In order to successfully integrate with your EDI Trading Partners, it's critical to understand, and be able to execute the file mappings and translations for the EDI documents that are to be sent and received.

The document "Mapping" refers to the mapping of the database fields between the two Trading Partner systems. For example, a database may name the zip code field "zip", "zipcode", "zip-code", "zip_code", "postalcode", etc. However, the Trading Partner requirements will dictate that you send the zip code data as a very specific field name. The field mappings, simply put, ensure the correct data is being sent with the right field names (structure) so that it can be read by the Trading Partner's EDI system.

Once the mappings are understood, the next critical component is the translation, which converts the data to a specific file format. For example, the business system may be capable of importing and exporting CSV files, but the EDI requirement is to send the file as X12 (or Edifact, etc.) so the system will need to "translate" the outbound CSV files to X12 for transmission by EDI, and will need to receive incoming EDI X12 and translate the file to CSV for import.

The EDI Consultants at Cloud Based EDI have extensive experience in building EDI document mappings & translations and are happy to help you become EDI compliant with your Trading Partners. Please contact us today for more information or assistance.