Getting Started

PostboxNow is an online secure platform where you upload your business mail for us to receive, process, print and mail for you on the same day.

 

  • To get started sign up for free at PostboxNow and create your user account.

  • Top up some credit  on your account.

  • Create a postbox as to how you want your mailings to go – Black and white or colour, 1st class or 2nd class etc.

  • Upload your PDFS and we will take care of the rest.

 

If you work with a team, we can advise you on how to set up them as users with access to a shared team postbox.

Ready to swap your franking machine or stamps for our Hybrid mail system, PostboxNow?

To get started you will need 3 things:

 

  1. A PostboxNow account – it’s free to sign up.

  2. Internet connection and preferably use google chrome as your browser.

  3. Your letters in PDF format already mail merged with the address in the correct area.

​

  • Once you have this ready sign into your account.

  • Click on the icon of the Postbox you wish to use.

  • A new windows file explorer will open, here you can select the PDF of your chosen mailing and click open

  • Please stay on this page and do not navigate off as your document is uploading

  • Once uploaded you will see a preview screen. Here you can check the address is located in the green box and it looks how you want it to.

  • You will then have the option of failing the item if it doesn’t look right or you can accept it by clicking on ‘Looks great’ button

  • Your mailing will then enter your Post tray where it will sit for 30 minutes, during this time you can recall it if you need to before it enters our Postroom.  You can also preview your items here.

You are in full control of your postboxes.

They allow you to select how you want your mailings to be printed and processed such as 1st class and colour. Your preferences will save for when you come to use your account again.  

To create a new Postbox: 
1.    Click on PostboxNow found in your left menu
2.    Now click on the add icon above new postbox
3.    Here you can enter the name of your new postbox
4.    Time to enter how you want us to handle your documents and how our system         can recognise the start of each new letter going to a new recipient 

  •    No split needed 
Choose this option if there is only one recipient in the entire PDF to be uploaded. 

•    Split by page
If you have mail merged your letter so it contains multiple recipients with a fixed number of pages per letter, choose this option. 

For example, if you upload a PDF that contains 100 pages, and you opt for split by 2 pages. Our system will then understand that there are 50 recipients each receiving 2 pages. 

•    Split by Keyword
This option is for when each letter varies in length, the PDF is mail merged and contains multiple recipients. 

You can opt to tell us about a common keyword on the 1st page of every letter which identifies the start of each letter such as Our ref, Date, Dear, Page 1 etc. 
The chosen keyword must be on the start of every letter and in the same position as you have to draw a watchzone for our system to know where to look.  The watchzone can be large enough to capture the keyword and it doesn’t matter if additional data falls within it too. 

5.    Now choose between colour or black 
6.    Pick a mail service, 1st class or 2nd class
7.    In Advanced settings you can also choose: 

•    Single or double sided printing (double sided is the default)
•    PostboxID (for advanced users only) this is where workflows are set up for adding letterheads etc.

8.    Save, Now you can start posting letters. 

PostboxNow Friendly Documents

PostboxNow has 2 requirements for letters:

  1. They need to be A4 (210x297mm) and saved as a PDF

  2. The recipient address must be located in the watch zone which is 5.23cm in height and 8.03cm in width indented 1.49cm to the right of the page and 4.11cm from the top of the page.

Download our Microsoft Word letter template here

Download our instructions on how to add an address box to your word document here.

​

Once you are happy with your letter you can save it as a PDF by going to File – Save as and open the drop-down menu for File Format.

Here select PDF, chose your file name, location and click save.

There two ways you can save a word file as PDF in word.

The first way is through saving: 

  1. Once happy with your document in Word click File – Save as 

  2. A pop up will appear on screen, where File format appears open the drop down menu and select PDF 

  3. If you wish to change the saving location or name of file you can do this here too 

  4. Click Save

You now have a saved PDF of your Word document.

The second way is through printing: 

  1. Once happy with your document in Word click File – Print 

  2. In the bottom left is a PDF drop down menu, select save as PDF 

  3. Here you can save the name of the file, author, keywords if needed etc

       Please do not include any security passwords as this will result in the PDF failing in PostboxNow 

   4. Hit Save 

 You now have a saved PDF of document created in Microsoft Word.

