Audience: Retailers
As a retailer, you can use EDI to pull supplier updates (inventory, shipment, cancellation, invoice) from the Rithum platform and send orders to the platform. Typically, you should only need two automated jobs to enable EDI exchange. The first job is an EDI Import job that handles the import of your orders (850). The second job will handle all of the supplier data you need to receive: inventory (846), order status (870), order acknowledgement (855), shipment (856), and invoice (810) data. The instructions below provide you with the details you need to ensure proper setup and configuration of your EDI exchange.
For additional support with your EDI exchange, please email the Software Support team.
Table of contents
Rithum EDI specification
Rithum currently supports two different versions of EDI. Most trading partners should use the 4010 version, linked below. However, some trading partners may require more information, especially on the 850 Purchase Order file. If you require information such as bill-to, tax, gift indicators, and marketing messages to be included with orders, please reference the 5010 850 version.
Standard version
Rithum supports EDI using the 004010VICS and 005010 versions.
Please note that only the 850 document is supported in the 005010 version. All other documents, including the 4010 version of the 850, are referenced in the 004010VICS version.
Interchange ID
Rithum uses "DSCO" as the interchange ID with a qualifier of "ZZ".
Note: Both the interchange ID and qualifier can be customized to whatever values the retailer would like to see. This can be done by editing the job settings of an EDI Export job on the AUTOMATION page.
Data exchange protocols
SFTP
Rithum supports EDI using SFTP and recommends using SFTP as it is more secure.
Every Rithum account includes an SFTP account that is specific to that account and is not shared with any other. EDI exchange can use the sftp.dsco.io server or you can use your own SFTP server.
For those utilizing the standard Rithum SFTP servers, please be aware of the following:
- Transactions coming from the retailer to the platform need to be placed in the /in directory.
- When the platform processes incoming files, we move the files to the /in/processing directory temporarily, while we process those files, and then we move them to the /in/archive directory once the import has completed.
- Transactions being generated by the platform will be deposited in the /out directory.
- Our servers monitor the /out directory. Upon successful download of any file in that directory, we moves the file(s) to the /out/archive folder where you can access them again if necessary.
Please do not delete the files from the /out directory once you have downloaded them. It is helpful to both parties to have those files available in archive if need be.
AS2
For those requiring a higher level of security, the platform provides access to an AS2 server. The setup and configuration of the AS2 connection is currently manual so please contact our support team to make a request to utilize AS2.
Supported transactions
Rithum supports the following transaction types:
- 846 Inventory Advice
- 850 Purchase Order
- 855 Purchase Order Acknowledgement
- 856 Advanced Ship Notice (ASN)
- 870 Order Status (Cancel)
- 810 Invoice
If you wish to download rich product information, such as product descriptions and images, you can utilize our flat-file exchange using CSV, TAB or Excel formatted files. However, please check with your trading partner as it is possible that they may not be adding that information to Rithum.
ISA control numbers
For incoming EDI transactions, the platform does not require that each transaction have a unique ISA Control Number, but it is best practice, especially in the event that two parties need to research a specific transaction. Rithum does not reject ISA Control Numbers that are not unique.
For outgoing EDI transactions, the platform provides an ISA Control Number that is a sequentially incremented number, starting at 000000001.
Delimiters
Although the platform allows you to configure the following parameters for each individual job, we do utilize the following default settings:
- Segment Terminator: ~ (Decimal Value 126 or HEX 7E)
- Element Separator: * (Decimal Value 42 or HEX 2A)
- Sub-element Separator: > (Decimal Value 62 or HEX 3E)
- Repeat Separator: < (Decimal Value 60 or HEX 3C)
You can also choose your own own terminators and separators if you wish. From the table on this website, the platform supports characters 1-126: https://www.ascii-code.com/.
For incoming EDI transactions, the platform automatically detects the characters above as the EDI specification dictates that the Element Separator be the 104th character, the Sub-element Separator be the 105th character, and the Segment Terminator be the 106th character.
997 (FA) Acknowledgements
The platform does not require that you return a 997 for each transaction that we send you, but it is considered best practice to do so and we encourage you to follow best practice.
When setting up an incoming EDI import job, you have the option of setting the "Generate 997 Flag" option. Selecting this option instructs the platform to return a 997 for every incoming EDI transaction. If that option is not selected, the platform will not return the 997. All 997 documents we generate are deposited on our SFTP within the "/out" directory. The platform does not currently support the generation of 997 documents that need to be delivered to external destinations.
When processing the incoming EDI transactions, the platform records the "Sender" and "Receiver" IDs and qualifiers that were provided and switches them in order to generate the 997s. Because the platform also automatically detects the segment terminator, element separator, sub-element separator and standard version, we use those same characters within the 997s.
Comments
Please sign in to leave a comment.