How to Add Your USPS Account to ReachShip?

This article provides step-by-step instructions on how to connect your USPS account with ReachShip.  Once connected, you can easily calculate USPS shipping rates, print labels, track shipments, and manage all your USPS shipments directly from ReachShip.

Sign Up/Log In to your USPS Business Account

Connecting USPS to ReachShip takes about 20 minutes, plus a wait of 1–2 days if you fund your USPS payment account by ACH Debit.

You will create a USPS business account, add a payment method, create an app in the USPS developer portal, and then enter six values into ReachShip. Once connected, you can calculate USPS rates, print labels, schedule pickups and track shipments.

Before you start

You will need a USPS business account and a credit card or your business bank account details.

By the end you will have collected six values. Keep them somewhere safe as you go — you will enter all of them into ReachShip in the final step.

The consumer key and secret do not expire, so this is a one-time setup.

Step 1: Sign in to your USPS business account

Go to the USPS Customer Onboarding Portal and sign in with your USPS Business Customer Gateway username and password.

If you don’t have an account yet, click Create New Account, enter your business email, and follow the prompts: validate the email, enter your company address and contact details, create your credentials, and accept the terms.

The landing page that appears shows your company information along with three numbers USPS has assigned you:

• Customer Registration ID (CRID) — a numeric code of up to 15 digits that identifies your business at a location
• Outbound Mailer ID (MID) — a 6 or 9 digit number
• Return Mailer ID (MID)

Write down the CRID and the Outbound MID. You can find them again later on your Business Customer Gateway account page.

Step 2: Add a payment account

USPS needs a way to bill you before it will issue labels. On the portal landing page, go to Add Your Payment Account, tick the box to accept the Payment Account Terms and Conditions, and choose a method under Select Payment Method.

This step enrols you in USPS Ship and creates your Enterprise Payment Account. Both are required before any label will print.

USPS offers two payment methods, and the one you pick decides how soon you can print a label.

Credit Card — quickest to set up. USPS pre-authorizes your card for an amount you choose: $500, $1,000, $2,500, $5,000 or $10,000. That amount is your maximum daily spend on labels. USPS places a hold for it on your card, then at the end of each day charges what you actually spent and releases the hold. Choose an amount that covers your busiest day. USPS recommends $500, which is about 70 packages.

ACH Debit — slower to start, hands-off after. USPS withdraws postage directly from your bank account as you ship. To activate it, add a debit-enabled bank account, then watch for two micro-deposits of under a dollar from BUSINESS TO BUSINESS CH USPS within 24 to 48 hours. Note both amounts, sign back in, go to My Account → My Payment Accounts, and enter them to activate. If you’d rather not wait, you can add a credit card instead.

Click Continue once you’ve made your choice. You can add more payment methods after your account is set up.

Until your payment account is active you can still calculate rates and track shipments, but every label will fail at the payment step.

When the account is active, note down the Enterprise Payment Account number from My Payment Accounts.

Step 3: Create your app

An app is what USPS issues your API keys against.

1. In the Customer Onboarding Portal, click My Apps in the top right. The Developer Portal opens.
2. Click the Developer Apps tab, then Add App.
3. Enter an App name. USPS asks for something unique that includes your company name.
4. Leave Callback URL blank. Most users do not need it. The description is optional.
5. Under API Products, tick Public Access I. A green line above it confirms you are enrolled in USPS Ship Outbound and Returns, provided your payment account is in place.
6. Click Add App. It appears in your Developer Apps list with the status approved.

Now click Manage next to the app. Under Credentials you will find the Consumer Key and Consumer Secret, each with an eye icon to reveal it and a copy icon. Copy both. These are the values ReachShip needs. They do not expire.

Step 4: Click Refresh Claims

Don’t skip this one. It is the most common reason labels fail after an otherwise correct setup.

On the same Manage page for your app, click Refresh Claims. This links the app to your payment accounts, permits, CRIDs and Mailer IDs. USPS recommends it for everyone and calls it critical for anyone who prints labels, holds a payment account, or has contract prices.

Do it once after your payment account is verified. Do it again later if you add another payment account or Mailer ID.

Without it, rates will work and labels will fail with a payment authorization error, even though every value you entered is correct.

Step 5: Enter your details in ReachShip

Sign in to ReachShip, go to Settings → Carriers, and select USPS. Fill in the six values you collected.

Click Save. ReachShip checks that rates return and that a label authorization succeeds before saving, so a successful save means you are ready to ship.

If you run more than one warehouse or payment account, add a separate USPS connection for each, with its own CRID and Mailer ID.

Troubleshooting

If something isn’t covered here, contact ReachShip support with your CRID and the error message. Never send your consumer secret to anyone, including us.

To know how to calculate the shipping costs of DHL, USPS, FedEx, and UPS, refer to the article – How to calculate shipping rates using ReachShip?