Abstract: In a postage meter capable of making a request to refill automatically when postage funds drop below a threshold value, date-based rules are used to disable the refilling request if the request is made before an idle period. In order to avoid having unused funds sit unused during the idle period, thereby losing the time-value of money, refilling request can be made after the end of the idle period instead. The date-based rules can be set by a scheduler implemented in the postage meter. Alternatively, the scheduler is implemented in a funds manager device that oversees the refilling in a group of postage meters in a large mail production facility. Furthermore, the scheduler takes into consideration funds that can be shared by two or more postage meters in the same facility.

Abstract: A method of processing a mail run on a plurality of inserter systems, including first and second inserter systems, comprising the following steps. A mail run data file (MRDF) is downloaded to a file server. Documents comprising mailpieces of the mail run are scanned at each of the plurality of inserter systems. Each of the documents are scanned for an MRDF ID and a mailpiece ID. A MRDF data block is requested from the file server by each of the inserter systems based on the MRDF ID and mailpiece ID scanned at each of the plurality of inserter systems. The file server verifies that the respective request from each of the inserter systems has data available for the requested mailpiece ID and that the requested mailpiece ID has not been processed by any of the plurality of inserter systems. The file server allocates the requested MRDF data block respectively to each of the inserter systems when the data is available and the requested mailpiece has not been processed.