How Does EDI Facilitate Business Document Exchange?
EDI – Electronic Data Interchange is a well-established protocol of business data exchange, which has become more and more widespread in recent years among businesses of all sizes and various industries.
Through EDI, companies can exchange business documents that were traditionally communicated on paper or by e-mail.
By replacing the exchange of paper or e-mail documents with EDI, companies save time and eliminate manual data processing, which often leads to errors and costly delays in all business processes.
Companies today use EDI to send all kinds of documents, from orders and invoices to motor carrier load tenders, customs manifests, and more.
The exchange of EDI takes place between business partners who exchange goods or services.
All EDI transactions comply with standards developed and maintained by several organizations, including UN/CEFACT, X12, ODETTE, GS1, Peppol, and others.
However, despite uniform standards, each industry can use a certain set of specific EDI transactions. Below, we provide some examples of EDI documents for specific industries.
USEFUL: A complete list of documents that can be exchanged via EDI
EDI for Transportation and Logistics Industries
The Transportation industry actively uses EDI and, in addition to standard transactions, this industry use sets of specific EDI documents.
The transport industry includes a huge variety of different types of transportation. It includes marine, air, rail, and motor freight. Accordingly, the EDI transactions used for example, in rail transportation will differ from those used by motor freight.
The Most Used EDI Transactions for Transportation and Logistics
- EDI 104 – Air Shipment Information
- EDI 109 – Vessel Content Details
- EDI 110 – Air Freight Details and Invoice
- EDI 204 – Motor Carrier Load Tender
- EDI 210 – Motor Carrier Freight Details and Invoice
- EDI 211 – Motor Carrier Bill Of Lading
- EDI 212 – Motor Carrier Delivery Trailer Manifest
- EDI 213 – Motor Carrier Shipment Status Inquiry
- EDI 214 – Transportation Carrier Shipment Status Message
- EDI 215 – Motor Carrier Pickup Manifest
- EDI 216 – Motor Carrier Shipment Pickup Notification
- EDI 217 – Motor Carrier Loading And Route Guide
- EDI 990 – Response to a Load Tender
- EDI 404 – Rail Carrier Shipment Information
- EDI 410 – Rail Carrier Freight Details And Invoice
USEFUL: You can find a complete list of EDI transportation codes in our article “EDI Integration for Transportation and Logistics”
EDI for the Supply Chain Industry
The supply chain industry includes many processes such as distribution, inventory, purchasing, production planning, sales, supply chain planning, interaction with trading partners and warehouses.
The use of EDI in the supply chain allows the company to quickly exchange documents electronically with all suppliers, exchange prices and catalogs, track information on shipments and acceptance of goods. EDI allows to make the supply chain as transparent and efficient as possible, receiving up-to-date data on the movement of goods and funds in real-time.
USEFUL: EDI for Third-Party Logistics providers (3PL)
EDI Transactions for Supply Chain
Here are some of the most common EDI documents in the supply chain:
- EDI 810 – Invoice
- EDI 846 – Inventory Status
- EDI 850 – Purchase Order
- EDI 856 – Ship Notice/Manifest
- EDI 855 – Purchase Order Acknowledgment
- EDI 820 – Payment Order/Remittance Advice
- EDI 753 – Request For Routing Instructions
- EDI 754 – Routing Instructions
- EDI 816 – Organizational Relationships
- EDI 830 – Planning Schedule With Release Capability
To learn more about the use of EDI in the supply chain, read our article: Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) in the Supply Chain It covers the following questions:
– What is EDI?
– Why use EDI in the supply chain?
– How does EDI work?
– Typical EDI workflow process
– Additional and specific types of EDI messages
– Benefits of EDI for Supply Chain Management
– Effective EDI Solution for Supply Chain
EDI for HealthCare and Insurance Industries
EDI is of great value to healthcare organizations because it provides a secure way to electronically exchange sensitive information.
The healthcare industry includes health insurance activities, which are carried out by both commercial and public health organizations.
Most Common EDI Transaction Sets in HealthCare
- HIPAA / X12 270 – Eligibility, Coverage, or Benefit Inquiry
- HIPAA / X12 271 – Eligibility, Coverage, or Benefit Response
- HIPAA / X12 276 – Healthcare Claim Status Request
- HIPAA / X12 277 – Health Care Claim Status Response
- HIPAA / X12 837 – Health Care Claim (Professional, Institutional, and Dental)
- HIPAA / X12 999 – Implementation Acknowledgment
- EDI 273 – Insurance/Annuity Application Status
- EDI 274 – Healthcare Provider Information
- EDI 275 – Patient Information
- EDI 834 – Benefit Enrollment And Maintenance
- EDI 835 – Health Care Claim Payment/Advice
- EDI 852 – Product Activity Data (to exchange information between Manufacturers and Pharmacies)
- EDI 999 – Implementation Acknowledgment (for Health Care Insurance)
To learn more about EDI in healthcare, please read this article: All you need to know about HIPAA EDI compliance in Healthcare
EDI for the Retail Industry
The Retail Industry is a pioneer in the implementation of EDI. Large retailers are actively automating business processes and introducing new information technology solutions to reduce costs and increase sales.
Thus, the use of EDI in retail is a must. Since large retail companies have a huge number of suppliers, they have to exchange thousands of documents every month. It is simply impossible to go through so much documentation manually.
The Most Used EDI Documents in the Retail
- EDI 810 – Invoice
- EDI 820 – Payment Order/Remittance Advice
- EDI 832 – Price/Sales Catalog
- EDI 846 – Inventory Inquiry/ Advice
- EDI 850 – Purchase Order
- EDI 852 – Product Activity Data
- EDI 855 – Purchase Order Acknowledgment
- EDI 856 – Ship Notice/Manifest
- EDI 861 – Receiving Advice/Acceptance Certificate
The use of EDI in retail offers many benefits, ranging from savings in paperwork and avoiding manual data entry errors, to reducing transport and logistics costs and increasing company profits.
If you want to learn more about the use of EDI in retail, please read this article: The Top 6 EDI Documents for Retail Suppliers
Conclusion: EDI for Specific Industries
In this article, we explored the use of electronic data interchange in some industries, however, if you have any questions regarding EDI, you can always contact us for a free initial consultation.
Our more than 21 years of experience in the implementation of EDI for various industries allows us to offer our customers the most profitable and effective EDI solutions.
