How to Fix EDI Errors and Avoid Fines

How to Fix EDI Erros and Avoid Fines 
 

[00:00:00] Peter Spaulding: Today we're going to be talking about, how to fix, EDI errors and avoid fines. Basically just some really high level EDI stuff for retail suppliers. there, there isn't going to be a Walmart bias. I don't think, I'm trying to remember because I made this deck. There won't be a Walmart bias, but we love talking about Walmart for, specific soap. 
 

stay tuned for some of that, but this should be helpful really for any kind of with whatever retailer team you're on or whatever retailer you're working with. this should be pretty universal. All right, so we are the, on the SupplierWiki side. We have Ali and myself here today. We're pretty regulars. 
 

We're,we're regulars on these webinars, so if you've been here before, you probably, are tired of hearing our voices by now. and then we also have Morgan Asplund from SPS on here, and she'll be, she'll come back to join us at the end for the Q& A,section because she's got that subject matter expertise that, and experience with EDI that, we at SupplyPike need. 
 

Don't have as much of. So a little bit more detail about what we're going to be getting into. Now, we're going to start with a high level introduction to EDI that we'll,be cruising through. We're assuming most of you are pretty familiar with some of that stuff, and then we'll be getting into EDI setup, which is reallya lot of the meat and bones, of what we're going to be talking about today. 
 

Very fundamental stuff. Then we're going to look at some common EDI errors and EDI best practices, really just. Ways to avoid the worst when it comes to things that can go wrong for your kind of retail business when it comes to EDI. And then we've got that Q& A that we were talking about after that. Some FAQs. 
 

People always want to know if they're going to get a copy of the slide deck. You will get a copy of the slide deck in three to four business days. You're also going to get a recording or a link to the recording. It'll be sent to whichever email signed up for the webinar, so look for it there. But we also have all of our slide decks and all of our webinar recordings on our website too. 
 

SupplierWiki. SupplyPike. com, you can go there and check it out. We also have a YouTube page for SupplyPike that all of our webinars live on as well. pretty accessible, after the fact, but just watch out for that in your inbox. It'll probably be the easiest way to get access to that. 
 

And then, we've been talking about the questions a lot already. We have two basic ways of communicating with us in these webinars. The one is the chat, which a lot of you are familiar with already. I got another shout from Gina who said that she loves green bean casserole, but she makes it from scratch. 
 

So we got, we have a shout for the more artisanal green bean casserole as well, which is great. So the chat is for any kind of public discourse. sometimes we will ask y'all questions and we want to get your feedback on something. That's what the chat is for. And then the Q& A is for the more formal kind of business EDI questions that you guys have. 
 

For some of you, if you have or have not updated Zoom, recently, that might be under the more section. So you might have to click more before you can see the Q& A, but it's probably there in the bottom bar for most of you. So yeah, there's that. I wanted to talk a little bit about SupplyPike. We talked a little bit about SPS already as well. 
 

SupplyPike is basically, we got our start doing AP deductions, helping to automate that process for suppliers. How can we organize all the shipping documents to make validity checks on deductions go really smoothly, and then eventually disputing go really smoothly as well. And we've been expanding into a lot of retailers recently as well. 
 

So these are a bunch of our partners. We always like to say, if you don't see your logo up here, we'd love to see it up there someday and partner with you in the future. but if you're just here to learn about EDI, that's fine too. And SupplierWiki is the team that we are on. So our job is to basically help. 
 

We're here to help educate suppliers in, in as many different areas of their world as possible to make their work, smooth and to help them, iron out all of the different kinks in the supply chain. So we've got some of our, this is a, a Walmart themed slide, but we have a bunch of resources and a bunch of different retailers. 
 

We've got a lot of eBooks and cheat sheets, which is what's being featured here on this slide, but we also have a ton of articles. a lot of other webinars and, and other resources as well, on our website. So we highly recommend that you go check those out. if you like what you see here today and take it away, Allie. 
 

[00:04:32] Allie Truong: Awesome. Thank you, Peter. Two quick things before we get into today's content. Like Peter said, we have a lot of content. Peter's going to be sharing that throughout. I'll be referencing some things because we are going to talk about EDI. We're also going to talk about the errors that occur if you haven't seen to set your EDA up correctly or don't have full visibility into what that looks like with particular retailers. 
 

So Peter will be sharing those in the chat. Be sure to look at those. As well as I want to call out that SupplyPike is now a part of SPS. We're really excited to join forces with SPS. And this is a great webinar to start talking about that since SPS does have, products for EDI, as well as, SupplyPike helps suppliers, dispute their deductions. 
 

So this will be really fun to get into, and if you do have questions, we'll be answering them at the end, both myself, Peter, and Morgan. So with that, let's get into EDI. So before we start, this is really just a level setting. We do have, on our webinars some veteran suppliers who have been in the supply chain or CPG world for years. 
 

And then we do have new suppliers who have just taken their first job at a, CPG company or budding new businesses that have maybe one SKU. in a retailer that we may mention. So we're going to cover the basics and then we'll start expounding upon those. So what does EDI stand for? The first thing in the CPG world that you'll realize is that there's a lot of jargon and a lot of acronyms. 
 

