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Zip Code Locator Software

What Is Zip Code?

ZIP (Zone Improvement Plan) Code Established in 1963, in the US the system of 5-digit codes that identifies the individual post office or metropolitan area delivery station associated with an address. The term ZIP code was originally registered as a servicemark (a type of trademark) by the U.S. Postal Service, but its registration has since expired. In many countries, the equivalent of a United States zipcode is named postal code. A sequence of numbers and/or letters near the end of an address, which provides some guidance in sorting the mail. For example, Canadian postcodes such as H3Z 2Y7 and T0L 1K0 include both numbers and letters. Some countries such as Great Britain even have variable length postcodes, for example A1 2BC or KL8M 9N. A good zip code locator software can distinguish these types of international postcodes to quickly understand what is required.

The history Of ZIP Code

Zipcodes set a milestone in mail history. The US Post Office Department in 1930 moved the bulk of the US domestic mail by rail, despite the growing transport accessibility offered by the airlines. Tens thousand mail-carrying trains crisscrossed the country, moving round the clock into every metropolitan area and smallest village. Imagine the distribution ovehaul for the major railroad hubs of the country. Years from 1930s to 1960s are remarkable for many great changes for the United States. By 1963, fewer trains, making fewer stops, carried the mail. The character, volume, and routes of mail changed as well. More and more business oriented mail functons were required – by 1963, business mail constituted 80 percent of the total volume. This time also coincide with the penetration of computers, which brought a growing mass of utility bills and payments, bank deposits and receipts, insurance premiums, advertisements, magazines, credit card transactions, department store and mortgage billings, and payments, dividends, and Social Security checks traveling through the mail. At that time is was becoming evident that apart of generating so much new types of mail, computers can be also used to sort these envelopes, too, by means of first generation zip code locator software.

ZIP stands for Zoning Improvement Plan which began on July 1, 1963 as a solution to the explosive growth of business mail. The Post Office didn’t require anyone to use the new postal code system at the beginning, but in 1967, the Post Office required mailers of second-class and third-class mail to presort by ZIP Code. ZIP code should be properly written in capital letters and it was chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the code in the postal address. By July 1963, a five-digit code had been assigned to every address throughout the country. The first digit designated a broad geographical area of the United States, ranging from zero for the Northeast to nine for the far West. This was followed by two digits that more closely pinpointed population concentrations and those sectional centers accessible to common transportation networks. The final two digits designated small post offices or postal zones in larger zoned cities.

ZIP Code Locator Software

Even though snail mail has taken a backseat to electronic mail, we still need to communicate and stay in touch via the conventional mailing system, and will continue to put zipcodes to good use. Think about that the next time you send grandma a birthday card or need to have a package delivered to a remote area in Iowa. Imagine a website visitor looking for a service station for his Ford truck somewhere in Texas? Everyone knows one’s zipcode or postal code nowdays, so it is a good start for a search. A ZIP code’s address and the city name written on the same line do not necessarily mean that that address is within that city. The Postal Service designates a single default place name for each zipcode. For better search, there exists a database of zip codes and geo coordinates. Geo coordinates explicitely difine an exact place on Earth, so given two ZIP codes, a smart piece of software can calculate the distance and give you nearest stores, shops, stations, whatever you may fancy looking for. Many zip code search software products feature advanced algorithms and innovative approach to processing massive databases quickly and efficiently.

About the Author

This article on zip code locator software has been written for store locator software website by Judy Sanchez, a qualified general researcher specializing in many topics sharing her findings to help people make informed decisions.

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How Financial Transparency Ranking will improve Annual Report Contents

Source Capital and BusinessDAY have come out with an innovative way to improve the level of financial disclosure and transparency in published annual reports. The introduction of a ranking of quoted companies based on the level of financial disclosure and transparency in their published annual reports will improve the contents of annual reports in Nigeria.  

