HowtoFixWalmartASNErrors 

[00:00:00] Danielle Gloy: My name is Danielle Gloy. I will be monitoring the chat today and then leading the content is Peter Spaulding. So we both work on the SupplierWiki team, where our job is to research and write about topics that are helpful and insightful for suppliers like you all, which if you are not familiar with SupplierWiki, or if this is your first time joining one of our webinars, We create free educational resources in the form of webinars like this one. 
 

We do ebooks and articles. We also cover important retailer updates and news in our Vanderbilt newsletter. I'll probably be sending a couple of our resources in the chat tab throughout the webinar, so if you are interested those will be available to you. Moving on to the agenda, we are going to start off going over some ASN updates that Walmart recently released and we will discuss how these updates may impact you. 
 

then we'll move into the ASN validation process at Walmart and just what that looks like and then how to correct any ASN errors that may pop up along the way. And finally, we will discuss some ASN best practices before we wrap up the webinar with a live Q& A session. So here are a few FAQs that we typically get during webinars. 
 

The first being, will I be getting a copy of the slide deck? Yes, absolutely. So the PDF version of this slide deck, as well as the recording of this webinar will appear in your email inbox in about three to four business days. Also, if you ever wanna find another webinar that you maybe weren't able attend, weren't able to attend, you can go to our website where you'll find the recordings there, as well as the PDF versions of the slide deck. 
 

And second question that we typically get is, what is the best way to ask a question? So at the bottom of your screen, you'll see a Q& A tab. If you have recently updated your Zoom account, the Q& A tab has one speech bubble that has a question mark in it. And if you're still using the older version, the Q& A tab has two little speech bubbles. 
 

So this is where we ask you to please submit any questions related to the content as I'll be able to monitor them and then tee them up for Peter for the Q& A time at the end. I am anticipating a lot of questions for this topic, so send your questions in early. I may interject sometime during the webinar if there's a question pertinent to the content that Peter is going through. 
 

But for the most part, I will be saving them for the end. Okay, so last little thing before we get into the content. SupplyPike is a platform designed to help suppliers get paid and get better. So we do this with a software that identifies, recovers, and prevents deductions and compliance issues. So anything that could be impacting your bottom line, we have built these tools to help target and resolve those revenue loss issues. 
 

We're proud to work with many great suppliers. You can see some of their logos up on the slide. if you're not working with us, we would love to see your brand's logo up here soon. And with that, I'll hand it over to Peter to get in today's content.  
 

[00:02:59] Peter Spaulding: Okay. Thank you, Danielle. The last couple of webinars I've done, I've been, I've got so excited with my gesticulations as I've been talking about something like ASNs that I've kicked the command strip and completely knocked out all my cameras. 
 

if I go dark for a little bit, just bear with us. it's, it'll be a technical issue. I've tried to set it up so that it's impossible for me to. Kick it and ruin everything. But, if that does happen, just stay tuned. Okay, so today we're talking about ASNs. There have been some, recent updates, so we like to try to follow what Walmart's doing, just so that we can keep, all of our viewers and, audience up to date, on these particular issues. 
 

ASNs are a kind of perennial issue because they're so common. it's such a, it's such an important kind of building block of the supplier process and it's connected to so many other forms of revenue loss as well. different things that we've talked about a lot in the past, like the Supplier Quality Excellence Program, or SQEP. 
 

The first phase of SQEP is PO accuracy and in that you see a lot of the, ASN kind of conversation, happen. So we'll be covering some of the updates first here. These are EDI 856s. We'll be talking a lot about EDI today. because it's the whole, everything related to ASNs is happening in that space. 
 

but so maybe you've heard of an 856 in that context. but it's basically just the information that is,the document that's used to transmit information about a shipment to a customer before its delivery. In this particular context, we're talking about the customer is Walmart, right? We're not talking about e com or anything like that. 
 