One that's really consistent across any retailer that you're working with is EDI and that stands for electronic data. Exchange, or Interchange, excuse me. And that's essentially just a cross company exchange of business transactions in a standard format. So the way I like to think about it, if you're not super tech focused, it's really just if you were mailing back and forth, but it's automated, it's standardized into the format, so machines essentially can read what you're putting in your, in the context of your EDI documents. 
 

So EDI is that actual system that facilitates that exchange of those electronic documents. And we're going to talk today about purchase orders, about ASNs or Advanced Shipment Notices and Invoices without human intervention. And one thing to call out about EDI is it's been around for a while. It's been around, I believe, since about the 1960s, and it's not solely used just by the supply chain or suppliers and retailers in that specific industry. 
 

It's been used by the military, it's been used by medical industries, banking, auto, and it's currently still being used. I know we're in the world, the digital age, of a lot of fast moving tech and AI, but EDI is one of those, tech Innovations that has been constant in our global economy. 
 

So really cool to see. What are the benefits of EDI? Sounds cool, Allie. It can exchange information, but what does it actually do for my business? it can really help transform the efficiency across your business, not only in shipping, but. in every step of the supply chain because it helps increase the reach of goods because you're using one standardized language within, the retailers that you're talking to or any other systems like warehouses or, systems with your 3PLs. 
 

It's really important. I like to think about it. if you were going into a meeting with accountants, I'm not an accountant, but they have a very specialized language. EDI is very similar. It's the language where businesses can talk between each other. And so if you don't have that, it's going to be really hard to talk with other businesses and expand your business and ultimately reach your end customer. 
 

Other benefits of EDI are eliminating manual work of having to actually send something. Can you imagine if your company had to manually send an email every time you had a purchase order or wanted to release an invoice or had to send an ASN? You would, that would be your full time job and you would be working around the clock. 
 

So it helps with those manual processes, it cuts down those order processing costs so you're not actually Paying someone to manually send all of those. It's much more simple and it's accurate. So it leaves less room for error. EDI can essentially pull the information that it needs in those different slots of the information that each type of EDI pulls, and then it can send that over. 
 

and it also has checks and balances essentially that allow you to see if there is something that wasn't received or something that was rejected, which we'll get into. It can help improve cycle time, it can also notify customers of shipping changes, and we'll talk about that as well as we get into the specific types of EDI that you are able to use. 
 

you know what EDI is, you know that you, that it's beneficial to suppliers, but what does it mean to actually be EDI capable? that's a term in the industry that means you are actually, you can send EDI, it goes through, It's not erroring out, and that you're sending it in the correct format for the particular person that you're talking to. 
 

Kind of need to use the analogy that I used earlier. If we were using the same language as the business that we are working with, imagine sending a letter to a person. to someone and it was in a language that you don't speak, be really hard for them to understand what you're wanting them to do and for them to respond in an accurate and timely manner. 
 

It's the same with EDI. To be EDI capable with, let's say Walmart. I'm going to use them since that's. The retailer that we use the most. If you're sending Walmart information and they can't read it, their internal systems can't read it, they have to process it manually, it's going to create a lot of errors and I'm foreshadowing to what we're talking about in today's presentation later on. 
 

So how do I become EDI capable if I'm a supplier? There's two options or two paths that you can take down and we're going to talk about those two options in an unbiased way here. So there's in house, and that's you as a supplier, your company is either purchasing software or you're building something and you're operating that internally and saying, hey, I want to manage our EDI. 
 

I want to be in charge of that full service and all the capabilities that go into that. And Morgan can expound upon that in the Q& A if you want to ask her some questions. And then there's also outsourced. And that's when a third party Like SPS or other providers, provides the entire service and helps you set up that EDI and manage it being flowing through, being accurate, and not having any roadblocks. 
 

Okay, so what are the pros and cons of in house EDI? First pro is you have complete control over your EDI processes and trading partners. You are the master of your ship. You can decide how you want to run that. but the con can be on the other side, you, the buck stops with you and that means you need to be monitoring and maintaining that information. 
 

You need to stay up to date on EDI requirements and changes, and you need to have a team that is capable to support that in house. So,Some of the other pros, just to bounce back to that side, is the ability to customize and quickly respond to different requests. So like I said, you're in charge of it, you're the master of your EDI processes and making sure that is running smoothly and being transmitted correctly with all of your partners, but that can also be a con if you just don't have the infrastructure and resources and human capital to then 
 

And then, Outsourced EDI. There's pros and cons for both. You don't have to worry about operating technology. if you know nothing about EDI, maybe this is the one for you. your EDI provider can handle some of your trading partner's special requests. Because, as we get into today, I'll foreshadow a little bit more. 
 

Each retailer or each trading partner that you're working with may have specific requirements. Typically, there's a standardization across. The retailers that you're working with, but once you get into the nitty gritty details, there can be different things depending on the retailer you're working with, the category you're in, what type of supplier you are, et cetera, that may change some of these as you go to different retailers. 
 

