manifest files. Shippers began using it in 2005, and USPS introduced USPS Ship to replace it in 2022. USPS Ship takes payment through the Enterprise Payment System, the USPS payment processing platform.

USPS Ship prices each package from attributes captured on mail processing equipment, and samples only packages entered at delivery units. eVS checked postage by sampling packages and computing a postage adjustment factor for each mail class. For domestic PC Postage and Click-N-Ship labels, the Automated Package Verification System captures postage discrepancies automatically, reducing manual postage due collection. USPS also charges fees on packages whose data fail quality checks, and on large packages.

Shippers follow prices and adjustments in online reports and IV-MTR data feeds. They dispute adjustments and ask for refunds through the USPS Ship Disputes and Refund Requests service.

The manifest

A Shipping Services File is the electronic file that holds a shipper's manifest and payment information, at least one manifest to a file. Each manifest is a Header Record followed by a Detail Record 1 for each package. Further detail records add information about a package, such as customs data for international shipments. The Header Record holds the shipper's master Mailer ID and the Electronic File Number, which identifies the transmission.

The manifest gives each package's rate ingredients, the details that set its price, such as weight, dimensions and zone. USPS Ship accepts the file in version 1.6, 1.7 or 2.0. Versions 1.6 and 1.7 use fixed-length fields, and version 2.0 separates fields with pipes. Every record but the last ends with a carriage return and a line feed. Publication 205 lists every valid combination of rate ingredients.

USPS Ship handles Priority Mail Open and Distribute shipments, which use Priority Mail to carry other classes of mail to delivery units and processing facilities. USPS doesn't expect USPS Ship to change cubic prices, which depend on a package's zone and volume instead of its weight. As of January 6, 2026, USPS Ship can't apply incentive price discounts, such as the catalog incentive. Parcel presorts of identical weight and size, sent through Parcel Data Exchange, are measured like any other package. USPS still checks that their pieces qualify for presort.

A Negotiated Service Agreement is a contract between USPS and one mailer. As with eVS, a shipper can set up its agreement's rates for USPS Ship in Program Registration. Program Registration opens from the Online Enrollment service on the Business Customer Gateway.

Records that fail an edit for a required field are rejected as errors and listed in the confirmation/error/warning file. The shipper corrects them and resends only those records in a Corrections file, type 4, under the original Electronic File Number.

Must
A Shipping Services File must contain accurate, electronic information that represents the physical package traveling in the Postal Services network.

The file must describe each package as it really is when it travels through USPS.

Manifest

“A manifest consists of one Header Record and one or more D1 Records.”

Header Record

“This is the first record in the Shipping Services File that identifies the mailer information and Electronic File. Number (EFN).”

Detail Record 1

Also called D1

“A D1 Record represents a single mailpiece.”

Detail Record 2

Also called D2

“The Shipping Services File Detail Record 2 contains fields needed for specific products (such as Hold for Pickup), and must be used for domestic packages when applicable.”

Rate Ingredients

“The details in the manifest file used determine the price of the package; these ingredients include mail class/product, weight, processing category, dimensions and zones as needed by mail class/product.”

Shipping Services File

Also called SSF, Shipping Service Files

“The electronic file containing all manifest and payment information.”

Electronic File Number

Also called EFN

“Electronic File Number uniquely identifies the transmission of an electronic manifest, and must be unique for a period of 120-days. It is located in the header record of the Shipping Services File.”

Publication 205

Also called Electronic Verification System (eVS) Business and Technical Guide

“This publication is designed for shippers and software developers using or planning to use the Electronic Verification System (eVS®) for manifesting parcel mail.”

Certification and testing

Certification tests a shipper's barcoded labels and electronic file against USPS specifications, and tests the file's transmission to USPS. Software vendors, consolidators and solutions providers certify their software by showing it meets the Intelligent Mail package barcode requirements. For eVS certification, a provider sent at least 100 sample labels with PS Form 5052 and a test file of at least 1000 records. The first records in the test file had to match the sample labels. A consolidator's customers who print labels with its pre-certified software can begin mailing without more label certification.

Shippers test their Shipping Services files in the Product Tracking and Reporting Testing Environment for Mailers, for certification or a file version upgrade. It gets every production software change, but holds no production data. A shipper uses the same Mailer ID and login there as in production.