So whenever Walmart is actually purchasing your products, the ASN is how you let them know that it's you.earlier in 2024, there was an update. Walmart announced, that it's updating its EDI and ASN business rules and validations. So what we're covering today is a lot of that. And really, it's the spirit of the whole webinar is to, is to help you guys adjust to these changes as well as use it as an occasion to talk about ways of getting better on the EDI front for the most part. 
 

So what was the rationale behind these changes?Before, the ASN errors, like ASN not downloaded, were nondescript, so a part of what's going on here is that the EDI 824, which is basically a way that Walmart has of letting suppliers know that there's something wrong with an ASN, was nondescript, the way that Walmart would communicate with suppliers about them. 
 

about ASN issues was pretty, pretty generalized. a big part of this change is to just make that language more specific to give people, to give suppliers a more exact kind of reason for why the ASN is rejected at a certain phase in that process. So Walmart's exact language is that these changes are going to allow more of the ASN data to be used and aid with automation and freight tracking. 
 

yes. We're all talking about supply chain. Everything's always about supply chain. This is the rationale behind these changes, for Walmart. The way that I see it though, is it's about getting more exact information on how you can improve your ASNs. That's the, the perspective that Walmart has. 
 

so basically it means more data. It means another app in retailing that you need to be monitoring more carefully. So the, it will probably unfortunately also mean an increase in 824 transmissions with error and warning messages. Another kind of metric to keep your eye on or,to be checking the pulse on pretty regularly. 
 

So it doesn't, it shouldn't mean that, it shouldn't mean that you're gonna see like double or triple the, eight 20 fours or a SN errors that you had in the past, but it should be a, it should be a more specific feedback, on those eight 20 fours about what's needed, for those ASNs. As n errors. 
 

Alright, so we're gonna try something new. We haven't done this, before. we're going to do a Zoom poll,we're gonna keep it anonymous too, so you don't need to, worry about that. but we want to hear from you. Have you experienced any new or d or different a SN errors or warnings this year? 
 

the poll should be up on your screen right now. Just want to know, have you been personally impacted, not personally, professionally impacted by the new ASN updates? And we'll just wait, I'll just wait about 10 or 15 more seconds for you guys to get those responses in. 
 

Alrighty. So what we're looking at here is that we've got about a,50% of the people submitting answers have said yes, that they have seen these new, a SN errors and warnings. but about 36% have said no, thankfully, and then we had one, or we had a couple, a couple people respond with. I haven't received any errors or warnings yet,that's the spread there. 
 

Pretty interesting, to see. Some people are feeling the weight of this impact. Some people are not so much. 
 

All right, so we'll move on to ASN validation and we'll have a, we'll have more polls at the ends of these sections as well, so stay tuned for those too. today we're gonna, or now we're gonna be talking, we're gonna be looking a little bit more at the actual validation process, the actual transition of information from the supplier to Walmart. 
 

the in the business, the EDI business transaction. What are these different codes and what do they mean? I'm going to put Danielle to work again a little bit. We have a an EDI codes cheat sheet that could be a helpful resource or document for you guys to keep on hand if you're getting these codes confused or if you know anyone on your team or in your network really who could benefit from having that on hand. 
 

So that's our EDI codes cheat sheet. CheatSheet for retail suppliers. It's mostly a kind of high level view of some of these, but for some of the bigger ones, like the ASN or like a, purchase order, we'll give a little bit more of a description of what that is and how it most commonly operates in the retail supply chain space. 
 

but yeah, we've recently been acquired by an EDI provider in SPS Commerce. Maybe some of you work with them as well. So EDI is really on the mind for us these days. we're really excited about the acquisition though. There's a lot of, exciting developments. along that front too. But yeah, for me, in my mind, I'm thinking about EDI a lot more. 
 