 

If you already have a word document you want to use for PostboxNow here is how to make sure it will be accepted by our hybrid mail system. The main factors are to ensure it is A4 in size and for the address box to be located in the correct position.  

1.    Open your Microsoft Word document

2.    On the top menu bar select Insert

3.    Now click on the Text box and choose Simple text box

4.    Double click on your text box and in the top menu you can change the size to be Height: 5.23cm and Width: 8.03cm

5.    Now click on the outline button also found in the top menu and click no outline 

​

6.    To get the position of the textbox exact right click on the text box and select More layout options…

7.    A pop-up box will appear of advanced settings Under the position tab enter             the following settings: 

•    Horizontal
Opt for absolute position and enter 1.49cm
to the right of the page
•    Vertical
Opt for absolute position and enter 4.11cm
Below page
•    Options
Tick lock anchor and click ok

8.    Now your address text box is the correct size and location its times to add the address. To do this type your address as normal, if you are mail merging your document this is where you would add your address merge fields. 

9.    Make sure to save your template in an easily accessible place so you can use it again. 

Accounts & Billing

Here is how to set up auto top up payments for your PostboxNow Account.

    1. Login to your PostboxNow account 

    2. Click on the Add Credit button 

    3. There is a box next to ‘Enabled auto top up on this account’ please
      tick this 

    4. Now select your minimum balance for the account, once your balance goes below this minimum number your auto top up will activate. 

    5. Choose your ‘auto top up on this account’ 

    6. Fill in your payment details, or choose your default card if you already have a card saved. 

    7. Tick the ‘save this card for future payments’ box 

    8. To finish click the top up, this will activate your auto top up.

Adding credit to your PostboxNow account is quick and simple.

  1. Once logged into your account go to Add Credit 

  2. Enter your payment details and how much you wish to top up into the account.

​Your security is our priority which is why we never store your card details and use Stripe as our payment gateway.

Yes, you can get a receipt for your top up they are sent out to the account administrator.

VAT receipts are issued within 5 working days from your pre-payment top up.

Looking to add a new team to your account? Contact our support team to make them aware you would like Teams and Teamboxes added to your account package.

​

Once set up please follow these steps: 

  1. Go to Account Admin – Teams 

  2. Click New Team 

  3. Enter the name of your new team 

  4. Choose the team settings such as; view other team members items?
    Tick the boxes you wish them to have. 

  5. Choose your team by checking the boxes next to the users to wish to invite. 

  6. To save your team click add new team.

Add new teams

Please note to add a new teambox you will need these features added to your account package. You can contact our support team to arrange this for you.

A Teambox is a postbox which can be shared with your team, removing the need for each individual to set up their own postbox.

Before you create a teambox you first need to have added users and created a team. Once you have both of these follow these steps.

  1. On the left of your PostboxNow home page click on
    Account – Admin – Teamboxes 

  2. Now click on New Teambox 

  3. You can then select your preferences you wish to have for your new Teambox 

  4. Once you have chosen your preferences click on the Teams link  

  5. Here you can tick the boxes of the teams you want to have access to your new Teambox – multiple teams can be chosen if you wish. 

  6. Click Save 

  7. Once saved this teambox will then appear to each team member in your chosen teams ready for them to use.

Superusers are a type of user that have additional permissions to do the following:

  • Add and edit Users

  • Add and edit Teams

  • Add and edit Teamboxes

  • Change users to Active or inactive

  • Add credit to the account

  • View items that their users have mailed

What can a superuser do?

Superusers are a type of user that have additional permissions to do the following:

  • Add and edit Users

  • Add and edit Teams

  • Add and edit Teamboxes

  • Change users to Active or inactive

  • Add credit to the account

  • View items that their users have mailed

 
 

How to remove a user?

