The annual billing period is one of the most significant and demanding times of the year at CFH. It is a period in which planning and precision come together across our business, to ensure vital council communications are delivered on time, in full, and without compromise.
Each year, our teams prepare months in advance to support local authorities through this key period, ensuring that revenues and benefits collateral and essential inserts reach residents across England and Scotland accurately and on schedule. Once again for 2025, colleagues across our two sites – Radstock and Livingston - demonstrated exceptional teamwork, professionalism, and attention to detail, delivering an incredible service that upheld the trust placed in us by 58 council teams.
This year marked our busiest annual billing period yet, and we’ve made significant improvements to streamline the entire process. One of the key developments was the enhancement of last year’s newly introduced annual billing portal - a fantastic tool built by our internal IT teams to further improve efficiency.
During 2025 annual billing, we handled the printing, packing, and posting of a total of 3.6 million mailings (3,677,082 to be exact). It’s safe to say it was a challenging but rewarding period, with many of our council clients having unique requirements, all of which we were happy to accommodate.
Preparation for the 2025 annual billing period began in late 2024, with account managers across our sites holding kick-off meetings alongside our Business Development teams and clients. These initial discussions are crucial for understanding each council’s specific requirements and aligning on the key workstreams at an early stage.
These meetings also provide an opportunity for us to build on our extensive experience and expertise, ensuring we deliver tailored solutions for each client, based on their key needs and deadlines. As part of the process, distinct production workstreams are created to handle the various types of documents being sent, which include:
Many clients take advantage of our match and merge functionality, consolidating multiple documents - such as bills and benefits - into a single envelope, saving on postage costs. Additionally, many of our clients include inserts like leaflets and booklets to provide their residents with further information.
The annual billing period involves nearly every part of the business, with teams across each of our sites contributing to its successful delivery. Whether working behind the scenes, engaging with clients, or directly handling the documents, the process relies on the collective effort of all teams involved.
In total, teams across Project Management, Account Management, and IT Document Development dedicated an estimated 1,966 hours to the annual billing process this year. Thanks to their dedication, each team ensured that every letter was sent accurately and on time, with all customer schedules being met without exception.
Our managed services teams played a key role, leveraging their years of experience to ensure seamless execution and ongoing support for our clients. Many team members have been part of this project for several years, bringing deep expertise and continuity to the process.
As part of our ongoing commitment to continual improvement, we regularly review our processes to identify opportunities for optimisation. Whether enhancing the direct benefits to our customers or refining our internal workflows, these improvements help ensure we offer a more efficient and seamless service.
A significant success this year was the adoption of PPM envelopes by more clients. PPM envelopes are windowless envelopes that are personalised on demand, allowing us to print high-quality, variable text and images directly onto each envelope. This eliminates the need for pre-printed stock. These envelopes were used by 41 councils in 2025, improving operational efficiency and ensuring the exterior of each mailing was personalised. PPM envelopes without plastic windows are also the greener choice - eliminating 175kg of single use plastic per million envelopes produced.
Last year, we introduced a new annual billing portal, developed by our internal IT teams, to streamline the entire billing process. This online portal serves as a central database for recording all council information, including volumes, stationery requirements, stock codes, data counts, and despatch dates. In 2025, we made further enhancements to the portal, implementing several minor changes to improve usability.
Overall this year, we produced, managed, and dispatched a total of 3,677,082 annual billing documents across both England and Scotland. In England, we worked with 47 councils, sending out a total of 2,934,291 packs. We had the privilege of working with eight new councils this year, expanding our reach and strengthening partnerships. Four councils in England utilised our secure Dotpost solution, sending a total of 13,745 documents via e-delivery. Partnered with Royal Mail, in Scotland we worked with 11 councils, sending a total of 742,791 packs.
This year, 18 clients chose to take advantage of our Economy Postage delivery service, a cost-effective solution designed to provide reliable delivery to addresses within five days of dispatch. This service is ideal for our annual billing clients looking to manage their costs while still ensuring their communications reach recipients within a timely manner. By offering this flexible delivery option, we were able to meet the varied needs of councils, helping them optimise budgets and delivery schedules.
We’re proud to share just an overview of the positive feedback from our council clients, with a focus on the dedication and professionalism of our teams during the 2025 annual billing process:
Council Revenue And Benefits Team: “Thank you for your help during this period, you’ve been an absolute pleasure to work with”
Council Representative: “Your receptionist and Goods In staff were kind, helpful and professional”
Council Revenue And Benefits Lead: “Thanks for all the work you’ve put in. We can’t speak highly enough of everything you’ve done”
Council Revenue And Benefits Team: “We are extremely grateful for your understanding, late changes, proofs, everything – thank you!”
The success of this year’s annual billing period is a direct result of the dedication and hard work from every CFH team. We would like to extend our sincerest thanks to all those involved in ensuring that our clients’ mailings were delivered on time, and that our processes ran smoothly and efficiently.
A special thank you goes to Production, IT, Account Management, Postage, Tenders, Business Development Managers, Projects, Legal, Quality Control, Estimating, Incoming Orders, Artroom and Logistics. Your support made this year’s annual billing process seamless and effective. This year has been the busiest, but most successful yet thanks to the careful planning, collaboration, and ongoing improvements we’ve made together. We’re already looking forward to another rewarding annual billing period in 2026.
Once again, thank you to everyone for your hard work. Bringing a project of this scale to completion is never easy, but your efforts ensured we delivered successfully for all 58 councils.
Surrey County Council Sought to Optimize Print/Post Services Across Departments. We Helped Transform Their Services With Our Industry Expertise.
East Herts and Stevenage Council first partnered with CFH around 6 years ago, as they were seeking an efficient and reliable print solution for important daily and annual billing communications.
As the chosen communications partner for over 10 years, CFH Docmail supports Melton Council in the successful delivery of over 25,000 annual billing demand notices in March 2024.
CFH communication solutions transforms BCP council print and mail for annual, daily and ad-hoc communications.
Basildon council and Brentwood council partnered back in 2015 to streamline the management of their revenues and benefit programmes, with other department collaborations going back as far as 2013. The collaborative partnership was designed to deliver quality services to their residents, whilst minimising the cost of these services and improving the two council’s efficiencies. The shared service scheme is recognised across the UK, with many councils opting for this approach to help manage services as one overarching council for a local area.
CFH communication solutions transforms Dorset council print and mail for annual, daily and ad-hoc communications.