 

There is no such ranking in the country currently and most companies basically follow the minimum regulatory guidelines in the contents of their annual reports. An evaluation of these contents by analysts who need this information to make an informed investment decision has been largely considered inadequate.  Usually the information in most annual reports are generic, full of platitudes with no in depth explanation of the rational of the business, the risks faced by the business, the strategies put in place to navigate identified risks and forward looking analysis of the company’s position.

 

Where detailed information is provided, non financial information, that cannot be deduced from the annual report are usually absent. Employee turnover, manufacturing capacity, market share, liquidity position, working capital needs and projections are all information that managers often do not disclose in annual reports. It is to ensure a more detailed disclosure in annual reports, which is the most accessible document, available to all stakeholder interested in a quoted company for their different reason that Source Capital and BusinessDAY have introduced the ranking.

 

Currently, the FTRA has separate indices for banks and non banks with a separate index for ranking the insurance sector still being worked out.  For banks, the FTRA will cover governance and risk management disclosure in their financial statements.

 

 The governance section covers disclosures concerning; Board Matters, Remuneration Matters, Accountability and Audit matters. The Risk Management section will analyze the disclosure of banks concerning their credit Risk, Market Risk, Operational risks, Other risk (strategy, IT, Legal and Reputational risks) practices.

 

 Over 100 indices for each area of disclosure have been developed. The sum of points scored by each bank will be covered to percentage scores. The higher the score, the higher the level of disclosure and transparency in the published annual reports analyzed.

 

The percentage scores will further be converted to an index on a scale of 10 which will be called the Financial Transparency Index (FTI). This index will be attached to the company’s or bank’s listed name on the stock exchange. This will be the indication of the level of financial disclosure by the company or bank, for example if XYZ Bank Plc has an FTI score of 6.5 and ABC bank has a FTI Score 2.5 then any external party looking at this information should easily be able to interpret this to mean that XYZ Bank Plc has a high level of disclosure and transparency in its financial statements than that of ABC Bank Plc.

 

For none banks, the FTRA will be ranking companies based on the level of their governance disclosures and that of the quality of their Management, Discussion and Analysis (MD&A). The quality of the MD and A indices have been fashioned based on the exposure draft of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) which is in the process of becoming a non binding accounting standard for companies soon. It is quite detailed and ensures that management convinces all stakeholders that they understand the business they are running.  

 

In future, there are plans to extend this ranking to the public sector to cover state and local governments.

 

Usefulness of the FTI

Several studies have shown that companies showing a higher level of financial disclosure and transparency in their annual reports are better managed and financially stronger than companies that have low levels of disclosure and financial transparency.

 

For investors the Financial Transparency Index will thus serve as a good guide of where to put their money. Companies with higher FTI scores will naturally be a better investment choice than companies that have low FTI scores. The FTI greatly simplifies the investor’s decision making process as he or she no longer needs to go through several pages of different annual reports to see companies that are well managed and that deserve his or her earned money. The FTI will greatly simplify the process of investment choices for investors

 

How it benefits regulators and other stakeholders;

For regulators, the FTI will be an invaluable tool. At a glance, regulators will be able to easily identify companies/banks that pose high risk to the system and increase their supervision and regulatory activities on these companies or banks. Banks/companies with a low FTI score will naturally have a higher risk level than banks with a high FTI score.

 

Other Stakeholders

Depositors: The FTI will be a good indication of which bank to place their monies as higher FTI scores will indicate a strong bank or company.

 

Tax Authorities: A higher FTI score will definitely mean that the bank or company is making correct tax returns while a lower FTRA will mean that the bank or company’s tax returns bear further scrutiny  

 

Suppliers/Creditors: A high FTI score means a company that is in position to pay its suppliers without much difficulty while a low FTI score will mean that company will likely delay payments to its suppliers and may not be in position to even pay its debts.

 

A credible advisory board has been formed to administer the FTRA.

About the Author

Finance and communication specialist with experience in banking, research and financial analysis and media. Academic qualifications include an M Sc in Banking and Finance, a Bachelor’s Degree in Finance and professional affiliation to the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS level I) and the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) United States. Good computer skills- Microsoft Excel, Access and Word-. Won four different merit awards in financial journalism

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