If you need to remove a user start by:

  1. Clicking on Account Admin – My users, found on the left-hand navigation bar 

  2. Click Edit 

  3. In the bottom left corner of the window you will find a box called
    Active user – untick this box 

  4. Hit save 

  5. Now that users account will be inactive and no longer have access to sign in with that email address

 

How to edit a user

  1. To edit a user’s account, use the left navigation bar and click on Account Admin – My users 

  2. Click Edit 

  3. Edit the user details as needed – please note email address cannot be changed here, if this is what you need to amend, please contact out support team with the details. 

  4. You can amend your users’ permissions but ticking or unticking the boxes as needed. 

  5. Click save to keep your amendments.

Changing your password is quick and easy with PostboxNow.

 

  1. Simply login to your account and click on Account Admin – Password.
     

  2. Enter your current password and then choose and enter your new password. Please note a minimum of 8 characters including 1 number is required.
     

  3. Click Change password and your new password is saved.

Troubleshooting

  1. Open your chosen PDF in Adobe Acrobat
     

  2. Select File – Print
     

  3. Click on Microsoft Print to PDF as the printer
     

  4. Click on Page Setup
     

  5. On the paper size drop down menu click on A4
     

  6. Now click on Properties – Advanced
     

  7. Now in the window select A4 from the drop-down paper size menu and confirm by clicking ok
     

  8. Click ok to confirm all selected properties
     

  9. Click print
     

  10. Now chose your file name and destination

This is due to your mailing item having an international destination.

 

All international mail is handled in the same way, not differentiated by 1st or 2nd class. This is why its showing as 2nd class despite being in your 1st class postbox. It defaults to showing as 2nd class as this is how we need to handle your item in production. Rest assured this will not impact the timescale of the delivery.

This error shows when the PDF uploaded cannot be split according to page split number selected.

 

For example, if the PDF uploaded has 13 pages but you have selected a postbox that splits pages by 2.

 

The system recognises this error allowing you to then either amend the PDF or select a single page split. 

Our support team cannot view your items in your Postroom without your permission.

 

If you are experiencing any issues with items and wish to share items with our PostboxNow support team to help resolve the problem.

 

If you would like to share an item with our team:
 

  1. Select the items you are having with problems with by ticking the box on the left hand side.
     

  2. Click the ‘share with support’ button which will allow our team to view your items for 75 minutes.

DATA PROTECTION

We are ISO27001, ISO14001 and ISO9001 accredited along side Cyber essentials. This ensures our systems for information security, environmental and quality are managed to a high certified standard.

 

In addition to our processing and operational measures we have in place our Hybrid Mail system has gone through a rigorous technical due diligence process completed by Cloud Origin.

Our hybrid mail solution utilises an AWS system for hardware requirements which includes:

  • IAM

  • Encrypted RDS databases

  • IP access controlled S3/Glaicer file storage (UK geographically located)

  • Encrypted databases and file backups stored on AWS Ireland Instances.

 

Our SSL secures all file transfers. We support our AWS security standards by leveraging with their compliance mechanisms.

 

  • By design account data is logically compartmentalised. Ensuring end users can only see data from their own account. Even PDF’s are never directly exposed but alternatively they see a temporary file image instead.

  • As part of our systems standard testing fortnightly develop cycles with pre-deployment vulnerability is in place.

  • Cloud applications and Servers are patched weekly where required.

Penetration testing

Routine pen testing is conducted.

User access control

Industry standard user access controls are implemented with PostboxNow

User password complexity

All user passwords require 1 number and 8 characters which Kaspersky has reported that it would take around 12 days to be bruteforced with a home computer.

Data retention periods

Our data retention periods can be altered to varied account requirements. Client uploads are held for a maximum of 365 days before being securely wiped using a DoD 5220.22-M algorithm.

Transferring Data

When data is transferred between end-users and PostboxNow our SSL certificates; that use RSA4096 and 2048 but keys, ensure all communication is encrypted.

Handling returns

All returns will be sent directly to Eight Days a Week Print Solutions by Royal Mail.

 

The 2D barcode on the front of every mailing will be scanned into the system. Any returned mail you have sent can be seen in your returned mail folder.

 

Once mail has been flagged at returned, the physical mail piece will be securely destroyed in line with ISO 2700.