Loading

Trading Partners and Transports

EDI exchanges orders, despatch advices, invoices and acknowledgements with trading partners as X12 or EDIFACT messages instead of PDFs somebody rekeys. Everything is now done on one EDI console: partners, their inbound addresses, messages in and out, maps, transports and certificates. A partner can be a supplier you buy from or a customer you sell to.

Where to find it

Admin Panel → ERP - Setup:

  • EDI — the EDI console, for holders of ERP: Administration

Architect Panel → ERP - Trading & Analytics:

  • EDI — the same console; the badge counts messages in error or rejected
  • EDI Trading Partners, EDI Transports, EDI Messages, EDI Maps, EDI Control Numbers and AS2 Certificates — the underlying datastores, for looking up; make changes on the console

The console

The tabs are Partners, Messages, Simulate inbound, Generate & send, Maps, Transports, AS2 certificates and Acknowledgements. Each partner belongs to a company; you see partners of companies you can read and change those you can write to.

Setting up a partner

  1. Agree the standard, version, message types and identifiers with the partner in writing first.
  2. Set up the transport they will use (see AS2, OFTP2 and the Other Transports in this section).
  3. On Partners, add the partner: Partner code, Name, Company, and Trades as a supplier or a customer, then the Supplier record or Customer record it is. Inbound documents are filed against that record, and outbound documents to it go to this partner. A customer partner is also written onto the customer's EDI Partner field.
  4. Standard and Version (X12 004010 or 005010; EDIFACT D96A), and the EDIFACT release where needed.
  5. The four identifiers: Their qualifier, Their interchange ID, Our qualifier, Our interchange ID. Copy them; do not retype them.
  6. Acknowledgements (997, 999 or CONTRL) and Ack expected within (minutes), which turns a missing acknowledgement into something visible.
  7. Transport, Test relationship while commissioning, and Enabled.
  8. Apply on receipt: an inbound business message is applied to a document as soon as it arrives (an 850 becomes a sales order without anyone pressing Apply), when the partner's maps name exactly one document type for it.
  9. For a supplier, Send purchase orders automatically: issuing a purchase order to this supplier sends the 850 or ORDERS at once. It is off by default; nothing is transmitted to a supplier until you opt them in.

The inbound address

A partner that posts messages to you gets its own URL. On the partner's row press Issue URL, copy it, and send it to the partner over a channel you trust; then press Accept messages. The URL is a credential: anyone holding it can deliver messages as that partner, so use Rotate URL if it may have leaked, Stop accepting to pause, and Revoke to destroy it. The interchange's sender ID must also match the partner. An AS2 partner gets the AS2 address instead, where the signature is checked too; an OFTP2 partner has no URL. Partners that drop files are collected by polling: Poll now, or the scheduled task (see Sending and Receiving Messages in this section).

What goes wrong

  • Messages from a partner are refused: inbound is not accepted, the URL was rotated, or the sender ID in the interchange does not match.
  • An AS2 partner's token is refused on the plain address: by design. Give them the AS2 address.
  • Orders are not sent to a supplier: Send purchase orders automatically is off, or the partner has no outbound 850 or ORDERS map.
  • Outbound sales documents go to the wrong partner: check the customer's EDI Partner field and the partner's Customer record agree.

Worked example

A distributor onboards a water agency that orders by X12. The ERP administrator adds the partner as trading as a customer, linked to the agency's customer record, X12 004010, with the agreed identifiers, 997 acknowledgements and Apply on receipt. They install the customer starter maps, issue the inbound URL and send it to the agency, then press Accept messages. The agency's first 850 arrives, becomes a draft sales order, and a 997 is queued back.

Recommendations

  • Commission with Test relationship on, and turn it off only when both sides agree you are live.
  • Treat the inbound URL as a password; rotate it if in doubt.
  • Opt suppliers in to automatic orders one at a time, after a test order.
  • Set acknowledgement times and watch the Acknowledgements tab.