Remote Site Processing

EDI Processing from the Remote Site Perspective

The remote sourcing site is a vendor to the sales office and the supplier to the sales office and/or end customer.  From this location, four EDI transactions are supported.  They are sequenced in a list below.

1.   Inbound Sales Orders

2.   Outbound SO Acknowledgments

3.   Outbound Shipments/BOLs

4.   Outbound Invoices

Inbound Sales Orders

Once a purchase order has been received, a sales order is created, provided the purchase order information received from the sales office is valid.  If you have MAC-PAC, the sales office's EDI purchase order transactions can be used to create a sales order (via ED140E) on your system.

Orders can be created asynchronously or in batch.  You can also place an automatic EDI hold on incoming sales orders until the EDI transactions are approved and the hold is removed.  This can prevent credit checking and/or inventory reservation, depending on the way the flags are set up on Reference File category 402, Sales Order Hold Codes.  The process of converting a sales office's purchase order into a sales order on your system also produces several reports.

A report is generated for all sales orders created by this program.  The report shows key fields from the sales order header, detail, and comment lines.  Error messages related to availability checking are also printed for every detail line.  A summary report is printed indicating the number of lines processed, the number of sales orders created, and the number of transactions rejected.  Lastly, an error report is created to identify transactions that could not be processed.  These reports can be used to verify transactions.

To process an inbound sales order, the information received from the sales office's purchase order must be valid.  If the transaction is not valid, an online exception correction facility is provided to facilitate adjustments.  Once corrections have been made, you can resubmit the transactions for processing.  If it is impossible to correct the transaction is not possible, you can delete it using function key F14-Delete.  If you choose this option, you must request that the sales office retransmit the transaction data.  Also, note that a sales order will not be created unless all information received for that transaction is valid (including the header, all lines, and associated comments).  If you use F14 to delete any part of a transaction, the customer's entire purchase order transaction will be deleted.

The information passed to the remote site (using the Order Type code of the purchase order) includes whether the sales office wants the goods to be sent to them or sent directly to the end customer.  If the Order Type is "D" (direct ship) and thus the order is a direct distribution order, the shipment type at your site must always be "W" (warehouse ship).  This is because the sales office, by sending a purchase order with order type "D", is expecting you to ship directly to the end customer.  However, on your system, the shipment type must be "W" because you are actually relieving inventory from a warehouse location.  Furthermore, additional information¾the "Direct Distribution" fields on the sales order¾allow you to cross-reference the end customer's purchase order.

Outbound Sales Order Acknowledgments

The function of an outbound sales order acknowledgment transaction is to acknowledge receipt of an order (the sales office's purchase order) and to provide status on an existing order (the sales order you are sourcing).

When you receive an incoming purchase order from a sales office location, you will need to notify the sales office that their purchase order has been received and is being processed.  If you have MAC-PAC, this is done (via OP520E) by issuing an outbound sales order acknowledgment.  Furthermore, if appropriate, this information can be forwarded to the end customer by the sales office creating an outbound sales order acknowledgment transaction.  If forwarded by the sales office, the same information can be used by the end customer to process an inbound acknowledgment transaction.

If EDI processing is used, the Sales Order Acknowledgment Document Format field must allow EDI transmission (the value must be "E"-electronic transmission only or "B"-both paper copy and electronic transmission).  Order acknowledgments can be generated asynchronously or in batch, depending on the sales order acknowledgment's release code; they may also be regenerated, if necessary.

Follow-up transactions may also be necessary if the promised ship changes for any reason.  If it does change, you should issue a status update (this information can be forwarded from the sales office to the end customer to keep them informed about the status of their original purchase order).  Both types of transactions, the initial acknowledgment and the later status updates, are processed identically.

Outbound Shipments/BOLs

Outbound shipment transactions are generated from the location that sends the inventory to the end customer.  This is done (via OP690E) in the form of a Bill of Lading.  This function is performed either asynchronously or in batch mode, depending on the bill of lading release code, and may be regenerated, if necessary.  When EDI processing is used, the Bill of Lading Document Format field must allow EDI transmission (the value must be "E"-electronic transmission only or "B"-both paper copy and electronic transmission).

When a sales office sends an outbound purchase order it must include information about whether the remote site is to send the goods back to the sales office or directly to the end customer.  The order type decides the recipient of the goods.  Remember that the information passed to the remote site (using the Order Type code of the purchase order) includes whether the sales office wants the goods to be sent to them or sent directly to the end customer.  If the Order Type is "D" (direct ship) and thus the order is a direct distribution order, the shipment type at your site must always be "W" (warehouse ship).  This is because the sales office, by sending a purchase order with order type "D", is expecting you to ship directly to the end customer.  However, on your system, the shipment type must be "W" because you are actually relieving inventory from a warehouse location.

If you are processing a direct distribution order, you will generate at least two copies of the BOL; one is for the sales office to update their records and one is sent (with the goods) to the end customer.  Otherwise, if the shipment is to be sent back to the sales office, you will only send a copy of the BOL (accompanying the shipment) to that location.  For direct ship orders, the BOL that is generated for the PO receipt and the sales order shipment is automatically generated in the sales office when goods are received by the customer from the remote site.  The BOL must be manually created for warehouse ship orders.

BOLs can also be created for up to four parties:  ship-to customers, direct distribution customers, customs authorities, and carriers.  Each of the four recipients can be sent a paper version, electronic version, or both versions of a bill of lading.  Bills of lading created for customs authorities (customs invoices) are an enhanced version of the regular BOL.  It includes extended price information for each shipped line and price totals (by currency).

Outbound Invoices

In MAC-PAC, invoices are always sent from the location that received the order to the location that sent the order, regardless of where the inventory is shipped.  This means that for direct distribution shipments, you cannot send an invoice directly to the end customer; it must be routed through the sales office.  Thus, two separate outbound invoice transactions must occur:  one from your site to the sales office, and one from the sales office to the end customer.

This function consists of determining which invoices paperwork/transactions need to be processed, retrieving the invoice information, and printing the invoice document (via OP540E) and/or formatting the EDI Outbound Invoice Transaction files.  Unless the invoice release code is hold indefinitely, an invoice is printed either upon shipment of the goods or at invoice consolidation).  Invoices can be created either asynchronously or during the daily batch process.  Invoices can be sent to the sales office electronically, in printed form, or both.  When EDI processing is used, the Invoice Document Format field must allow EDI transmission (the value must be "E"-electronic transmission only or "B"-both paper copy and electronic transmission).  Invoices may be regenerated, if necessary.