EDI Trading Partner Integration Suite

The problem

EDI is not a technology decision. When a big-box retailer, a grocery chain or a distribution hub onboards you, their vendor compliance manual states which documents you must exchange, in which envelope, within which time window, and what the chargeback is when you get it wrong. There is no opt-out. Missing an ASN window, sending a UCC-128 label that does not scan, or invoicing on a purchase order line that was changed by an 860 all cost money directly, and repeated failures cost the account.

Meanwhile SAP Business One has no idea any of this exists. So the compliance burden lands on a person: someone downloads the 850 from a portal, reads it, keys a Sales Order, remembers to send an acknowledgement, builds the ASN by hand after the truck is loaded, and hopes the invoice matches. That works until volume rises or that person takes leave.

What ECOSIRE builds

ECOSIRE builds a per-tenant SAP Business One EDI add-on: a translation and transport layer plus SAP B1 document automation, built to the specific maps and compliance rules of your specific trading partners. EDI is not a generic product — every retailer's 850 differs in qualifiers, segments, allowances and label requirements. This is built to order against the actual specifications you have been issued.

Inbound purchase orders (850) and changes (860)

Inbound 850s are parsed and validated against the partner map, then posted into SAP B1 as Sales Orders through the Service Layer. Partner item numbers, UPC/GTINs and your item codes are reconciled through a cross-reference table; a line that cannot be resolved is held for human decision rather than silently guessed. Ship-to locations map to Business Partner addresses or ship-to codes. Requested ship and cancel dates land on the document. Purchase order changes (860) either update the open Sales Order or raise an exception where the change is not safely applicable — for example, when the line is already picked.

Functional acknowledgements (997) and PO acknowledgements (855)

997s are generated automatically on receipt and inbound 997s are reconciled against what you sent, so an unacknowledged transmission is visible instead of assumed delivered. 855 acknowledgements are generated from the SAP B1 Sales Order — accepted, accepted with changes, or rejected at line level — using the acknowledgement codes the partner's specification demands.

Advance ship notices (856) and labels

The 856 is where most chargebacks originate, because it must describe the physical hierarchy of the shipment accurately: shipment, order, pack, item. The suite builds the ASN from the SAP B1 Delivery and its carton data, generating SSCC-18 numbers and the corresponding UCC-128/GS1-128 labels. Where you run the ECOSIRE warehouse suite or another carton-level pack process, the hierarchy comes from real scanned cartons; where you do not, we scope how pack structure is captured. ASN send timing can be tied to the delivery posting or to a carrier pickup event, so the partner's transmission window is respected.

Invoices (810) and remittance (820)

810s are generated from the SAP B1 A/R Invoice, carrying the partner's required allowance and charge codes, terms, and the purchase order reference exactly as it arrived on the 850 — mismatches here are a leading cause of deductions. Inbound 820 remittance advice is parsed and matched to open invoices, with the deduction reason codes surfaced so your credit control team can dispute rather than absorb.

Inventory and catalogue documents

Where the partner requires them, the suite handles 846 inventory advice generated from SAP B1 warehouse stock, 852 product activity reports inbound, and 832 price/sales catalogue outbound from your item master and price list.

Transport and envelopes

The suite handles ANSI X12 and EDIFACT structures with correct ISA/GS/ST and UNB/UNH envelope handling, control number sequencing, and duplicate detection. Transport options — AS2, SFTP, FTPS, or a VAN mailbox — are configured to what each partner uses. Control numbers, envelope IDs and qualifiers are held per partner in configuration, not in code.

Compliance visibility and error handling

A UDO-based console inside the SAP B1 client shows every document by partner and status: received, translated, posted, acknowledged, failed. Failures show the raw EDI, the parse result and the Service Layer response, with reprocess-after-fix. Documents that must be sent within a window raise alerts before the window closes, not after. Every SAP B1 marketing document carries UDFs recording the partner ID, the interchange and group control numbers, and the original purchase order number so audit and dispute resolution are queries rather than archaeology.

Who it is for

Distributors, manufacturers and CPG suppliers on SAP Business One 10.0 who sell into retailers or distribution hubs that mandate EDI, and who are currently keying documents from a web portal or paying per-document fees to a service bureau while still doing the SAP B1 data entry by hand.

How delivery works

1. Scoping call. We go through each trading partner's vendor compliance manual and EDI specification, the document set required, the transport method, your item cross-reference situation, and how pack structure is captured today. You get a written scope, per partner, listing every document and every mapping rule. 2. Fixed quote. Priced for the agreed partner and document set. Additional partners or documents are quoted as increments — you always know what a new retailer costs before you sign them. 3. Build. Developed against the SAP Business One Service Layer and DI API, with UDFs, UDTs and UDOs created by a scripted installer. 4. Install into your test company, then partner testing. The add-on goes into your test company database and we run your partner's test transmissions and certification cycle with you. Retailer certification timelines are set by the retailer, and we tell you that up front. 5. Production install. Once certified, we install into production, configure live transport credentials and control numbers, and monitor the first live exchanges. 6. Support window. A defect-fix support window follows go-live.

Typical build and delivery is one working week from signed scope for a first partner with a standard document set. Partner-side certification runs on the retailer's schedule and sits outside that window.