It's really the building blocks of the supply chain. It's the building blocks, it's the essential elements of communication. the table of elements, the periodic table of elements for retail supply chains. But here are the main three that are going to be relevant to our conversation today. 
 

on ASN errors. Of course, the ASN itself is an EDI 856. Functional Acknowledgement is EDI 997, and this is a little bit more complicated than it sounds too, which we'll get into a little bit. And then Application Advice, which is the feedback from the retailer. to the supplier, about the quality of the ASN. 
 

So if there's something that's missing or if they want something changed, they'll use the EDI 824 to let you know that. The EDI 997 is more of a kind of immediate, I think of it as a basically an internal EDI check just to make sure that the EDI is actually working, right? in the old days of SQEP, they had ASN not downloaded as the main. 
 

The main ASN error message, if that makes sense. That was nondescript in the sense that we, suppliers weren't sure if there was an error on the EDI side of things, which the functional acknowledgement is helpful for clarifying, or if there was an error with the ASN, in terms of the, in terms of the data, in terms of the information. 
 

Is there something wrong with the document type? Is it the wrong code? all of that, all of this is designed to, to clarify that process a little bit more. And it's the EDI 824s in particular that have become more descript and more helpful. The, the process of these ASNs is really, essential to whatever the kind of business transaction that's happening. 
 

but again, EDII, I want to emphasize EDI goes way beyond just ASNs. It goes way beyond the retail industry. It's used in hospitals and all kinds of different places. It's a very old coding, system. So there's a lot to get into really. So we've got a kind of a granular image here. Not the world's best image, but we've got our, source link there. 
 

So you can go and you can look at it, on your own time as well. in the, supplier academy and retail link, you'll be able to see this image there, but I think it's a really great graphic of the whole kind of, I guess I would call it like lifespan of an A SN. so at the beginning, your a SN is sent for all the pos. 
 

And what you're going to do is you're going to want to check for that 997, FA or Functional Acknowledgement. Functional Acknowledgement, we'll get to this I think on the next slide, we'll be talking about what it actually means. There's really two things that can happen with a 997. The, it can be functionally acknowledged, which is them saying we received the ASN and the document type is correct, basically. 
 

And then it will go on to the next kind of phase in that process. Or it could be a rejected 997 functional acknowledgement, which is basically functionally not acknowledging the reception of the ASN. it, that'll be, that'll be immediately sent back for the most part. And then, And then the supplier is going to make corrections to the ASN based on FA and resends. 
 

So this is vague language. Most of the time a rejected 997 is saying you should go talk with your EDI provider. Most of the time, and again this is not Walmart's official technical language for, for what this rejected 997 actually means, but that's my interpretation of it. There's something wrong at a very fundamental level with this ASN and it's something that you should take up with your, EDI provider. 
 

There's probably, it's probably not a right code or there's some kind of essential piece of information that's missing from the document, so it's not being received as an actual ASN by Walmart.but the 997 is very helpful for that feedback, and that's what that kind of, the lower part, I'll use my mouse here, just this portion right here is looking at that. 
 

the first kind of check is the 997, the second check is the SupplierWiki. is the 824. So if it passes the 997 functional acknowledgement, that's Walmart saying, yes, we've received the ASN. So that part is passed through. Then you're going to want to check for an 824 error message. And this is really the rest of the content that we're going to be talking about today is what the kind of scope of these error messages are, what they can be, all the different things that can go wrong. 
 

It's just a more elaborate check of the ASN than the 997. You think the 997 is checking the function or is checking the format of the ASN, the 824 is checking the content of the ASN. And again, that's a reduction. That's not Walmart's official language. But that's one way that I would,try to describe these two kind of phases of that process of checking the ASN process. 
 

So the 824 error message is received. Walmart is saying supplier makes corrections to the ASN,to the ASN and resends it. And that will send it all the way back to the beginning of this process. Now, this also seems to imply that if you're making Corrections to an error, an 824 error, that there's a chance of another 997, happening. 
 

I've never heard of that happening and it seems uncommon, but it is helpful for us to think about it as basically restarting the ASN process. A question that I have for you guys, I was trying to research this earlier, And, I wasn't totally, I wasn't totally sure of the answer is, if you have an 824 and you correct it, can you get a 997 for that corrected message? 
 

