Sep. 7, 2006

More and more today, the importance of true compliance in the B2B segment as it pertains to EDI or X.12 specifications is a daunting subject. There has been countless discussions among the people that are supposedly responsible for the efficient and secure interchange of electronic data.

As a whole, there are some players that refer to the X.12 specification merely as a guideline since there are so many variations in its basic implementation.

But even with the diversity of its many uses, there are certain methods to efficiently work within these so-called guidelines that could make life simpler for B2B trading partners in working together without having to handle every partner's order as an exception to the rule.

So here are a few examples where data segments have been specified in ways that make the handling of transactions subject to manual intervention in order to conform to the processing requirements. In each case, the descriptors and data are "legal" but handling the information is far enough outside the guidelines that each transaction requires some intervention.

Case in point
The Customer sends a BP qualifier and ID on the order, but wants IN for the qualifier on the same ID on the invoice. The customer is sending a different code on the order than is required on the invoice. The customer should send on the order what they want on the invoice. So if they want the IN qualifier, they should send the IN qualifier.

Customer wants the REF segment below the N1 segment. According to the UCC, this is not allowed. The customer decided to put the REF segment in an illegal location.

Customer wants the N1 segment below each line item. Although this is allowed, it is non-standard. No prices are send on the orders, however the Customer requires them on the invoices.

This may be done to conserve on character charges by the VAN. GST taxes are required on every line item instead of at the summary level. However the Customer wants another tax line at the summary level, summarizing the line item taxes, but not deducted from the invoice twice.

This may be an additional check that the Customer's accounting department finds useful but it is not part of the standard process.

Item descriptions are not sent on the order, but are required on the invoice. The Customer may be trying to save money by not including the item description in the transmission. But since the Vendor bears the cost of sending the descriptions on the invoices, the Customer requires them on the invoice.

Best practices dictate that guidelines be followed to as closely as possible in order to maintain the standard as best it can be. Everyone is sensitive to the costs of transactions, but requiring non-standard messages puts a burden on the trading partner.

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