And then the last pro is, EDI providers have teams of experts so you don't have to know the ins and outs. You can stay at a high level of understanding what EDI is and how it functions within your business, but then you can go focus on the expertise that you have. Some of the cons, depending on who you're working with outsourcing EDI, is having the ability to trust your provider with the control over your EDI compliance and making sure that you're in step and understanding what they're working on and that they, are completely up to date and compliant with the changes or updates with your trading partners. 
 

There's always a cost to outsourcing anything, so you want to consider that as you're looking at the line items within what are the expenses of running your business. And then there's different levels of outsourcing your EDI, and if you're not aware of That could be an issue if you have varying expectations or there's varying expectations of what's supposed to be done across your team or your organization. 
 

So there's managed services versus full services. And again, that's just going to be the product offerings with whoever you're working with. And that's the conversations for the teams that you're working with and the companies that you're looking at to help with outsourcing your EDI. All right. So here's a very basic checklist. 
 

Again, We can go over this in more detail if people have questions, but here are some of the things from the suppliers that we work with at SupplyPike that they ask themselves when choosing an EDI provider, asking if they're customer focused and responsive, if there's other companies that trust, the particular provider with their EDI operations, how quickly they can onboard new partners, you don't want a EDI connection to be The roadblock of getting into a retail partner and selling to your end customer. 
 

Can they, their solution grow with your business if you expand into other partners? Do they have some of the retailers that you're interested in expanding into if you're not already in them? And then what tools can their software integrate to help streamline your processes? All right, and then we're going to talk a little bit about EDI capability and AS2 certification, which is going to tie into the conversation we've been having about being EDI capable. 
 

if you're a smaller company, you may not be aware of this, but many suppliers at major retailers are required to have EDI capability. That is essentially just a standard called Application Standard 2, certified, and that's essentially saying, hey, the data that you're going to be sending through EDI is going to be secure and it's going to be accurate. 
 

so most of the major retailers like Walmart, Target, Amazon are going to require a certification. So if you do choose to do in house EDI, saying, hey, I want to run this, I want to be the master of my own EDI ship here, then Walmart, Target, Amazon, other retailers, just depending on who you're looking at going into, require certification. 
 

And EDI. that says, Hey, yes, this ED, this retailer, or I'm sorry, this CPG company, this supplier is certified. They do send information accurately. All of the EDIs that they are sending, are going through correctly. and the data is accurate and secure. So that's just really a one time check that needs to happen or depending if that retailer has, different requirements. 
 

and making sure that you're able to send that information over, and continue to work with them as a partner. All right, now we're going to get into the common EDI codes in retail. Now, I'm only going to cover, and I'll get into this slide, the four on the side that are bolded, so Purchase Orders, Invoices, Application Advice, and then Functional Acknowledgement, and then I'll also cover Advanced Shipment Notices. 
 

We added that one in as well, but If you're not familiar with EDI, there are hundreds of codes that are attached to EDI. With that, you, it's difficult to memorize them. the ones I would memorize are the ones that I have bolded here, as well as advanced shipment notices. So knowing those numbers and familiarizing what information is attached to those. 
 

However, SupplierWiki does have a EDI cheat sheet where we've listed out. Almost every, I think it's over 200 different EDI codes that you can go reference and understand what those are. So go and check that out. Peter will send that in the chat as well. All right, let's get into what these EDI codes are and talk through them here. 
 

So Actually, I wanna go back, just to make sure I'm clear. You'll see that there's, with purchase orders, you've got EDI eight 50 and 8 75. Some of you may not be aware of 8 75. That's probably 'cause you're not considered a grocery supplier. So 8 75 and eight 80 are for grocery suppliers specifically. And that really just ties to making sure that they have all the information, for freshness and essentially specifics that are gonna be related to food or produce. 
 

as I'm referring to EDI 850, you can think about, EDI 875 as well.this is the bread and butter, one of the most common, EDI codes or documents that is sent. And this transi this transaction documents, the materials requested by the buyer, which would be the merchant or retailer, in this case. 
 

And it's going to contain things like your item description, your UPC item code or case code, unit prices, payment terms, discounts, and requested delivery dates. One moment. 
 

Allergy season. so this information is really important to have accurate. I'm going to foreshadow to some of the conversations that we'll have towards the end, but if this data is incorrect, it's going to cause a whole world of pain on the other side when you are. Having that EDI transfer, and then maybe there's a shortage later, or an overage, etc. 
 

All right, now let's move on to EDI 855. Again, this is going to be similar to, if we go back to, oh, I'm sorry, I spoke out of turn. This is the purchase order acknowledgement. This is the document that is essentially just saying the seller is acknowledging that there has been a buyer's purchase order. And the benefit of that is the customer is more likely to buy knowing that they will receive the correct quantity on time. 
 

So it's just saying, Hey, yes, we can supply this. We have, we're going to be creating an order. Uh,we're going to be creating an order. and then we'll notify you once that's created. So it's really these just checks. between the two parties as the process is happening, so no one's left in the dark, and allows you to then trigger sending other EDIs and triggering other actions like sending the actual product, sending a truck, so it allows the whole process to move seamlessly if things are updated correctly and being transferred correctly. 
 