Another thing that I'm curious about, just to hear from you guys, If you're making a correction off of an 824, can your ASN still be received late and you get docked for that information too? So that's another kind of conversation starter, maybe for the chat. if you have any kind of, insight or feedback into that, I was really curious about that and I was going to go ask our, ASN folks and didn't get around to it before the webinar, but something to look out for. 
 

Okay, so this is a little bit more about that first phase of the process. This is the 997, the first kind of check, the Functional Acknowledgement. It's a little bit misleading in its title because you can get an EDI 997 for something that is basically not acknowledged. So it's a little bit confusing, but here's the two sort of outcomes that are outlined in that flowchart. 
 

The Acknowledgement was successful, right? That's an EDI 997 that is successful. a check, right? We have received this. A SN Walmart has accepted the data. Now go ahead and wait for the EDI 8 2 4, the application advice. that will be more specific feedback. If something's not exactly right, you can also get an EDI 9 9 7 that is functional, not acknowledgement or we're functionally rejecting this, right? 
 

This means the language that we've used here is that the document itself is rejected and Walmart's system is unable to read the data. So again, the advice that I would give is think about it a little bit. Maybe there was a mistake, maybe the wrong kind of document is used, but for the most part this is probably going to mean that you want to check with your EDI provider. 
 

Your EDI provider will probably be able to at least point you in the right direction if something is going wrong. So those are the two kind of kind of functions of a 997. That's what it's doing. That's what it's there for.you should correct the document and resend it. I'm going to add on to that. 
 

As I mentioned before, maybe check with your EDI provider. If you don't receive a 997, then you're This is receiving 997 for a functional not acknowledgement as well. It could mean that an issue, there was an issue that prevented the ASN from being processed. it could mean that the ASN was never sent, obviously, but basically our caveat here, we're just calling out when you get to this place, when you get to this kind of part of the issue, you're probably going to want to at least ask your EDI provider, depending on what that relationship is like. 
 

it could be really beneficial to have an expert in that field look at your processes and try to help you figure out what's going wrong. it's very rare. I feel like I should say I've never heard of an EDI provider basically getting this stuff wrong. it's pretty uncommon. It's basically just, code, and it's code that they're using with a bunch of other customers as well. 
 

So more often than not, it's some kind of human error on the retailer or on the supplier side. the code is perfect. No, it's,yeah, but,more often than not, it's not. Those people are, they're experts in EDI. They've worked with it for a long time and they know the kind of common pitfalls and they can walk you through a different flow chart of what could actually be going wrong there. 
 

Okay, so here we have the, application advice feedback. This is a much more complicated and, varied sort of process than the first one. The first one is about. The document itself, this is the one that's about the content, your EDI 824. if you receive one of these, it could be a warning, and it could be an error. 
 

in the case of a warning, the data in the ASN failed because a business rule, but the failure is not critical. this could mean that, Walmart can still basically utilize this. They can still make, the most of it. The ASN data is still helpful. but there are some corrections, that could and should be made as soon as possible. 
 

So again, this is where my question about if you receive a warning, will it still dock you for not receiving the ASN on time, if the shipment gets there before or something like that as well? you could also get an error message. 
 

This means that the ASN data itself was completely rejected and it cannot be utilized by Walmart. So this is, again, another kind of layer in this process of how much of the content needs to be fixed or corrected. these should be corrected immediately and re sent before the shipment arrives at a Walmart distribution center. 
 

or else you will get dinged for that being late. So these, these, it's important to address errors and warnings, but the errors will be more costly if they're not fixed right away. Hopefully that makes sense. Okay, it's time for another poll. our question now is what has been your biggest pain point when dealing with ASN errors and warnings? 
 

