EDI Standards..

EDI standards help facilitate EDI by providing a common format or rules of data structure and transmission protocols.   The objective is to use an agreed upon structure for communicating the data in business documents.   Each organization that maintains a set of standards provides a full set of documentation and definitions of each version of their standards. The standards say which pieces of information are mandatory for a particular document and which pieces are optional. These standards are necessary because so many trading partners conduct transactions with several other trading partners.  It would be difficult to conduct business if every trading partner had completely different rules.  As the standards have grown, they have become more general and able to be interpreted in many different ways. If you trade with 5 EDI partners, you will probably have 5 different documents for each PO, Invoice, etc.  Because of the standards, they will at least have the same basic structure.  Each partner with whom you trade will have a detailed set of EDI specifications.  The documents you trade must adhere to these specifications.  Some trading partners will assess a charge against your invoice for mistakes or missing documents.   Therefore your understanding and compliance with your partner's specifications are very important.