To a great extent, an EDI (ANSI X12) transaction is frequently received as a “document” or “file” on a customer’s FTP site, or sometimes even via email. If you exchange EDI documents like this with your trading partner(s), ShipHawk WMS has the ability to read and write these EDI documents and process them into (and out of) NetSuite under certain conditions.

EDI X12 Transactions

ShipHawk WMS manages the creation, processing, and exchange for thousands of EDI documents on a daily basis for current customers. With configuration, ShipHawk WMS has the ability to process or create the following EDI documents:

EDI 810 Invoice
EDI 820 Payment Order/Remittance Advice
EDI 850 Purchase Order
EDI 855 Purchase Order Acknowledgment
EDI 856 Ship Notice/Manifest
EDI 860 Purchase Order Change Request
EDI 870 Order Status Report
EDI 888 Item Maintenance
EDI 940 Warehouse Shipping Order
EDI 944 Warehouse Stock Transfer Receipt Advice
EDI 945 Warehouse Shipping Advice
EDI 947 Warehouse Inventory Adjustment Advice
EDI 997 Functional Acknowledgment

ShipHawk WMS is not associated with an EDI value-added-network (VAN) nor does it support the exchange of EDIs using AS2 protocols. This Document Processing capability is not intended to be a comprehensive and general purpose EDI service; rather, it is a simple and streamlined way of processing EDI X12 documents into and out of NetSuite for specific purposes. Every engagement will require an evaluation as to whether ShipHawk WMS is sufficient, or a more general purpose EDI service is required, from a vendor such as SPS Commerce.

Integrating with a 3PL

ShipHawk WMS can also support efforts to integrate your 3PL (Third Party Logistics) Provider’s systems with NetSuite, even if your 3PL does not use ShipHawk WMS as a WMS. Frequently this is done using EDI documents as described above. Using the Document Processing engine, ShipHawk WMS can:

Extract Item Fulfillments (or Sales Orders) from NetSuite and convert them to EDI 940 Warehouse Shipping Orders for your 3PL to ship.
Extract Purchase Orders, Transfer Orders, and Return Authorizations from NetSuite and create EDI 850s (or other relevant receiving-related EDIs) for your 3PL to receive against.
Read EDI 945s and EDI 944s received from your 3PL to update Item Fulfillments as shipped and create Item Receipts in NetSuite, respectively.
Optionally read EDI 870s to mark your Item Fulfillments in NetSuite as Packed status, if desired.
Read Inventory Adjustments reported via an EDI 947 and post Inventory Adjustments, Inventory Transfers or Inventory Builds in NetSuite.
Issue an EDI 888 to your 3PL to synchronize their Item Master (items and kit BOMs) with NetSuite.

Many more EDI transactions and options exist as well.

ShipHawk WMS (and 3PL) processes will be optimized if you allow NetSuite to create an Item Fulfillment (in Pending Pick status) based on allocation logic and commitments defined in NetSuite. This Item Fulfillment transaction would then be sent to the 3PL provider (via an EDI 940). This is in contrast to sending a NetSuite Sales Order to a 3PL, which, in our opinion, is not best practice; If you send a Sales Order transaction to the warehouse, you are then leaving it up to the WMS to decide which orders or lines will be fulfilled in a constrained inventory scenario. Such decisions belong in the ERP, not the WMS, especially if your WMS is being run by a third party. Other ERPs have the same concept as a NetSuite Item Fulfillment, however, refer to it as a Delivery Note.

This unmatched flexibility is driven by the fact that ShipHawk WMS is a warehouse management system, and as such, uses the exact same real time processes to read and write the same transactions into and out of NetSuite. These capabilities are not general purpose integration tools, rather, they are specifically engineered APIs to support best practice warehouse business processes.

ShipHawk Guide

EDI Processing

EDI X12 Transactions

Integrating with a 3PL