It could be one, knowing how to resolve them. Two, the quantity of errors and warnings. Three, they aren't a big pain point for me, which would be really great. Or a different sort of thing, which you could let us know in the chat, if you're comfortable. 
 

Wait a few more seconds here. 
 

Okay, we got an overwhelming majority that says knowing how to resolve them, which is so sad. But yeah, I think that this is an, this is indicative of the changes that were recently made. Yeah, but we did get one, one person said the quantity of errors and the warnings. So sometimes there's just a high volume. 
 

Again, this depends on your the business situation with where you are, what your exposure is to all of that. depending on your role, that could be a huge issue is just there's this flood of them all of a sudden, with this new update. And we did get one person say, it's not a big pain point for me, which is a win. 
 

We're going to count that as a win. and we didn't get any of the kind of,et ceteras that there's a different thing going on too. So that makes us feel, that makes us feel great. All right, but that is an issue, knowing how to resolve them, correcting ASN errors, that is the overwhelming pain point for us. 
 

So that's what we're going to try to go through now, and I want to shout out as well that This process is a lot more detailed and specific to individual processes too. if we can't answer one of your questions or if we can't give you the specific advice that you would like, definitely put it in the Q& A anyways and we'll try to get back to you with a more specific, answer. 
 

We've got a lot of people with an EDI background at SupplyPike and,there's a wealth of EDI knowledge at the company that, that we can tap into to try to get to the root of that particular issue. So please let us know what that is too, but we'll get into it now. So along with the new ASN standards, Walmart is providing different documentation and newer dashboards just to help increase the visibility into ASN issues and to help track supplier performance. 
 

So yet another way that Walmart is going to be keeping their finger on the pulse of the supplier performance. 
 

So the ASN dashboard and retail link is really where all this is going to live. It's very important, for just monitoring, ASN performance, just like the SQEP dashboard or your OTIF app. it's the same thing, but just for ASN. So it's a little bit more specific than the SQEP dashboard, because it's just looking at that one particular PO performance, issue. 
 

So on the left hand side, it's of the ASN dashboard, the Advanced Shipment Notice dashboard. I think it's not, I think it's called, the actual app in retailing, I think it's called the Advanced Ship Notice dashboard. So if you're searching for it in there as ASN, it might not show up. little. trick. 
 

It's probably because I was trying to look for it in RetailLink and I couldn't find it because it was spelled out completely. on the left hand side, there is an IDOX tab which we'll be diving into here a little bit that will help give a little bit more insight into that specific ASN compliance, specifically those 824s, how that's going wrong and all that. 
 

the ASN dashboard in RetailLink. You can use that, you can use the coverage chart to see what percentage of your POs were shipped with or without an ASN. So again, this will be, your mileage will vary a lot if this is something that you guys are really struggling with or not. or how, basically how on top of your ASNs are you as in, as a whole organic unit, right? 
 

but the exception distribution, on the same chart will allow you to see the percentage of ASNs that resulted in an error or warning notification from Walmart. So basically you've got the high level org view. that will show basically are you sending ASNs and the other one will be the exception distribution will be showing you the quality of your ASNs. 
 

A little bit more kind of granular detail. So this image is, you won't be able to really look at it too much on this slide, but that's why we've got the source here as well,to help you learn more about the exception distribution,graphic, not, maybe not super helpful if you're getting a wide variety of these. 
 

If you're seeing a bunch of different ones at a really high volume. But for the most part, we would assume that there's about five or six that are going to break that one percent. barrier. You're going to see a lot of kind of really unique ones that will happen as more like one offs because of human error or something like that. 
 

but you really want to be able to, you really want to pay attention to those that are breaking the 1%, 1 percent rule. That'll be more kind of the higher volume. One percent or more of your ASNs are getting hit with this specific 824. So you can try to do root cause analysis starting from there. So the that's what they mean by that exception distribution. 
 

They're getting into the specific 824 errors or warning messages, right? And some of these could be your invalid PO number, invalid shipment date, but there's so many of these. There's a ton of them. 
 