For eVS, test files went on to the PostalOne! system's Test Environment for Mailers, where eVS produced postage statements. eVS's Mailer ID Report listed each Mailer ID certified for the shipper's account and the date its label certification took effect.

A shipper moving from file version 1.3 or 1.4 to a later version completes certification again. USPS encourages shippers that use USPS APIs with USPS Ship to start testing in the API testing environment, CAT.

USPS Tracking Electronic Services Certification

“Certification will test your barcoded labels and electronic file to ensure they meet our specifications, and will test the transmission of the electronic file to USPS®.”

Product Tracking and Reporting Testing Environment for Mailers

Also called PTR TEM

“The Postal Service offers a Test Environment for Mailers (TEM) to support new and existing USPS customers who require testing of their electronic files as part of the file/label certification process or upgrading to new file versions for Shipping Services.”

eVS TEM

“eVS manifest files received in the PTR TEM are processed and routed to the PostalOne! TEM, where eVS generates postage statements and all corresponding reports.”

Mailer ID Report

“Lists all MIDs and effective date of label certification that are certified for use with the shipper’s eVS or PRS account.”

Checking the postage

USPS Ship checks packages by census: it compares each manifest with what processing equipment measures, such as weight and dimensions. It makes the comparison once the package is delivered, or 7 days after its last physical scan if no delivery scan comes. It charges shortfalls and refunds overpayments as census adjustments. For a package that claims a destination entry price, USPS Ship also compares where it was first scanned with the entry facility its manifest claims.

USPS samples packages entered at delivery units at random, except at sites with an Automated Delivery Unit Sorter, a sorting machine. Sampled packages may pay more postage if they exceed the Statistical Quality Assessment of 1.5%.

eVS, which USPS Ship replaced, checked postage by sampling. USPS sampled packages at destination facilities and delivery units, and Package Postage Validators on sorting systems in delivery units added samples. For each mail class, eVS divided the sampled packages' postage by the postage USPS recalculated from those packages' manifest records, giving the postage adjustment factor. When it showed underpayment of more than 1.5%, USPS charged the shortfall on the whole month's manifest postage for that class.

The Automated Package Verification System calculates each postage adjustment it finds and sends it in a file to the label's vendor. That vendor is the customer's PC Postage provider or Click-N-Ship. The vendor pays or collects the amount and lets the customer dispute it.

Must
Shippers are required to pay the correct postage based on weight and physical dimensions.

A shipper must pay the postage that each package's actual weight and dimensions call for.

census adjustments

“Any differences found may result in a postage adjustment are referred to as “census adjustments.””

Statistical Quality Assessment

Also called SQA, Statistical Quality Adjustment, Statistical Quality Analysis

“Packages entered at DDU sites (excluding ADUS sites) will be randomly sampled for validation and may be assessed additional postage if they exceed the Statistical Quality Assessment (SQA) of 1.5%.”

Package Postage Validator

Also called PPV, Postage Package Validator, Package Postage Validation

“New sampling methods have been added to eVS through census attributes for full network volume and Package Postage Validators (PPV) for Destination Delivery Unit (DDU) volume.”

Census Attribute validation

“uses weight, dimensions, packaging, and entry location information collected during processing to validate package prices”

Postage Adjustment Factor

Also called PAF

“a method to apply an error rate determined from handheld scanner samplings to the entire population of mailings within a calendar month”

Automated Package Verification (APV) System

Also called APV, APV System, Automated Postage Due

“In an effort to automate, streamline, and create a better customer experience, the USPS has built the Automated Package Verification (APV) System to capture postage discrepancies.”

Quality and size fees

USPS checks a shipper's packages in four quality categories. For three of them, Package Quality Noncompliance fees apply when the share of packages that pass a category's checks falls below its threshold. The fee's earlier name, IMpb Noncompliance, is the one eVS used.

CategoryCompliance threshold
Address Quality90%
Manifest Quality94%
Barcode Quality98%
Hazmat Quality100%

The fee for Address, Manifest and Barcode Quality is $0.25 for each noncompliant package, and the Hazmat Quality fee varies by product. For Hazmat Quality, every package must follow the hazmat packaging rules or pay the fee. The fees apply once to a package, by the category with the most noncompliant packages. USPS Ship collects them on the 16th of the following month.

Address and Manifest Quality are measured at the package's first Arrival at Post Office scan, so the file must reach USPS before that scan. Barcode Quality is measured at the first physical scan or when the manifest record arrives. Shippers can see their Package Quality Noncompliance triggers in the confirmation/error/warning file.

