EDI Document
EDI documents contain the same details that a paper
document in a trading relationship has. We can use
the X12 940 ship-from-warehouse order EDI document to
illustrate this point. Manufacturers employ this EDI
document to let a warehouse know they should send a
delivery of a particular consignment to a trading partner.
The data contained in this EDI document has at a minimum,
a “ship to” address, “bill to” address,
a list of product numbers and quantities. In addition
to this basic EDI document data, there is often more
detail depending on the requirements of the trading
partners. EDI document standards are extremely comprehensive
as there exist EDI documents for almost all areas of
commerce, including health care (including records
of patients and laboratory results), banking and mortgage
finance. The EDI documents can be used in innovative
ways, such as the X12 856 Advance Shipment Notification
(ASN) EDI document which was created to let the recipient
of a shipment know which goods will be received and
how they are packaged. This is completely new trade
information to send and didn’t exist prior to
EDI documents.
Worldwide, there are several EDI document standards:
- The UN/EDIFACT EDI document standard, created in
the 1980s by the United Nations are EDI documents for
enabling global trade. These EDI documents are the most
prevalent outside the United States.
- The X12 EDI documents were created by the American
National Standards Institute sub section responsible
for EDI documents (Accredited Standards Committee).
- EDI documents in the TRADACOMS standard were created
for the British retail industry
- The ODETTE EDI documents had their origin among Europe’s
automotive manufacturers.
In some cases EDI documents are being developed in
the XML format, and this development was expected since
the mid 1990s. However, XML documents used for trade
are simply EDI documents that have been converted to
XML.
Without EDI document technology in common use, international
trade would be significantly slower and less efficient.
EDI documents enable instantaneous transmission of trade
data and trading partners can quickly adjust to shipments,
manufacturing schedules, payments and many other facets
of trade because of EDI document technology.
In fact, every time you go in to a retailer to purchase
an item, the
An EDI Document is simply another term for an electronic
purchase order, invoice, shipping notice or other business
document. An EDI Document is sent using an EDI
standard determined by the type of the document, the
intended recipient of the document, the country the document
originated in, and the country the EDI Document is being
sent to. An EDI Document is formatted according
to the EDI standard that the two trading partners have
agreed that they will use to communicate. It’s
important, therefore, for the recipient of the EDI Document
to have software that is capable of translating the EDI
Document into the correct format, regardless of where
the EDI Document may have originated. An EDI Document
will also differ depending on the requirements of the
company that sends it. An EDI Document from Wal-Mart,
for instance, will be slightly different from the equivalent
EDI Document from Target. That’s because
each organization decides what parts of the EDI Document
they care to exchange. This “implementation
guideline”, as it is called, means that each trading
partner will send and receive an EDI Document according
to their own needs.
When selecting the software to translate an EDI Document,
it is important to know how easily that software will
be able to accommodate these subtle but important variations. As
an EDI Document is received, the software must automatically
recognize which company sent the EDI Document and must
translate it accordingly. EDI Software should
provide basic support for the minimum EDI Document that
each trading partner requires.
An EDI Document is commonly known by the number of that
EDI Document as well as by its name. For
example, an invoice EDI Document is also often referred
to as an 810 EDI Document, while a purchase order EDI
Document is also often referred to as an 850 EDI Document. This
example shows that the EDI Document does not necessarily
follow a logical convention. The casual reader might
think that a purchase order EDI Document would have a
lower number than an invoice EDI Document, since the
purchase order EDI Document would always be received
before an invoice EDI Document would be sent. As
you can see from the example, however, this is not so. For
all these reasons it is important that you work with
a company that understands the requirements for each
EDI Document and can help you make sense of it
all.
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