What you also want to do, our call out here is, you want to pay attention to changes that are happening over time. If you see an explosion of a really bizarre one, maybe there's, maybe there's some root cause analysis that needs to happen there to get to the bottom of that. But for the most part, There are certain, it's, there are likely to be certain 824s that you're going to see just at a higher volume. 
 

Having an awareness of that is a big step in the right direction too, right? Which of these errors are more unavoidable than others? Which of these can be like trained out basically? but yeah, that's your exception distribution, really helpful stuff, really helpful for walking through with the team, to try to, get to the bottom of some of those problems. 
 

So we want to talk a lot about this 824 Resolution Guide, the ASN 824 Resolution Guide. This is a super helpful document that we are not allowed to show you in this webinar, because, It's been gated heavily by Walmart. They're not allowing redistribution of any kind on that. So I'm not sure what that means for you guys in terms of who you can and can't share it with, but it's the first really that we've seen of that. 
 

So This ASN 824 resolution guide is a really helpful document. It's also referred to in other places as the IDOC's Error Quick Reference Guide, but it's super helpful for getting suppliers to be able to identify, decipher, and solve error and warning messages they receive on 824 transmissions, and to do it really efficiently and effectively. 
 

I Most of what we're going to be doing today is really pointing you towards this document. It's a super helpful document and we've got it all listed out here about how to find it. again, because Walmart doesn't want people redistributing this or, or sharing it outside of, the Walmart space. 
 

Again, I'm not sure why that is. A lot of Walmart's information is that they're not super keeping it close to the chest. There may be some, there may be some business reasons why they wouldn't want this information out there, that you can imagine if you start thinking about it, right? 
 

there could be other partnerships that Walmart has that would make them, Disinclined to want to share this specific process out. And it might be because it's just super sophisticated. It's super elaborate, super sophisticated. Walmart came up with it themselves. So they want it to be just for suppliers themselves to see and to look at and to reference. 
 

So there's a number of reasons for why that could be. But it is really easy to find. You can go into RetailLink, go into apps. EDI B2B, and then from there go to EDI 824 Application Advice, ASN Rejections, that's one way. You can also go to Retail Link, Apps, Advanced Shipment Notice Dashboard, Information Button on the top right hand corner, go to Helpful Information, and then the 824 Resolution Guide, that's another way. 
 

You can also go the IDOX route. by going into the advanced shipment notice dashboard, then go to IDOX, exception distribution, and then help button. So there's a number of ways to actually get to this guide, but it is, this is going to be really your bible for figuring out what's going wrong, figuring out what that means, because sometimes just the name of the 824 won't be, helpful enough, and then figuring out how to actually resolve it, through your own processes or through Walmart's. 
 

The document will really be super helpful for that. So most of what I would like to do is to just, in this webinar, if you hear nothing else, hear this, go to the A, the ASN 824 Resolution Guide and Retail Link, and give that a good perusal. That has been updated with the 2024 updates, so it's got a lot of really important information there too. 
 

Alright, we're going to get into the best practices, I think we'll have one last poll at the end, and then we'll go to our Q& A, and we'll address some of the questions that you guys have, or if we can't, backlog them for, for reference to other people on the team with a little more, EDI background. 
 

this is very high level, I hope it's not condescending sounding, you guys are all doing all this stuff already anyways, If this is too high level, then yeah, just take it with a pinch of salt and get back to the great work that you're doing. but this is, this, from my experience in the Supplier Quality Excellence Program, this is really the big thing is timeliness with ASN. 
 

It's so hard to get the timing right. So,and this is what, again, Through my experience, roughly about a year ago when we were doing more SQEP based research, the greatest amount of revenue lost in the Supplier Quality Excellence program comes down to, ASN on time, fines. That's, that's a big part of the money that people lose to that program. 
 

We really just want to call it out. And again, you're probably doing all that you can already to make sure that these are sent on time and that they're received in the right way. But again, with that 8 2 4 process, right? Can you get, are they accurate enough from the beginning to be able to be received on time? 
 