All right, EDI 810 is that invoice that is when you get paid, or right after that is the signal to get paid. And that is going to be helpful for ensuring that you're paid and that you have the correct, services or items that are connected to that, and the payment terms as well as the amount that you're expected to be paid on those items. 
 

extremely important. This is a document to, especially in our world, of disputing, and recovering fines to have on hand, if you're going back and disputing AP deductions that are saying, hey, you never shipped any of the, goods that are available, you can send this over and, That's a easy way to attach for proof documentation. 
 

Alright, we're going to talk about ASNs here. We're going to spend some time on ASNs. Excuse me. so ASNs, this is another acronym. It stands for Advanced Shipment Notice or Advanced Ship Notice. And it's very commonly used in the retail industry. And really is important, especially for, Amazon and Walmart. 
 

Use these pretty regularly as well. And this communicates the contents of the shipment to the buyer saying, Hey, we got your note that you want this information. We're sending this over. This is the carrier that's going to be delivering this. This is the products and their quantities that is coming to you. 
 

These are the purchase order numbers, so this is going to be tied to what you've sent over on what you wanted to purchase. It's going to have the barcodes of each container and carton, types of packaging used, and then the configuration. So it's really outlining so they know exactly what they're going to be receiving and can set up their receivable process correctly for this incoming shipment. 
 

All right. And then EDI 997 is that functional acknowledgement. And that is going to be saying, Hey, I'm going to accept this group of transactions. It's just to get essentially a thumbs up saying, Hey, I know that this is, what's coming. I agree with this. And this can be something used, specifically in Walmart's program, Supplier Quality Excellence. 
 

If an EDI 997 has been sent from Walmart to the supplier confirming the receipt of the ASN, it can be used as a, to file a dispute for the fines related to not having an ASN. So these can be helpful for other transactions, but that's something we've seen with suppliers that we're working with when it comes to dealing with the fines that are attached to the Supplier Quality Excellence Program with ASN not issued or ASN issued late. 
 

one call out, I know we said we were going to be Walmart biased, but we do have some timely information about the ASN validation. Recently, Walmart changed this process at, their compliance level. with the SQEP program, the Supplier Quality Excellence Program, We actually have an article documenting exactly what happened with this and how suppliers need to adjust, but you can also find this particular image, and some of the documentation that Walmart released at, in Retail Inc., 
 

in the Supplier Academy and in their quick learning for ASN shipment notices. All right, so I foreshadowed a little bit about how you can and, use those particular EDI documents to, RespondToFinds, but the most important thing before responding to finds or using those documents. In disputes is learning how to avoid those common EDI errors that may actually trigger some of the deductions or compliance fines that you may see at particular retailers. 
 

So what does that look like? What are the EDI errors and what can happen if EDI is set up incorrectly or it's not sent through and then not addressed correctly? It can result in misorders, obviously, if you send a purchase order incorrectly, you're going to have a missed order, or maybe a delayed payment. 
 

And that can be to a purchase order not being sent through, or there being a snag in that particular supply chain. Or it could be that your invoice information was sent over incorrectly or didn't send at all, and that's why you're seeing a delayed payment. It can also result in damaged relationships. 
 

EDI typically is one of those building blocks to working with larger retailers. If you can't communicate with them on the level of automation when it comes to sending EDI documents, you're really going to be far behind other suppliers.CPGs that are working with whoever your retailer partner is, because that is the language to submit orders, to receive payment, etc. 
 

There can also be issues with inventory shipments arriving at the warehouse. a very common issue that we've seen, with suppliers, and I'll probably reference this several times, is shortages and overages. So if you have the incorrect information, or it's not being sent through, you could see a overage at 1 DC, where for some reason the information was transferred incorrectly, where they got more product, and the DC that has zero product, and you're seeing a code 25, or just whatever the particular code is for that retailer, where they have no product. 
 

inventory at all, you may see the disparity lining up and it could be tied right back to your EDI documents are not transmitting correctly or there's errors on those documents. So that's on one scale. We're talking about one maybe PO where that's happening or one instance. But as your business grows, there's the potential for costly EDI errors. 
 

So if it's happening on one, you're sending EDI. a hundred a day, you're going to see that reflected in your deductions and compliance funds. All right. So here's the typical EDI flow. We've already covered this. We talked about, which EDI document triggers that flow. And then we're going to talk a little bit about how it can start to break down. 
 

So first you're going to receive a P. O. from that retailer. Then the vendor is going to send an invoice. And an ASN to the retailer saying, Hey, this is what you're going to owe me for this. And here's what's coming to you. depending on shipping, you may, have different, a different situation if you are collect. 
 

But if you're prepaid, then the vendor is going to send the documents to 3Peels and the logistics team. So those, same EDI documents. The same information is going to be transmitted to whoever's picking that up, so they know what they're picking up, what's the quantity, how should it be loaded into the truck, and where is it going. 
 

And then the retailer can then send credit or debit adjustments, meaning they're paying that full invoice because they said, yes, we got all the inventory, we're very happy, we love that you sent us all the stuff that we're supposed to have on this order. Or they can say, Hey, you sent us 80 of the 100 cases that we were planning to, so I'm only paying you for 80, and I'm going to deduct 20 of those cases from this invoice. 
 

