Product: Integrations

Article Link: http://help.truecommerce.com/en/articles/11163581-integrations-sales-order-process-sop

When dealing with Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) solutions such as Transaction Manager or your Business System you will often deal with a common set of EDI Transactions that revolve around your business process. However - you can generalize most EDI processes into three types, Sales Order Process (SOP), Purchase Order Process (POP), and Warehouse Process (WHS).

The Sales Order Process (SOP) is typically associated with your Business System's Account Receivables module that typically offer Sales Orders, Invoices, and Shipments that are associated with Customers.

A typical Sales Order Process (SOP) solution will offer three primary EDI Transactions at a base level. An Inbound Purchase Order (850), an Outbound Invoice (810), and an Outbound Advance Ship Notice (856).

The Inbound Purchase Order (850) is sent by your Trading Partner and received into the Transaction Manager Inbox where it it can either be reviewed, or sent to your Business System through the Export action which will in turn typically creates a Sales Order.

A typical Inbound Purchase Order (850) contains a list of Items the buyer (your Trading Partner) is requesting to purchase off of you along with the pricing and quantity requested for that item, as well as shipping information such as the Address or the Store/Distribution Code

Once your Business System has processed the Purchase Order, all items that have been confirmed will be pushed into an Invoice within your Business System that then acts as a bill to be paid by your Trading Partner.

This Invoice is then imported back into Transaction Manager as an Outbound Invoice (810) EDI document to be sent back to your Trading Partner to confirm the amount owed.

If your system support Shipments in order to track the delivery of any items sold then a separate Shipment document will typically be created (or your Invoice may simply notate Items Shipped Quantity) that provides more details on the actual shipping of the items such as the Carrier, Weight, Tracking Numbers, or Delivery Dates.

These Shipments will be imported into Transaction Manager as an Outbound Advance Ship Notice (856) which notifies your Trading Partner of when the Shipment was sent, and what the expected delivery details are.

A Purchase Order Acknowledgement (855) for most systems is simply the Sales Order within your Business System after it's been processed to confirm the committed quantity to be shipped.

Transaction Manager will generate this Purchase Order Acknowledgement (855) by importing the Sales Order back from your Business System and notifying the Trading Partner of any Items that may either be out of stock, limited stock, or rejected entirely.

If your Trading Partner requests a refund/credit or debit adjustment to an Invoice you've previously sent to them then you may be requested to send a Credit Memo. Some Business Systems have a unique Credit type document, while others simply negate the Quantity or Price within the Invoice itself to show it as a negative balance indicating you owe the amount listed.

These are typically imported into Transaction Manager as a Credit/Debit Adjustment (812) although some Trading Partners may request them to be brought in as an Invoice (810) with a Credit flag or negative total.

Some Trading Partners may want to keep track of how much inventory you have on hand, and request either Daily, Weekly, or Monthly updates to those inventory numbers typically sent to them as an Inventory Inquiry/Advice (846) or sometimes called an Inventory Report.

An Item Catalog (832) can also be used by some Trading Partners to get a full listing of the items you carry. But both cross-reference items you mark as sellable to this Trading Partner with your Inventory within your Business System.

For a Sales Order Process (SOP) Trading Partner most Business Systems sort all Sales Orders, Invoices, and Shipments under the Accounts Receivable or Sales category to help organize Trading Partners into Customers that purchase goods from your business.

Typically in a Business System any Trading Partner that purchases goods from you, and will receive invoices requesting payments will be labeled as a Customer within your Business System.

Customer information often contains details regarding their Sales History, Billing Information, Shipping Locations, and Discounts Applied to help track the customer's trades with you.

rev 4/29/2025