Or is it the errors that are making them, not received on time, if that makes sense, right? Which we'll get into accuracy. surprise, ASN accuracy also matters a lot, too. But, we, we want to make sure that the ASN is arriving before the gate in time of the shipment or trailer at the Walmart facility. 
 

however you think it's best to go about that process. ASNs whenever the shipment is picked up or shipped. some people have strong opinions about that not being a good best practice, but that's, In the past, that's what I've always recommended,passes all, you want to make sure that your ASN is passing all validation rules, right? 
 

So that's that, EDI side of things. You want to make sure that the document is the right document, basically, or if all issues have been corrected and resent,before Gaten, which is what I was mentioning with those 824s, right? If you can get it, If you can get it in time, again before that gate in time cut off, then you'll be able to avoid those extra fines or fees. 
 

Accurate information is helpful. It's good information, right? You don't just want to make sure that the ASN is received on time, but that it's got all the right information. And again, it's sometimes just the same issue. If it's not accurate enough, then it won't be received on time and then it will result in those fines. 
 

you want to make sure that the lines on the ASN. It's super important. those DADGUM PO lines, getting them, getting them aligned is really important. You want to make sure that the items included on the ASN align with the physical shipment, of course. That's the whole point. And then that the quantity,on the ASN matches the physical shipment, as well. 
 

In other words, you want your ASN to actually be an advanced ship notice. And then, Yeah, if it's complete, that would help too. The ASN includes all the content outlined in the Walmart Mapping Guide,making sure to reference those. And then making sure that the data provided is complete and correct, of course. 
 

Okay, I think we've gotI think we've got, oh, Aaron had a shout out about sending ASNs. I'll go back here real quick for timeliness, in the chat. I send ASNs as soon as the product is on the truck. Yeah, that's, that's a great shout out too. It's more preemptive than waiting for it to be picked up or waiting for it to actually ship. 
 

So yeah, thinking of it in those terms, get it on the truck, send the ASN. Thanks for the shout out, Aaron. All right, our final pulse check. How are we doing? How confident are you feeling about resolving ASN errors and warnings? Don't feel like you need to flatter us. This isn't for us, right? So this could be about, this could be about, this is just about how you're feeling with this new Walmart kind of update or process. 
 

are you feeling super confident about that? Is it something that you've been dealing with a lot in the past and now that you're dealing with this new update,you feel like you can apply your previous knowledge to it, feeling somewhat confident, neutral, somewhat unconfident, or very unconfident. 
 

Feel free to share. I'll wait a couple more seconds here. 
 

Alright.a shocking result. 11 out of 11 contributors to the poll have said neutral. That's really interesting.yeah, so it's, it's a learning curve. we're all trying to figure out, we're all trying to figure out, what the new process looks like, how it's going to work. so fascinating poll results. 
 

And now if I'm not mistaken, We've got our official Q& A time. 
 

[00:35:14] Danielle Gloy: Thank you for running through all of that content, Peter. And thank you everybody in the chat for engaging. We definitely like hearing these pulse checks because it also gives us a little bit direction of what we should dive a little bit deeper into just so that we can get those resources out for you. 
 

so the first question that we have is from Aaron and he asked, Any idea when Walmart will fix the PO's being marked as no ASN received issue? 
 

[00:35:41] Peter Spaulding: no, I don't. if anyone else in the chat has, has an idea for that, let us know. any idea when Walmart will fix the POs being marked as no ASN received issue? 
 

Code 24, code 25 is what I see daily. Interesting. I'm not sure I understand fully the question.interesting. are other people receiving that? issue. 
  Oh, okay. 
 

[00:36:22] Danielle Gloy: All right. I see we have a, another question from Vanessa, or Vanessa asked, What if EDI shows no error and shows accepted, but some shortage claims after dispute are denied for ASN not downloaded? Is this part of the ASN error even though it is not shown on EDI? There was an error, even the acknowledgement shows accepted. 
 