The retailer can send a memo that includes some of those remittance details, and then the retailer will then notify the vendor of any errors through that process. And that can happen at any point, but if there are any errors, in compliance, or SQEP, or, a, an AP deduction program, then you might see those coming at the end, in whatever cycle those, deduction or revenue loss programs are going to be then dispersing those fines. 
 

All right, so I've talked through some of these, so I'm going to be a little bit quicker pace here, but I'll expound on ones we haven't covered. So some of the common chargebacks that we see for suppliers connected to EDI include short shipping, and I've already talked about that one a little bit, pricing discrepancies, invoice errors, and then advanced shipment notification errors. 
 

Typically what we see is Here are the root causes. Your item data is wrong. So you've set it up in the system and maybe, you were supposed to have a new price on this item. You didn't set it up in whatever the item setup application is for that retailer. And so it's transmitting at a different price and the retailer is going to ding you for that in the form of a fine. 
 

Invoice errors, either you don't have your EDI set up correctly. you maybe you're managing it in house or you're working with a third party and they have an issue, but. It's creating invoice errors. You're not getting paid correctly. and Walmart's going to ding you for that or any other retailer. If your payment terms aren't matching up, maybe you're not applying an allowance, et cetera. 
 

And then advanced shipment notice errors. So I like to think of advanced shipment notices as almost a textbook where somebody comes over to your house. Hey, I'm on my way. I'm bringing this. This is what I'm planning on doing. If you don't send those and the retailer, Receives your product. You're not, the receivable process is going to be a much more manual because these DCs are set up to receive things, in an exact order and we're going to add an exact window depending on who you're shipping with. 
 

then they expect to receive you at some time. They want to have, whatever is needed for your particular product or the truckload or the 3PL that is shipping that for you. So sending that ahead of time, you're going to get dinged for those fines as well. So you want to make sure you are able to send that ASN, that it goes through and that you're getting a functional acknowledgement from that as well. 
 

All right. So here are some of the related documents. and again, these are the ones that can provide you with documentation to do validity checks, dispute fines, chargebacks, and deductions. I'll add an asterisk here. When it comes to disputing, wherever you are, whatever retailer, whatever type of program, whether it's compliance or deduction, whether it's fraud, Pricing discrepancies or short shipping. 
 

Mileage may vary. You want to make sure that you're digging into that particular claim, that particular dispute, understanding what's the issue, and then referencing these documents as needed. But these are the ones we see tied to most suppliers disputes, depending on the situation that's going on. So for short shipping, you may see an EDI 850 or 875, that's the PO. 
 

For ASMs, you could use the 850. it's the 8, 5, 5 6, and then invoices are those EDI 8 10.and then pricing discrepancies, very similar to what I mentioned before, besides the one that I have not mentioned and we haven't talked about today, is the price information EDI 8 7 9. For invoice errors, obviously the invoice is something that could be helpful to attach to the dispute, as well as the functional acknowledgement. 
 

and then for ASN errors, obviously the ASN attaching that as proof documentation or the purchase order as well. And reminder guys, you don't have to write all this down or take a screenshot unless you want. because we're going to be sending this deck and the recording out to you after today's webinar. 
 

All right, the reason we're spending more on time on the application device is we have seen errors and this being a root cause for some deductions for suppliers we work on, work with, excuse me. So once a successful 997, so that's that functional acknowledgement, is received from a retailer, you would want to keep an eye out as the supplier for an EDI 824 application device. 
 

And that's essentially indicating that there is an error with the content, of the ASN. And that's going to be a trigger to say, let's say you're managing it in house and you do have a system that is tracking that for you. Okay. I've got an EDI 824. I need to now go in and see what's happening with that ASN. 
 

Make sure that it sends correctly, because there could be errors. And in error here, and there's actually two levels of errors. first is warn, and essentially that is saying that the failure is not critical, but the data is not actually matching one for one for what they're expecting. So For Walmart, this is some of their documentation here. 
 

You want to make sure that you're going in and updating that, seeing what dots you connect there. it's still usable, but there may be issues. So maybe that's a PO that you want to say, Hey, let's check that. I bet that's going to come through as a deduction later. Or this may be the key to some of the root causing issues that we're going to see with this PO, whether we get a fine or not. 
 

And then error is going to be that code red. That's when your ASN data is fully rejected, can't be used by Walmart or other retailers. and that should be corrected immediately and reset. If you're managing that in house, that may be something that is taking a little bit more of your team's time, depending on who's working on that. 
 

whereas, if you're working on that with a third party, they may have a different system in place that helps you understand that and may correct that themselves. another thing to think about when you're choosing an EDI provider. Alright, and then this is just additional information about SQEP. ASNs, again, being a little bit more Walmart focused because they did come out with some ASN changes, I believe is in Q3. 
 

