Open & Scan gives Address Quickly customers a way to review the contents of eligible physical mail without waiting for pickup or forwarding. The service is request-based, not automatic: you choose the item, authorize the request, and receive a digital copy when processing is complete.
When business mail arrives, not every envelope needs to be physically forwarded or picked up before you can act on it. Sometimes the faster option is to request a digital scan of the contents.
Address Quickly’s Open & Scan service is designed for that situation.
1. What happens when mail first arrives?
Address Quickly records eligible incoming mail and sends an arrival notification. An exterior image of the item is made available through the customer system where applicable.
That lets you see that something arrived before deciding what should happen next.
2. Does Address Quickly open mail automatically?
No. Address Quickly does not routinely open customer mail simply because it arrives.
Opening and scanning occurs when you submit an authorized Open & Scan request or when another specifically authorized service requires it.
That distinction matters because exterior arrival imaging and opening an envelope are two different actions.
3. How does Open & Scan work?
For an eligible mail item, you select the item in your account and submit an Open & Scan request. Address Quickly opens the item, digitally scans its contents, and makes the resulting document available electronically through the customer system as supported by the portal.
Once the scan is complete, you can review the document remotely instead of waiting to pick up or forward the physical mail.
4. When is Open & Scan useful?
Open & Scan can be useful when you need the information inside an envelope sooner than you need the physical document.
Common examples include:
– A routine business notice that needs review.
– A letter that may require a quick response.
– A statement or correspondence you want to read while traveling.
– Mail you want to review before deciding whether to forward, store, shred, or pick up.
– An item where the contents matter but the original paper does not need immediate physical handling.
Open & Scan is especially useful for remote business owners who want visibility into incoming mail without making every item a forwarding event.
5. How many Open & Scan requests are included?
The current plan allowances are:
– Basic: 1 Open & Scan request per billing cycle.
– Essentials: 5 Open & Scan requests per billing cycle.
– Plus: 10 Open & Scan requests per billing cycle.
Included allowances reset with each billing cycle and do not roll over.
6. What happens after I use my included allowance?
After the included allowance is exhausted, the current additional Open & Scan charge is $2.00 per envelope for up to 10 pages. Additional pages are $0.20 each.
7. Does Plus include faster processing?
Yes. Plus includes priority Open & Scan processing.
Priority means the request receives processing preference. It does not guarantee an instantaneous scan or a fixed completion time.
8. Can I download the completed scan?
Yes. Completed digital scans can be accessed and downloaded through the customer system as supported by the portal.
9. What should I do with the physical mail after scanning?
Scanning the contents does not automatically decide what happens to the physical item. Depending on the item and available services, you may later choose pickup, forwarding, storage, shredding, recycling, disposal, or another eligible action.
For standard non-package physical mail, the current free-storage period is 90 days. After that period, physical storage is currently $0.10 per item per month.
10. When should I choose Open & Scan instead of forwarding?
Choose Open & Scan when the information inside the envelope is what you need first.
Choose forwarding when you need the original physical document or want several eligible items consolidated and sent to another destination.
Sometimes the best workflow is to scan first, review the contents, and then decide whether the original needs to be forwarded at all.
11. When should I choose pickup instead?
Scheduled local pickup is included with every Address Quickly plan at no additional charge. Pickup may be the better choice when you are local, need the original document, or prefer to collect several physical items together.
12. The practical takeaway
Open & Scan is a decision tool as much as a scanning service. It gives customers a way to see what is inside eligible mail before deciding what physical handling comes next.
The workflow is simple: mail arrives, you receive notification and exterior visibility where applicable, you request Open & Scan for the item you want opened, Address Quickly scans the contents, and the digital document becomes available electronically.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
– Address Quickly does not routinely open mail automatically.
– Exterior arrival imaging is different from opening and scanning contents.
– Open & Scan is submitted as an authorized request for an eligible mail item.
– Basic includes 1 request per billing cycle; Essentials includes 5; Plus includes 10.
– Included allowances reset each billing cycle and do not roll over.
– Additional Open & Scan is currently $2.00 per envelope for up to 10 pages, plus $0.20 per additional page.
– Plus receives priority scan processing, but priority does not mean instantaneous completion.
– Completed scans can be accessed and downloaded through the customer system as supported by the portal.
– Scanning does not automatically determine what happens to the physical mail afterward.
– Open & Scan is often useful when the information inside the envelope matters before the original paper does.