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Enable Verification

Overview

Premise-level address verification checks an address against postal authority data, corrects what it can, and records the outcome. Where validation only checks an address against the AddressTools reference data, verification confirms the address actually exists.

The service covers over 240 countries, drawing on postal authority data including USPS, Royal Mail and Canada Post. Verification returns more than the corrected address. It can also return the county the address falls in, a postal address label, whether the premises are residential or commercial, and the coordinates of the address.

There are three ways to use it:

How When it runs
PowerSearch type-ahead As a user types an address
Batch On demand, or on a daily schedule
Record-triggered flow Whenever a record is saved

Note: Verification is purchased separately from your AddressTools licenses and consumes one verification lookup per address. A trial includes 25 lookups. See Buying Verification and Geocoding.

Before You Start

Verification writes its results into fields on your object, so those fields have to exist and be mapped on the address block before it will run.

  • The postal address fields for the block must be mapped. They hold the address that is sent for verification, and they are where the corrected values are written back. See Binding an Address Block.
  • An address status field is required. It records the outcome, and it is how the batch and flow options find the addresses that still need checking. See Create an Address Status Field.
  • The other fields verification can return are optional. See Creating Address Fields for the full list.

Step 1: Map the Fields Verification Writes To

Map the fields before you enable verification, as the block needs somewhere to put the results.

  1. Click the App Launcher to search for and select AddressTools Administration.
  2. Select Address Blocks from the left menu.
  3. Open the block for this address by using the dropdown to select Edit.
  4. In the Postal Address Fields section, confirm Country Field, State Field, City Field, ZIP/Postal Code Field and Street Field are mapped.
  5. In the Additional Address Fields section, set Status Field, plus County Field, Address Label and Property Use Field if you are using them.
  6. In the Location Fields section, set Latitude Field, Longitude Field and Geocode Accuracy Field if you are using geocoding. See Geocoding.
  7. Click Save.

Any value AddressTools returns with no field mapped to hold it is discarded.

Step 2: Turn Verification On for the Address Block

Continue in the same address block modal, or reopen the block from Address Blocks.

  1. In the Address Verification Options section, select Enable Premise-Level Address Verification.
  2. Select the other options in that section if they apply to your data:
    • City & Postal Code Are Always in Correct Fields gives the service a more precise query, and better matching where your data supports it.
    • Return Company in Street includes a returned company name in the street value.
    • Force Street Address to Multi-Line places sub-building values on a street line of their own. Selecting it enables a further choice between Sub-building always to line 1 and Sub-building always to line 2.
  3. Click Save.

Repeat Steps 1 and 2 for each address block you want verified.

Note: City & Postal Code Are Always in Correct Fields is already selected on the seven address blocks supplied out of the box. Clear it if a city or postal code can be stored in the wrong field in your data, as the more precise query returns Not matched rather than correcting the address.

Step 3: Turn Verification On for Your Org

  1. In AddressTools Administration, select Settings from the left menu.
  2. In the Verification Settings section, click the pencil icon beside Enable PowerSearch Premise-Level Verification.
  3. Select the checkbox, then click Save.

This is the master switch for verification. It covers real-time PowerSearch entry, manual single-address verification, and access to the batch and automated options. No address is verified until it is on.

Step 4: Set the PowerSearch Options

These three settings shape what your users see while typing. They are in the same Verification Settings section, and each is edited with the pencil icon.

Setting What it does
Available Countries in PowerSearch Restricts results to the countries you list, up to 80. Leave it empty to search all countries.
Priority Country in PowerSearch Shows results from this country first.
Show Country Filter in PowerSearch Adds a country filter beside the search box so users can narrow the search themselves.

Note: These settings apply to PowerSearch only. Batch and automated verification work from the country already stored on the record, so restricting the countries here does not limit what they verify.

Step 5: Set the Alert Address

  1. In the Verification Settings section, click the pencil icon beside Batch Verification Alert Email Address.
  2. Enter an address that is monitored, then click Save.

Errors from batch and automated verification jobs are emailed here. It defaults to the address of whoever installed the package, so change it to a monitored address.

Note: If the alerts do not arrive, check Setup > Email > Deliverability and make sure Access to Send Email is set to All email.

Making Verification Available

Interactive PowerSearch only appears in the AddressTools components, so add at least one to the objects where your users enter addresses:

Batch and automated verification need no component, and their setup steps are covered separately:

What Verification Writes

A verified address has its street, city, state, country and postal code replaced with the corrected values, and the address status field set to the outcome. AddressTools only writes the corrected address when the status is Verified or Parsed but not found; for any other outcome the record keeps what your users entered, and only the status changes.

For what each status means, see Create an Address Status Field.

The Optional Fields

Verification also returns the values below. Each is written only where you have mapped a field to hold it in Step 1, and anything with no field mapped is discarded.

Field What it holds
County Field The county or administrative area the address falls in. Most used in the United States, where county drives sales tax and territory assignment.
Address Label The full address laid out for posting in its own country, as a single block of text ready to print on an envelope or a document.
Property Use Field Whether the premises are residential, commercial, or unknown where the data does not say. Returned for the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Belgium and the Netherlands only.
Latitude Field and Longitude Field The coordinates of the address. This is geocoding, which is licensed separately from verification.
Geocode Accuracy Field How precisely those coordinates pinpoint the address, from the building itself down to the state. Also geocoding.

For the field to create for each one and how to map it, see Creating Address Fields.

County, address label and property use are written on the same terms as the corrected address, so they populate when the status is Verified or Parsed but not found and are left as they were otherwise. The location fields behave differently: they are written whenever the service returns a latitude, whatever the status. See Geocoding.

Buying Verification and Geocoding

Verification is not included with an AddressTools license. It is purchased separately, and every address checked consumes one verification lookup, whether it was checked through PowerSearch, a batch run or a flow. A trial includes 25 lookups so you can try the feature before committing.

Verification can also return the coordinates of an address, along with a value recording how precisely those coordinates pinpoint it. That is geocoding, and it is licensed separately again from verification, so an org holding verification lookups does not necessarily have geocoding. For what it stores and how to configure it, see Geocoding.

To buy verification or geocoding, to add more lookups, or to check how many lookups you have left, contact sales@provenworks.com.