They actually have an ASN dashboard, and you can access that, through the channel that's listed below. So you can go to RetailLink, and then to SupplierAcademy, and this actually allows you to pinpoint Particular pain points, in the ASN process, really rich data, helpful for root cause, understanding what may be going on with other, other POs that are happening, or even understanding If your businesses are set up similarly with other retailers, what the issue may be. 
 

not all retailers have this information, but Walmart does provide this for their suppliers. All right, we're getting close to the end. It would not be a SupplierWiki webinar if we didn't talk about best practices, because we've started with the basics. We talked about how you can avoid any of those errors and not have those headaches. 
 

But ultimately, things happen. Sometimes there are errors, even if you've set up, even if you've certified, even if you have, the number one EDI provider, even if you have an EDI wizard on your team, things can happen, but we talked through that. Here's just some best practices from the suppliers that we work with, from the learnings that we've taken away, on what makes your EDI system and documents sent So the first is item setup. 
 

Item setup can be the foundation for good EDI performance. Another analogy we like to use is Think of your item set up as the system within your item library. If you can't find a book on a shelf because you didn't label the author correctly or the title, you're not going to be able to find it. If it was a book on a shelf. 
 

A system or automation is never going to be able to find it, within all the data that you have housed or all the items that you have housed. So that's a table stakes good practice to make sure that your EDI is performing correctly. So if you are seeing constant errors for one particular item when it comes to EDI, Go back to your item setup and see if everything's set up correctly. 
 

Another tip is having items described to the retailer in the way that the supplier intends to talk about them. That helps save trouble down the road. And then doing item setup via EDI can be helpful for getting congruence across. All of those issues. Invoicing is another place to spend some time and think about best practices. 
 

So if you're invoicing, you need to make sure that if there's any retailer expectations, in item setup, or the purchase order, or any of the documentation being pulled over from the invoice, that you're invoicing. that is correct. And something that we see quite often with suppliers is when we're doing validity checks and we're looking at their deductions, you may go be able to trace a lot of your deductions back to a error in setup. 
 

So making sure that you're in, if you're invoicing or sending a PO, that it's under this specific type of unit that they would like to see as your retail partner. One case is, a supplier setting something up as cases instead of eaches, and that will mess up your entire system, obviously, because if you're, sending cases when it's supposed to be eaches, that's going to be a different price point, a different type of amount, a quantity of product that they're going to get, so that's another one to check. 
 

within your item setup, as well as how it's pulling into your EDI documents. Another best practice is thinking about the proper ship type expectations, so matching with those retailer expectations for ship type, whether it's going to be collect or prepaid, and making sure that is congruent on your EDI documents. 
 

And then the retailer's EDI is going to show that Shipments are collect. If they show that they're collect and they're actually prepaid, it may be really difficult to pull those PODs or BOLs for a particular dispute case. So you want to get ahead of that and make sure that is a very basic but necessary thing to have correct across all of your documentation. 
 

And then, let's say that you have an EDI provider, here's some of the best practices to working with them. Most EDI providers are going to try to have a very extensive onboarding, making sure that everything is set up correctly, that the processes are streamlined, and there's no hiccups. you'll want to be, Expecting that, and engaging with that to make sure that you're spending the time to set up your EDI system as correct as possible, so you're not going back and having to address any errors. 
 

And then thinking about those targeted conversations, with addressing any EDI issues that you've seen in the past, or even just any of the questions that you have when it comes to the amount of time,that you want to spend on these transaction issues. So any information that you have is going to be helpful to them when setting that up across your retailer partners. 
 

All right. These are just the general best practices, and then we're going to get into the Q& A. So take note of all the required transactions. within your retailer partner and across the partners that you work with. Use the suggested transaction sets to promote transparency, know your retailer policies and rules, and make sure that you have protocol set up to ensure compliance and that's transferred over to what's actually executed. 
 

Make sure that you are automating that and if you need to customize it. for the retailer specifically, that you're making those customizations. And in the case that a chargeback happens, deduction, fine. Make sure that you're addressing the error, but also that you're finding the root cause of the issue, so you're not seeing it crop up on other EDI documents or Alright, that's the end of what I'm sharing. 
 

I'm going to invite Peter and Morgan to come back on, and we'll get into the Q& A. So I'll let Peter kick us off and see what questions we have.  
 

[00:40:18] Peter Spaulding: Alright, we've got just a few questions, so definitely get them into the Q& A if you have any that have been festering a little bit as we've gone along or that you're thinking about. 
 

but the first one, I think this might be the second one from Jess this week, that I have to research afterwards and answer in the form of an email, because she is so good at asking questions. This one is a little bit off topic,we'll do this one first and then move on to some, Some others that are a little more kind of EDI focused specifically. 
 

But this one, she says, it's slightly off topic, but I have a question about code 25s. So this is Walmart specific and we're specifically talking about billable overages. I get these when I rebuild for overages. The response from APDP always asks for a BOL showing the total quantity shipped, including the overage. 
 

The issue is, I'll never have this document because overages aren't reflected on our BOLs. Since we don't intend to ship extra items, but human error can still lead to overages. And do you have any suggestions for disputing these aside from using a Nova screenshot of the palette? we recently switched to collect and I no longer have visibility into PODs. 
 

I think this is something that we've talked about before. It's it all sounds so, familiar to me. But I think that this might be a loophole that, that specifically Walmart has where, they will hit you with the code 25 after accepting the invoice for the overage, later on. And I, but I don't know how perfect the loophole is or, what disputing them would look like. 
 

