EDI 850?? Need help

I haven't had any luck with my calls to customer support on this topic. They referred me to the discussion board. The discussion seems very very limited as well.


Is anyone using the EDI850 Transaction to their suppliers?

Where is the best place to find the documentation on this? There is a minimal reference in the managing supply chain section of the user guide.

Where is the 850 template shown so I can give the supplier a mapping reference to load to their system.

Is there any way to generate and 850 "test" transaction to see this format

How is the 850 sent to the supplier.. is it email or ftp?

[MikeK]

Is anyone using the EDI850 Transaction to their suppliers? Where is the best place to find the documentation on this? What is the format of the outbound 850 document to the supplier.

The Supplier EDI 850 template uses the ANSI ASC X12 (American National Standards Institute Accredited Standards Committee X12, form 850 (Purchase Order) format. I believe the Supplier EDI 850 template in ProStores is version 4010 of the EDI 850 format. You may want to search the Internet for more information regarding the specific format of the EDI 850 document.

Where is the 850 template shown so I can give the supplier a mapping reference to load to their system.

ProStores includes four templates for providing invoice information to suppliers. These templates include Supplier EDI, Supplier EDI 850, Supplier Email, and Supplier Fax. The templates can be exported by clicking on Design Studio, Edit next to the desired template set, Export Templates, choose Supplier EDI 850, and then right click to save the supplier.x12.850.tpl file to your desktop. In the Online Guide you can review all of the available members of the $edi object by clicking on SSML / Members by Type / Edi.

Since the Supplier EDI 850 template follows the ANSI X12 standard, many merchants that utilize supplier functionality will use the Supplier EDI template instead. This allows the merchant to customize the format of the template so the output file can be in the format requested by the supplier. Additional supplier templates can be uploaded to the store so each supplier can utilize their own supplier template. If your supplier does not follow the EDI 850 format, you may want to consider using the Supplier EDI template instead where it may be easier to customize.

Is there any way to generate and 850 "test" transaction to see this format. How is the 850 sent to the supplier.. is it email or ftp? Where is the ftp or email location specified? What process is run to generate this outbound document, how is the process triggered?

You will need to create a test invoice to see the output of the supplier file. Below are the steps needed to setup supplier functionality and to create a test order. It is recommended that you create a product for $.01 and then delete the invoice once you are finished with your testing to minimize any potential fees.

Create a supplier in ProStores:
1. Click on Product / Suppliers / Add
2. Under Method, choose the desired notification method. For our testing, you may want to use "Download"
3. For Template, choose the desired supplier template. From your post, it sounds like you want to choose "Supplier EDI 850"
4. For Mark as Shipped, enabling this option will move the order to the completed orders area once the supplier is notified. If your supplier plans on sending an incoming request back to ProStores for processing (or if you want to manually ship the invoice), you probably do not want to enable this option.

Associate the Supplier to a Product:
1. Click on the name of a product and then the Update button.
2. Under Inventory Information, choose the supplier you just setup and click the Submit button.

Create a test invoice:
1. Go to the storefront and purchase the product that was updated from the step above.
2. You may want to set the product price to $.01 and then enable check for the payment method in the store to avoid fees.

Authorize the Invoice:
1. Go to the Order / Pending Orders / Auth - Credit or Auth - Other area and authorize the invoice you just created

Manually run the supplier notification service:
1. By default ProStores will notify the supplier of the invoice once an hour. You can manually run the service by clicking on Product / Suppliers / and the arrow icon next to "Send Notifications".

Reviewing the supplier file:
1. The supplier download file can be accessed in the Store Administration by clicking on Support / File Management / Store Data Area / suppliers / download / and then reviewing the .txt file.
2. It is also possible to use FTP to access this area. Once you log into your FTP account, click on ProStores / suppliers / download / and then the .txt file
3. If you choose e-mail for the notification option, an e-mail will be sent to the e-mail address in the supplier profile with the supplier file as a file attachment.

Where can I go to find some more specific documentation on setting up EDI for prostores.

Our supplier documentation can be found in the ProStores Store Administration Complete Reference guide on pages 139 to 146. The online guide also has references to the SSML Object Reference and Supplier Connect Upgrade guides.

Inbound inventory/supplier updates.. what are formats for the inbound update files from suppliers that I can use for inventory updates and shipping information? What should these files be called and where should they be placed? What prostores process runs to update the inventory and shipment information?

The ProStores software requires a specific format for incoming supplier files. You will want to review page 144 in the ProStores Store Administration Complete Reference guide for the format. The file name of the incoming file is not important to ProStores, however, most merchants will utilize a .txt extension. The incoming files will need to be placed into the ProStores / suppliers / incoming directory. An alterative would be for the supplier to e-mail the confirmation to the POP e-mail address defined in the Product / Suppliers / Preferences area.

By default ProStores will process incoming supplier confirmations once an hour automatically. If you would like to manually run the supplier confirmation service, you will want to click on Product / Suppliers / and the arrow icon next to "Receive Confirmations".

Is there a method to test inbound inventory and shipping updates without affecting a live order.

Unfortunately there is not a way to test inbound supplier functionality without affecting an order. When ProStores processes the incoming supplier file, the order will be updated with the submitted information. Once all of the products have been fulfilled by the suppliers, the invoice will be shipped and marked as completed.

[TowerOS-Dennis]

In the supplier setup, there is a field labeled "EDI Code" below the "Suffix" field. However, there doesn't appear to be any reference information as to what this field should contain or even how it is used.

Can someone shed some light on this, please?

Thanks.