EDI channels

In this procedure you create EDI EDI is the acronym of Electronic Data Interchange. EDI is about exchanging electronic business documents with your business partners, e.g. customers and suppliers. The EDI concept can be wide and a bit unclear, and can many times be used about all types of documents which are sent electronically, even if it might be PDF files sent via e-mail or publishing business documents on a website. What we refer to as EDI – and what is traditionally meant by EDI – is structured business documents following given standards, electronically sent or received and which are compiled and interpreted automatically and that is integrated with the customer's/supplier's ERP system. channels for import and export of EDI transactions. Here you enter from where (source) the import files should be loaded, when (schedule) this should take place, and which format the file is expected to have. The same applies to export. You enter where (target) you want to export, when (schedule) this should take place, and which format the exported file should have.

An EDI channel must consist of a Format, Source, or Target (depending on the direction which can be import or export) A channel can also be linked to a Schedule if you want to import and export automatically.

Sources and targets are first created under each tab. These can be of the following types: Directory, FTP, or SFTP. For import(of for example customer orders), you must use a source to enter from where you want to load the files. For export, you must use a target to enter a destination for the files that should be exported. An EDI channel for export always has Monitor ERP as the source. An EDI channel for import always has Monitor ERP as the target.

Schedules are created under the Schedules tab. You can choose to link a schedule to one or more channels.

By default, an EDI channel is configured so that the imported or exported transactions remain for 120 days. Under the Channels tab you can in the Save transactions column enter another number of days, if needed. Transactions that are older than the entered value will be automatically deleted at 3:00 AM every night. If the Monitor ERP server is not started at that point, the records will be deleted as soon as the Monitor ERP server is started again.

The EDI channels are combined with EDI behaviors and thereby form EDI configurations. These are created in the EDI behaviorsprocedure and EDI configurations procedure.

A check is made to make sure that the sources and targets which are added in a channel are validated. That is, that the source or target exists and is accessible with read and write permission. If a source or a target has not been validated, a warning appears . Then you cannot set the channel as active.

Under the Cross references tab you can create cross references for different transaction types. A transaction type (business document) contains different data with codes for which you can create cross references. You cross reference codes in Monitor ERP with codes used in EDI messages. These are for example codes used for currency, delivery method, delivery terms, part unit on rows. You can for example cross reference units, which means you link "pcs" to "items".

It is quite common for suppliers, especially within the motor industry, to receive delivery schedules from their customers containing parts not intended for them or for parts that are no longer being produced. Every time a new delivery schedule is imported containing such parts, the supplier must manually create an exception for the part. To avoid this, you can create a Skip lists for parts in this procedure instead. In the EDI behaviors procedure, you can then link the list to a behavior. By doing so, parts can then be added to the skip list under the Delivery schedules tab in the Manage EDI transactions procedure. This means that you no longer need to manually skip these parts when importing.