And it seems like the method that you have there of, Using a screenshot of the extra palette in Nova might be definitely a good thing to try, at least. But Allie, I'm not sure if you wanted to talk to that at all.  
 

[00:41:57] Allie Truong: I'm wondering if it's a timing issue, because just for clarity for everyone on the call, if you're not familiar with code 25s, it's essentially Walmart saying you sent me nothing. 
 

I have no So I'm wondering if there's a timing invoice, a timing issue with the invoice since we're talking about EDI, that's where my head is at. or the invoice is being sent before the order is shipped? I'm trying to get into the root cause, but Put me back on track, Peter. Is, the question more about what's happening or how to necessarily dispute it? 
 

I guess I'm getting more into, let's find the root cause of the issue because it sounds like it's happening pretty regularly.  
 

[00:42:40] Peter Spaulding: Yeah, I think it's more about, how to successfully dispute the 25, but yeah, I wanted to shout out something from the chat that just came up that I think is, is helpful. 
 

I know something I do is submit the overage report that used to be in DSS and now you can pull, from Nova or Luminate.that could be really helpful for kind of actually getting that. Overage there, and whoever you're talking with in APDB may not really know that.  
 

[00:43:08] Allie Truong: I would also say they would have the invoice, and so If they're invoicing for an order quantity and they've sent it, they can send that in, or even the PO sending that in, and I think that was already mentioned,forgive me for repeating that, but I would say having that PO and that invoice, even if there's I've said so many EDI codes today, now that I'm forgetting. 
 

If there's a functional acknowledgement from Walmart, you should be able to say, Hey, I sent you the PO, you agreed to that, and then here's the invoice. I don't think you have to necessarily rely on the shipping documents. And sometimes, in cases of like code 25s, that's not the smoking gun, necessarily. 
 

If you have, an Overage report, and then some of those EDI documents that we talked about outside of anything pulled from a BOL or POD,  
 

[00:43:58] Peter Spaulding: Great, we got one more Walmart related question and then we'll, and then we'll go on to a question that we had in the chat. any tips on getting into the AutoPO program? 
 

I haven't heard that phrase in a long time. I think it's just a SQEP thing, like if you If your, if your PO, your SQEP phase one performance is really good, then they invite you into, this program that will make it even better, basically. so I think that's what it is. I can't remember the percentage of PO accuracy or the score that you need. 
 

[00:44:26] Allie Truong: I think it's 95. I pulled up our article that we have on it. I'm sending it in the chat now. if you want to read up on it and there is an email. That Walmart has provided to reach out for the auto PO update program. If you don't have 95 percent though, I'm assuming Walmart's probably going to say, call us when you do. 
 

[00:44:48] Peter Spaulding: Yeah, I think it's a kind of, it's one of these weird things of it's trying to incentivize improvement on the PO score. But then also the reward is like improving more. but yeah, it's a little throwback, nostalgic,Walmart question. okay, we had a great question here, in the chat. 
 

What are the best documents to use to dispute ASN chargebacks? such as ASN Accuracy or ASN Late? Is it a copy of the transmission with the ISA number, or is there something better? Also, what is the typical win rate for the ASN disputes? Morgan, maybe you could speak to some of those questions at least? 
 

[00:45:25] Morgan Asplund: Yeah, definitely. so it definitely depends on what the chargeback is related to within the ASN, but if it's, an ASN late, maybe it's proof of delivery, a bill of lading documentation, Definitely. If there's some sort of discrepancy in the data that's being provided, you can reference, the raw EDI data, that was sent from you to that trading partner. 
 

so there's a number of different ways to go about troubleshooting it, and depending on whether you outsource your EDI or have it in house, there's different types of reporting, that's available. So if you outsource it, so SPS, for example, we have a monitor tool that allows you to dig into all of the nitty gritty details related to EDI to really troubleshoot, and cross reference the accuracy of the advance ship notice. 
 

but if you're doing that in house, maybe you have some internal systems that you can reference. and then Peter and Allie, I'll pass it back to you to maybe talk about the win rates for ASN disputes.  
 

[00:46:26] Peter Spaulding: Yeah, I don't think that we have, a lot of insight into that, at least, not that I remember. 
 

Wanted to shout out the, the 997 Functional Acknowledgement. we've had some, my, my recollection of the, of this particular, of ASN issues, particularly, in the context of Walmart, is that our recommendation was always to take a second look at the timing of when you're sending the ASN, because, most of the time I feel like it's not so much an issue with the EDI itself or even the ASN, details. 
 

It's more about making sure that the advanced ship notice arrives before the shipment and not too far before it. Again, I think different retailers will have different policies for this, but, I think that what was happening at Walmart is. People were sending it like too early. So after a certain amount of time, it would time out and then they would get an, back in the day, it was an ASN not downloaded, fine. 
 

That was the name of it. and I think that still exists, but, it was nondescript. So we, we had different recommendations for timing, but that to me, the ASN chargebacks or,deductions always to me are screaming timing. and I think that's why the win rates were really low. 
 

was because there wasn't actually a problem with the ASN. It was just that Walmart wasn't receiving it on time. Allie, do you have anything that you wanted to add to that?  
 

