EDI Glossary
Applications
Computer programs or systems that create or process business documents.
Detail area
The section of a transaction set that contains line item detail (e.g., quantity, price, etc).
Document
One complete business document (e.g., invoice, purchase order, etc.).
EDI standards
A published set of formats produced and controlled by either a national or international organization. Standards ensure EDI documents use the same file format.
Functional acknowledgement
A transaction set, which an EDI receiver returns to the sender to indicate that a transmission has been received and that the content of the transmission has been validated against the EDI standards. Functional acknowledgements have a built-in mechanism to ensure the recipient successfully received everything the sender intended.
Header area
The beginning segments of a transaction set which contain information that applies to all the information in the transaction set (e.g., invoice number, general sender, or receiver data).
Segment
A group of logically related data elements in a defined sequence. Segments have a predetermined segment identifier that comprises the first characters of the segment.
Summary area
The last section in a transaction set that contains summary information.
Trading partners
Business organizations that agree to exchange business documents via EDI.
Transaction set
A group of segments, in a predefined sequence, that provides all the data required to define a complete business transaction. Transaction sets are identified by a three-digit number (e.g., 810 for invoices and 850 for purchase orders).
Transmission
The means by which data is transferred between trading partners, either over a public telecommunications network or via the internet.
Translation
The process of converting business documents from an application format to a standard EDI format for outbound documents and from a standard EDI format to an application format for inbound documents.
Translation software
Dual-purpose software that converts files to or from an EDI format. In the case of outbound documents, an internal application file format is converted into an EDI format. For inbound documents, the EDI format is converted into an internal application file format.
Value-added network (VAN)
A third-party service provider that receives stores and transmits data between trading partners, VANs eliminate the need for compatible communications hardware and protocols.
International standards
The international standard is EDI For Administration Commerce and Transport (EDIFACT), which is used mainly in Europe. EDIFACT is the responsibility of two organizations:
The EDIFACT standard is actually a combination of the ANSI X12 standards and the Trade Data Interchange standards, which were developed in the United Kingdom.
National standards
The national standards, which are used in North America, are controlled by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). ANSI is the recognized coordinator and clearinghouse for information on U.S. and, in some cases, Canadian national standards. ANSI also serves as the North American representative to the International Standards Organization. A group within ANSI, known as the Accredited Standards Committee (ASC), has a subcommittee simply referred to as the X12 subcommittee. The X12 subcommittee is responsible for EDI standards. Their purpose is to:
Element uses the ANSI ASC X12 standards for all of our EDI documents.
EDI standards are published by the Data Interchange Standards Association (DISA), a non-profit corporation that serves as the secretariat for ASC X12. Educational publications and actual EDI standards manuals are available from DISA.
