Gain visibility into your EDI transactions with Finale Inventory and SPS Commerce

With Finale Inventory's SPS Commerce EDI integration (electronic data integration), sellers can accelerate large partnerships by automating the exchange of order, shipment and invoice information with any physical or online retailer. When you integrate Finale with your business, SPS commerce functions as a sales channel while Finale Inventory functions as a control center for your entire selling operations.

 

If you use Finale, you can combine inventory management by using a complete EDI solution. Finale will help you cut costs, boost productivity and automate the supply chain processes that are most essential for your business. That way, you'll be able to move orders faster and bolster customer satisfaction.

 

SPS commerce works to replace outdated manual processes with automated and efficient cloud-based EDI processes. They have a number of solutions in place for drop shippers and suppliers to receive orders from a number of major marketplaces, including Walmart, Costco and other large retailers via EDI. SPS integrates easily into your Finale Inventory account, helping you seamlessly manage order management.

 

Finale Inventory, SPS Commerce, and ShipStation Workflow

There are two common configurations Finale supports for SPS Commerce customers.

For sellers working with trading partners that will ship using ShipStation, Finale Inventory will pull down all of the transactions using ShipStation.  SPS Commerce will be configured to push the Purchase Order (810) directly into ShipStation's platform, where ShipStation will communicate the Advanced Shipping Notice (856) and the Invoice (810).  Finale will communicate directly with SPS Commerce to provide their system with Inventory Advice (846).

 

Finale Inventory and SPS Commerce Workflow

When integrated only with Finale, the EDI integration syncs purchase orders (850) directly into Finale as sales orders. When you ship the sales order and create a Finale shipment, we'll automatically generate an Advance Shipping Notice (856). Lastly, you can configure Finale to push invoices (810) back to SPS commerce.

 

In addition to the above functionality, Finale can also provide SPS commerce with stock levels (Inventory Advice 846).

What is EDI?

 

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is when businesses electronically communicate with each other rather than using pen and paper. Businesses can now send data electronically rather than sending invoices and purchase orders via a phone call, fax or mail.

 

In order for this communication to be possible, you'll have to translate traditional documents into a format in a way that EDI software can interpret. While you don't need to understand this code, it transfers data between systems. The EDI software enables users to have readable document versions.

 

You can use Finale's EDI Integration to import and export documents with SPS Commerce. We support the following EDI documents:

 

• • 850: Purchase Order

 

• • 856: Advance Shipping Notice

 

• • 810: Invoice

 

• • 846: Inventory Advice

 

 

To find out more about SPS Commerce EDI and the benefits of integrating EDI with Finale Inventory, contact a Finale service representative.

 

How Does SPS EDI Inventory Management Work?

 

Businesses must have an infrastructure to support SPS EDI order management. The infrastructure must contain the following four elements:

 

• • Format standards: The information must be organized in a standard format, as the structure determines what data is included and what happens to it. Standardization through ANSI X12 helps businesses most efficiently exchange data. While ANSI X12 is the standard formatting, different companies have adopted varying EDI formatting standards. The United Nations/Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport, or UN/EDIFACT, is a standard frequently used outside the U.S.

 

• • Translation software: Translation software converts data into standard EDI formats.

 

• • EDI networks: Internet and devices such as smartphones and laptops have expanded how companies share documents. Direct EDI, or point-to-point EDI, is a direct connection between businesses with many regular transactions. EDI services network providers by using a secure third party's network to manage multiple communication protocols. Web and mobile EDI have made the entire process much easier by functioning over the internet, which is much more cost-effective.

 

• • Computers: You need a computer to support EDI infrastructure. Even small businesses can handle an EDI inventory system with a single computer. Mobile devices are also capable of managing EDI inventory management software.

 

 

Beyond the electronic infrastructure, you should also understand the basics of the EDI process. Companies use in-house applications to send business documents or data sets before converting them to an EDI format. Once the software ensures the documents are up to standards, the receiving organization gets the EDI document through a direct connection or an EDI network. Before adopting any EDI infrastructure, you should analyze your current system.

EDI Transaction Types

 

Businesses send multiple types of EDI transactions. Standards include:

 

• • ANSI ASC X12: The American National Standards Institute's Accredited Standards Committee developed the ANSI ASC X12 standard to support cross-industry EDI.

 

• • VICS: Retail merchandisers throughout North America use the Voluntary Interindustry Commerce Standard, managed by the Global Standards 1.

 

• • UN/EDIFACT: The United Nations Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport is an international standard for cross-organizational information exchange.

 

• • HIPAA: The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ensures patient data is protected in the health care industry. Sensitive health care data is secured by HIPAA.

 

• • SWIFT: The Society of Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication covers international trade payments and services.

 

• • RosettaNet: RosettaNet helps businesses manage their supply chains through eXtensible Markup Language, or XML.

 

 

Benefits of Using Finale's SPS Commerce Inventory Solution

 

Finale Inventory provides multiple benefits as your inventory management solution, including:

 

• • Auto-update your other marketplace listings: Finale tracks all stock levels and automatically updates stock levels back to stock quantities on every single online selling channel you use. Finale updates inventory every five minutes to help you automatically and quickly update stock levels. This keeps you from adding manual updates for each product. You can see a tutorial video here.

 

• • Restock forecasting: Finale Inventory has refined forecasting tools to examine your current inventory and historical sales data. This data is instrumental in helping you accurately estimate when it's time to re-order. Finale uses your inputs to automatically calculate dynamic reorder points. Finale considers supplier lead time, desired safety stock and expected sales growth so you can make more informed and faster purchasing decisions.

 

• • High transaction volumes support: Have peace of mind knowing that the Our architecture supports your growing business, as we can support up to two million products and up to one million transactions each month. If your business frequently has high transaction rates, you should consider leveraging our integrated turnkey mobile barcode solution. Barcodes can help to limit warehouse operations times throughout the process while improving accuracy.

 

• • Support for multiple shipping locations: You can easily manage your inventory across multiple online platforms with Shopify inventory management. You'll be able to control your stock car

 

• • oss multiple shipping warehouses with SPS commerce inventory management.

 

• • Product kitting: Your prospective customers will see more selling options if you set up kits or bundles from your existing products.

 

 

 

 

Contact Finale Inventory today to learn how our EDI integrations can provide inventory management solutions for your company!