[00:47:48] Allie Truong: No, that's what I've seen. Mostly is there's the, there's late ASNs, there's ASNs not received and then ASN errors. I, Peter, you're saying something a little bit different. 
 

Late ASNs were definitely an issue. I think the one issue I want to press into a little bit more is those ASNs. it's not received. So that can be, the system could sort that and say, hey, it's not received, but it's really just late. and that's a huge part to why the received was larger. Going back to win rate, I'd have to look at a like smaller level, cause that's going to depend on really suppliers. 
 

We don't have that data aggregated at our level. what I would say to that though, is. Typically, it's an issue of suppliers not understanding what the ASN serves in terms of timing and that EDI connection. So from what I've seen in the customers that I've talked to on the SupplyPike side, it's just having that understanding and then that win rate typically is goes up because it's an issue that's addressed. 
 

It's really just a learning curve, especially with most of those ASNs are going to be coming from Walmart or that's the conversation that we're having. It's just addressing, hey, sending that earlier, and then checking for the acknowledgement that it was received.  
 

[00:49:11] Peter Spaulding: Yes, I think that my answer was really dated back to the ASN not downloaded days. 
 

And I think that Walmart's change for those particular, defects was to avoid that. but yeah, it's a great question. and it's interesting that with SupplyPike, there's just a limited amount of information that we have into win rates for the wide variety of different deductions and chargebacks that exist. 
 

But yeah, what the advice that I always give, especially whenever we were on, whenever we were doing a lot of SQEP webinars or just the webinars on the supplier quality excellence program is just, a lot of people approach compliance chargebacks from a deductions or from even a shortages perspective of I'm going to dispute everything and I'm going to win some stuff back. 
 

And really we see a lot of success disputing shortages. We haven't seen a ton with most of the others. That's a huge generalization, but really, it's Shortages are you can win a bunch of that back, and there's a lot of these that are invalid and that Walmart has a very, clearly delineated process for. 
 

what that proof documentation process is but when it comes to SQEP fines, when it comes to compliance fines, more often than not, it's Walmart's or the retailer's way of communicating with you the changes that they want you to make. And,yeah, win rate, I would, I would imagine for ASN is going to be super low relative to something like shortages. 
 

so I wanted to call that out. Okay. last question. we're getting pretty close to time here, is about. I think this is probably a retailer specific question, but it hasn't been fully fleshed out in the question. But how do you fix the error, Warn Missing Package Description? We may have to pass this one on to someone else as well. 
 

[00:50:57] Morgan Asplund: Yeah, I can take my, best shot at this. so without understanding more context related to this question, it could be a few different things. I would start with one contacting your buyer or contact over at your trading partner. It could be a result of they are missing relevant and necessary item information from you, what Allie was talking about. 
 

providing that accurate item information from the beginning is, such a best practice to set you up for success with, trading with your trading partner. so that's what I would lean on. Oftentimes, a lot of the item information that retailers expect to receive back from you is already sent on that purchase order. 
 

so if it's missing from the purchase order from the beginning, there is a good chance that you're not actually sending it back. You might not even be aware that it's required for you to send back. so that's where I would start. otherwise it's just, depending on, your EDI solution, just validating that those fields are being populated at the time that, that document's being returned. 
 

[00:52:01] Allie Truong: I don't have much to add to that. I do want to throw it back to Morgan. just as you're bringing up some of the best practices, we mentioned a lot of best practices today. Are there any that we missed off, our list or even that from your experience working with suppliers, retailers, lots of the, people connecting with SPS Commerce that we should include in today's conversation? 
 

[00:52:26] Morgan Asplund: Yeah, good question, Allie. We covered a lot of really great. Best practices and content today. I think that's what I would just really, take back and ask, ask your teams and ask yourself, is EDI a core competency of your business? knowing those vendor guides and knowing those EDIs. 
 

Requirements is really complex. and so there are a number of different ways that things can go wrong. And so it's just a matter of,understanding where a particular label should be placed for this particular trading partner versus a different trading partner and all of the necessary data that's needed to be sent across the board. 
 

So I think that it's really, asking yourself, do I, need a full team or an SOP in house to fully understand how to work with some of these retailers? Or is it something that I really want to, partner with a, subject matter expert in this space to help me excel at?  
 

[00:53:22] Allie Truong: Yeah, I love that. Hit it on the head, Morgan. 
 

Peter, any more questions before we end today's conversation?  
 

[00:53:30] Peter Spaulding: nope. I think we're all set.  
 

[00:53:32] Allie Truong: Okay. Thank you, Morgan, and everyone joining, for engaging with us. Morgan, particularly, thank you for answering questions and bringing your expertise. Peter's going to send in the chat if you are interested in looking at SupplyPike or SPS Commerce. 
 

We talked a lot about deductions and compliance fines. Go check out SupplyPike for that. If you're interested in a full service EDI provider, go check out SPS Commerce. and we hope to see you guys as another webinar in the future. So have a great rest of your Thursdays and thank you all. Thank you.