The Arrival at Post Office scan, as Product Tracking and Reporting records it.

PTR Domestic Scan Event 07

Extract description
ARRIVAL AT UNIT
USPS.com wording
Arrived at Post Office
What it means
The item has arrived at the local Post Office on the day indicated and is scheduled for delivery. Usually, if the item arrives before 9:30 am, it will be delivered that day; if after 9:30 am, on the next business day

PTR Domestic Scan Events, October 2026.

Nonstandard fees apply to packages of four products when they are longer than 22 inches or larger than 2 cubic feet.

  • Priority Mail Express
  • Priority Mail
  • Parcel Select
  • USPS Ground Advantage

The length fee has two tiers, over 22 inches and over 30 inches, and a cube fee applies over 2 cubic feet. A dimensional noncompliance fee applies when a package over 22 inches or 1 cubic foot has missing or wrong dimensions in the file. The amounts are in the USPS price list, Notice 123.

The extra service codes for nonstandard packages.

Extra Service Codes, Pub 199 Appendix J Table 7
CodeExtra service
879Nonstandard Characteristics
881Nonstandard Dimension Length > 22”
882Nonstandard Dimension Length > 30”
883Nonstandard Cubic Dimension > 2 cubic feet
884Nonstandard Dimension Length > 22” and Cubic Dim > 2 cu ft
885Nonstandard Dimension Length > 30” and Cubic Dim > 2 cu ft
886Nonstandard Characteristics and Cubic Dim > 2 cu ft

7 codes in the Extra Service Codes, Pub 199 Appendix J Table 7, where Code is 879 or 881 or 882 or 883 or 884 or 885 or 886.

Package Quality Noncompliance fee

Also called IMpb non-compliance fees

“Mailers are assessed Package Quality Noncompliance fees on products when noncompliant pieces exceed the threshold for one of the Package Quality Noncompliance categories.”

Address Quality

Also called AQ

“Address Quality - Checks for a timely address that validates to a unique 11 Digit DPV”

Manifest Quality

Also called MQ

“Manifest Quality – Checks for a timely manifest file that passes critical validation criteria”

Barcode Quality

Also called BQ

“Barcode Quality – Checks the barcode in the manifest and passes critical validations”

Hazmat Quality

Also called HQ

“Hazmat Quality – Checks the package contains all the correct Hazmat compliance elements”

Nonstandard Fee

“Nonstandard fees and requirement for dimensional data disclosure applies to Priority Mail Express, Priority Mail, Parcel Select, and USPS Ground Advantage packages under the following conditions: • Length is greater than 22” (length is the longest package dimension), or • Length is greater than 30”, or • Cubic volume is greater than 2 ft3”

Reports, disputes and refunds

USPS Ship shows package, transaction and adjustment details in online reports and IV-MTR data feeds. A package is priced about 2 minutes after USPS receives the file, and its price then appears on the Pricing Notification data feed. The online reports open from USPS Ship Reports on the Business Customer Gateway. Most download as CSV or Excel files, but none through an API. Reports can't be customized or sent on a schedule, but data feeds can, weekly or monthly.

The USPS Ship Data Dictionary describes each data feed's fields. Alerts about its latest features and additions go out on the Industry Alert mailing list, which a shipper joins by writing to IndustryAlert@usps.gov.

The Manifest Variance Report shows packages whose manifest postage differs from the postage USPS calculates from that manifest. It also comes as an IV-MTR data feed. The Census Verification Report shows differences found later, from scans as the package moves through the network. Both show each package's dimensions and weight, but the Census Verification Report only after a census adjustment. The Pricing Notification and Outbound Transaction Payment Details data feeds also carry dimensions and weight, and the Census Attributes feed does after a census adjustment.

For invoices, a typical outbound shipper can combine the Outbound Transaction Payment Details and Census Attributes data feeds to get each package's final postage. Outbound Transaction Payment Details covers only manifested transactions, and Details Domestic Outbound covers all of them. USPS Ship's Transaction Details Report differs from the Enterprise Payment System's Transaction History Report. Shippers that moved from eVS no longer receive the eVS Postage Statement Extract, and USPS encourages them to use IV-MTR data feeds instead. Outbound Transaction Payment Details doesn't have the same format as that extract.

