Patent ID: 7904394

Claim:
A method for documenting mail work flows, the method comprising: generating a plurality of mailing labels, wherein each mailing label is a mailing label for an article and generated based on sender information and recipient information; storing information regarding the plurality of mailing labels in a database in memory, wherein the stored information for each mailing label includes the sender information, the recipient information, and a tracking number assigned to the mailing label; receiving postage information sent from a postage machine over a communication network, the postage information including a rate for mailing an article via a postal service, and a tracking number designated by a user of the postage machine; and executing instructions stored in memory, wherein execution of the instructions by a processor: matches the assigned tracking number of a mailing label included in the stored label information with a corresponding tracking number included in the postage information, and generates a report based on the stored label information and the associated postage information being matched as having the corresponding tracking number.