A method and system that increases the throughput of a mailing machine by continuously computing indicia prior to and during mail processing is provided. The indicia generation process is divided into two distinct parts, cryptographic calculation and funds committal/printing. Indicium data are continuously computed, asynchronously with the printing of the indicia, and stored in a buffer until needed. This enables several indicium data to be computed and stored prior to processing of a mail piece by the mailing machine. Prior to printing an indicium on a mail piece, the funds for the indicium are accounted for by updating the registers of the mailing machine. Since a number of indicium data may be pre-computed prior to the start of processing the mail through the mailing machine, the throughput of the mailing machine can be increased.