PAF Cleansing

Matches the address provided to the PAF.

Description

Our PAF service matches the supplied address to the Royal Mail's Postcode Address File (PAF).

A new address is provided which, when a match has been made, has been updated to match the address on PAF. Where a match has not been made, standardisation will have been applied to address elements where possible and parts of the address that do match to PAF will have been updated.

This service is costed on a per lookup basis.

This service requires the following data to be available before it can be used:

Address

This service can also make use of the following optional data to improve its effectiveness:

Company Name

Upload Options

There are no options that can be configured for this service at the upload stage.

Download Options

The following options can be configured for this service at the download stage.

Suppression Type	Suppression Type Set this to configure what should happen when a match is made by this service: Append Flags adds an extra column to your output file which is populated when a match is made and blank otherwise. Suppress Records removes any matching records from your output file.
Keep company name seperate from address	Keep company name seperate from address Does not include any company name as part of the address lines. The company name can still be obtained by selecting the Output Address Elements option.
Seperate Town and County	Seperate Town and County Places the town and county in the last two address fields, regardless of how many other lines are produced.
Total Address Lines	Total Address Lines Indicates the number of lines that the address will be split over. This does include the town and county even if they have been separated them into their own fields, but does not include the postcode which will always be supplied in a separate additional field.
Keep Cherished Address Details	Keep Cherished Address Details Keeps any additional town information that was supplied as part of the customer address but is not recognised by the Royal Mail. For example, the Royal Mail does not recognise any specific areas within London, but a customer may prefer to see their address as Chelsea. By default, Chelsea would be removed from the customer address during cleansing, but selecting this option ensures that it is kept.
Exclude County	Exclude County Removes the county, if any, from the address. Counties are not required by Royal Mail, and removing them from the address leaves more space for more useful data. This option is only displayed if Advanced Options are enabled on your account.
Output DPS	Output DPS Indicates if the Delivery Point Suffix (DPS) should be included in the output as an additional column. This option is only displayed if Advanced Options are enabled on your account.
Output Customer Barcode (CBC)	Output Customer Barcode (CBC) Indicates if the Customer Barcode (CBC) should be included in the output as an additional column. The CBC is a encoding of the postcode and the DPS, along with a checksum, that is converted into a barcode for printing on mail which assists in the Royal Mail automated sortation processes. This option is only displayed if Advanced Options are enabled on your account.
Output Address Elements	Output Address Elements Indicates if separate fields should be included in the output for each individual part of the address, in addition to the standard address lines. This option allows you to easily identify the organisation and department names, building name, number, street names, locality names and county, and is useful if you have your own specific requirements for how addresses should be entered into your database. This option is only displayed if Advanced Options are enabled on your account.
Output UDPRN	Output UDPRN Appends the Unique Delivery Point Reference Number to each address that can be fully identified against PAF. This option is only displayed if Advanced Options are enabled on your account.

Output Columns

This service adds the following columns to your output data.

Formatted Organisation	Formatted Organisation Only present if the "Keep company name seperate from address" option is selected. The name of the company at the address.
PAF Addr 1	PAF Addr 1 First line of cleansed address details.
PAF Addr 2	PAF Addr 2 Second line of cleansed address details.
PAF Addr 3	PAF Addr 3 Third line of cleansed address details.
PAF Addr 4	PAF Addr 4 Fourth line of cleansed address details.
PAF Addr 5	PAF Addr 5 Fifth line of cleansed address details.
PAF Addr 6	PAF Addr 6 Sixth line of cleansed address details.
PAF Postcode	PAF Postcode Postcode of cleansed address details.
PAF DPS	PAF DPS Only present if the "Output DPS" option is selected. Delivery Point Suffix of cleansed address details.
CBC	CBC Only present if the "Output Customer Barcode (CBC)" option is selected. Customer Barcode of the cleansed address.
PAF Department	PAF Department Only present if the "Output Address Elements" option is selected. The department within the organisation at the address.
PAF Organisation	PAF Organisation Only present if the "Output Address Elements" option is selected. The name of the company at the address.
PAF Sub-Building Name	PAF Sub-Building Name Only present if the "Output Address Elements" option is selected. The name of the sub-building for the address. This is typically a flat or apartment number.
PAF Building Name	PAF Building Name Only present if the "Output Address Elements" option is selected. The name of the building. May include number information where the number is not a simple integer.
PAF Building Number	PAF Building Number Only present if the "Output Address Elements" option is selected. The house number for the address. Note that this is an integer number only. Building numbers such as 12A will be shown in the BuildingName field.
PAF PO Box	PAF PO Box Only present if the "Output Address Elements" option is selected. The details of the PO Box if the address is a PO Box address.
PAF Dependant Thorofare	PAF Dependant Thorofare Only present if the "Output Address Elements" option is selected. The name of the dependent thoroughfare, i.e. a smaller street off a larger street.
PAF Thorofare	PAF Thorofare Only present if the "Output Address Elements" option is selected. The name of the main street.
PAF Double-Dependant Locality	PAF Double-Dependant Locality Only present if the "Output Address Elements" option is selected. The name of the double-dependent locality - the third-level locality.
PAF Dependant Locality	PAF Dependant Locality Only present if the "Output Address Elements" option is selected. The name of the dependent locality - the second level locality.
PAF Locality	PAF Locality Only present if the "Output Address Elements" option is selected. The name of the top-level postal town.
PAF County	PAF County Only present if the "Output Address Elements" option is selected. The county name that should appear in the address.
PAF Flag	PAF Flag PAF Correction Flag. "OK_Unchanged" - the original address was OK, no changes have been made other than formatting. "OK_Corrected" - the original address was not correct, but has been corrected in some way. "NOK_Building" - the original address was correct to the building level but the specific mailing details within the building did not match. "NOK_Street" - the original address was correct up to street level, but the individual premise cannot be identified. "NOK_Town" - the original address was correct up to town or village level, but the street cannot be identified. "NOK_NoMatch" - the original address could not be matched at all. "NOK_Foreign" - the address appears to be foreign - no changes have been made.
PAF Modification	PAF Modification Flag indicating whether the address has been modified. 1 indicates that the address has been modified whereas 0 shows that no changes were made to the input address.
UDPRN	UDPRN Only present if the "Output UDPRN" option is selected. UDPRN of cleansed address details.