Disputes, joint reviews and unused label refunds all go through the USPS Ship Disputes and Refund Requests service on the Business Customer Gateway. A dispute challenges an adjustment already charged, and a USPS analyst decides whether to refund it. A joint review request asks USPS to review an assessment that is still pending. USPS Ship's checks run before and after a dispute, since its logic is continuous. A shipper should take recurring scan problems to its USPS sales representative, who can work with USPS Operations to resolve them.

Refund requests for adjustments must be submitted within 60 days of the original billing. A manifest refund request counts the 60 days from the transaction, and a census refund request from the adjustment. For returns, USPS Ship counts the 60 days from the payment date, not the manifest date.

USPS Ship refunds an overpayment it finds in the package's scans in near real time, usually after the delivery scan.

A month's adjustments in USPS Ship, settled in the month after.

  1. By 11 p.m. ET on the 7th, the shipper sends corrections for duplicate and unmanifested packages.
  2. From the 9th to the 14th, the shipper files disputes and joint reviews of the monthly adjustments.
  3. On the 16th, USPS Ship charges the monthly adjustments to the Enterprise Payment Account.

Manifest Variance Report

“displays a list of packages and the difference between manifested postage and USPS calculated postage.”

Census Verification Report

Also called Census Verification Online Report, Census Report

“displays a list of packages that include census errors due to incorrect packaging, weight, dimensions, entry/zone discrepancies.”

Pricing Notification

“Includes the IMpb and rate elements that were used to price the package.”

Census Attributes

Also called Census Attributes IV-MTR data feed

“Includes a list of packages charged additional postage due to a mismatch between the pricing elements from the manifest and from processing for packaging, weight, dimensions, or entry/zone.”

Outbound Transaction Payment Details

Also called OTPD, Outbound Transactions Payment Details

“Displays a list of individual package charges that were aggregated into a single EPS transaction; updating to include ACH withdrawal amount; include Third Party Billing (TPB) Indicator, TPB CRID, TPB Company Name.”

Unused Label Refund Request

“Shippers can submit an Unused Label Refund Request through the USPS Ship Disputes and Refunds application for labels that were included in a Shipping Services File and charged to the EPA but not actually shipped.”

USPS Ship Reports

Also called USPS Ship reports portal

“USPS Ship data is available to shippers through external online reports.”

USPS Ship Disputes and Refund Requests service

Also called USPS Ship Disputes and Refunds

“Shippers can initiate disputes for adjustments that were applied and charged through USPS Ship by accessing the USPS Ship Disputes and Refund Requests service on the BCG.”

Joint Review Request

“The Joint Review Request process allows the user to provide information pertaining to their dispute and attach supporting documentation.”

What goes wrong

A package that USPS scans without a manifest is unmanifested. USPS Ship matches scans to manifests up to 120 days old, and keeps trying until the 7th of the following month. Then it charges postage for the package. When over 4% of a shipper's packages in a mail class are unmanifested, USPS Ship charges a fee on each of them.

A package whose tracking number repeats within 120 days is a duplicate, and the shipper pays for every duplicate. USPS Ship charges published prices for duplicates, after a second review confirms they are truly duplicates.

In eVS, a package whose rate ingredients gave no valid price went into the Manifest Error Report. The shipper could resubmit manifests through the 10th of the following month to pay for it correctly. USPS Ship corrects such errors automatically where it can, and treats the rest as unmanifested until a corrections file is processed. A package it can't correct shows as an error in the Package Errors and Warnings report. Once USPS scans the package, it appears on the Unmanifested report, where the shipper can correct it.

A correction must be processed by 11 p.m. ET on the 7th, and USPS encourages sending it 24 hours early. Resending a whole accepted file makes USPS Ship charge postage for every parcel in it, so only corrected records go back.

A destination entry package is mis-shipped when its first scan is at neither the entry facility its manifest claims nor a site downstream of it. A first physical scan downstream from the claimed entry facility logs no error. A package priced for sectional center facility entry and first scanned at a delivery unit in that facility's service area keeps its price.

USPS Ship reprices a mis-shipped package as Ground Advantage Full Network and charges the higher of that price and the manifested one. In eVS, a mis-shipped delivery unit parcel paid the difference between its manifested postage and the USPS Ground Advantage single-piece price.

Index: 84 entries

Extra service (1)

Programs (2)

Systems (11)

Files (52)

Identifier (1)

Terms (17)

Sources