Glossary of EDI Terminology

ANSI (American National Standards Institute): The organization responsible for developing and maintaining EDI standards in the United States.

ASC X12 (Accredited Standards Committee X12): The committee responsible for developing and maintaining EDI standards in the United States.

EDI (Electronic Data Interchange): The electronic exchange of business documents between trading partners in a standardized format.

EDIFACT (Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport): The international EDI standard used primarily in Europe.

XML (Extensible Markup Language): A markup language used for the exchange of structured data between computer systems.

VAN (Value-Added Network): A third-party service provider that facilitates the exchange of EDI documents between trading partners.

AS2 (Applicability Statement 2): A protocol for exchanging EDI documents securely over the internet.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol): A protocol for transferring files over the internet.

ISA (Interchange Control Header): The beginning segment of an EDI transaction set that contains information about the sender and receiver of the document.

GS (Functional Group Header): The segment of an EDI transaction set that identifies the type of document being exchanged and provides additional control information.

ST (Transaction Set Header): The segment of an EDI transaction set that identifies the type of document being exchanged.

SE (Transaction Set Trailer): The segment of an EDI transaction set that marks the end of the document.

EDI Translator: Software that translates EDI documents into a format that can be read by a company’s internal systems.

Mapping: The process of translating data from one format to another, such as from a company’s internal format to an EDI format.

Trading Partner: A company or organization that exchanges EDI documents with another company or organization.

Document Type: A specific type of EDI document, such as a purchase order or invoice.

Transaction Set: A group of related EDI documents that are exchanged between trading partners, such as a purchase order and an invoice.

Contact us for any of your EDI questions or needs at EDIsupport@acom.com