Is it an error in Walmart's EDI?  
 

[00:36:45] Peter Spaulding: That's an, that's a great question. I love this 'cause it's touching on so many different kind of parts of the process. so,a SN not downloaded is a really classically unhelpful and nondescript, error code as we talked about in the past. I think Danielle put a Quep thing in the chat earlier. 
 

I would go through and read a little bit more from us and from Walmart on ASN Not Downloaded. but this does it again, and this is maybe just my bias. It feels like it is a Walmart error. You're getting the, you're getting the 997 functional acknowledgement, which means that they're receiving the ASN and double checking if you're getting any of 824s on that. 
 

The 824s, if there is more specific feedback than just ASN not downloaded, it'll come up in the form of those 824s. if you're getting those and not seeing them somehow, I'm not sure how that would happen. or if Walmart is sending them and they're not being received, then. It seems like that's the issue, but I, again, I, maybe it's an error on, on Walmart's part for not having that specific 824 stuff out. 
 

Again, whenever Walmart pushes updates, Sometimes the updates happen really slowly, sporadically, or on one team at a time, or three at a time, or something like that. What this feels like to me, and I, this is just a shot in the dark, but, whoever's sending out those ASN errors is still functioning on the old system, and hasn't been sending out those more kind of specified 824s. 
 

But That's, that's just a guess. I would try to do more reading on, on the ASN not downloaded from Walmart as well as from us. And then I would try to figure out, are there any 824s that are getting lost in the mix? because those would be more helpful at pinpointing what's going on. 
 

what specifically Walmart is looking for with those errors, if there are any. I will say, with PO and,PO accuracy, generally with SQEP finds generally and with, and with, EDI errors, It's pretty rare that, it's not the same thing as like shortages. Shortages for Walmart are going to be wrong like a very high percentage of the time. 
 

there's a bunch of those. So we have a kind of like dispute first mentality when it comes to those. when it comes to those issues, Walmart errors for the Supplier Quality Excellence Program fines and for OTIF fines, generally you're all of your kind of compliance fines as well as, EDI issues. 
 

There are invalid fines that are sent sometimes and there is a whole kind of platform for disputing those in high radius that Walmart has partnered with. but what we've seen from our data is just that on the one hand, a lot of those fines are not invalid. And then, on the other hand, whenever they are invalid, or whenever suppliers are very confident that they're invalid. 
 

It's still less likely that they'll get paid back. So maybe it's just that compliance, these compliance programs aren't finished developing in the same way that the, all of the kind of mechanism around shortages and AP deductions has been developed. But yeah, we've seen, it's better to think of these as like harsh messages from Walmart,that are dictating the changes that they want you to make, right? 
 

Now, that doesn't mean that they're always going to be valid, but they're just, they just tend to be valid more often. not, it's not a direct answer to your problem, but hopefully I can, I'm nudging you in some directions that could be a little bit more helpful there, or could, could be beginning the process of trying to figure out what's actually going on there. 
 

But yeah, is that it? Do we have any more questions?  
 

[00:40:11] Danielle Gloy: That is it. Thank you, Vanessa. That was a great question. it looks like we don't have any further questions, but I'll just give it a little bit more time. and in the meantime, just call out some of our resources. If you are looking for more hands on material, here are a few of our ebooks that cover Walmart related topics. 
 

These are all available on our website. We also recently published a 2025 year ending 2026 Walmart fiscal calendar. So if you are looking to get ahead of planning, this resource will be perfect for you. It has the full year overview as well as the monthly view so that you can print it. I will go ahead and quickly send that resource in the chat. 
 

but that is all that we have. If you think of a question later on, or would like to share any insights, please feel free to reach out to us on our email, or you can find us at supplypike. com. We would love to continue that conversation with you. but that is all that we have for you today. Thank you so much for taking the time to join us.