Patent ID: 7745754

Claim:
A method comprising: processing a plurality of mail pieces from a first source and a second source different from the first source, on document processing equipment, and requiring substantially no interaction by an operator and no resetting of the sorter of the document processing equipment during time between processing of a final mail piece of the plurality of mail pieces of the first source and processing of an initial mailpiece of the plurality of mail pieces of the second source, the processing further including: receiving the plurality of mail pieces for each of the first source and the second source as an unsorted or only partially presorted stream of mail pieces; detecting information corresponding to the first source from at least a first mail piece of the plurality of mail pieces in the received stream of mail pieces; detecting information corresponding to the second source from at least a second mail piece of the plurality of mail pieces in the received stream of mail pieces; responsive to the detecting steps, counting a number of mail pieces for each of the first source and the second source; and generating a report detailing the counted mail pieces, for each of the first source and the second source, wherein the first source is a first mail batch from a first customer, and the second source is a mail batch from a second customer or a second mail batch from the first customer.