Custom EDIFACT integration software for wholesalers
Appfront builds software that handles EDIFACT traffic with your trading partners. The integration retrieves incoming messages via AS2, SFTP or your network service provider, checks the syntax, confirms with a CONTRL and converts ORDERS into orders in your ERP. Outbound, it works the other way round: the delivery note becomes DESADV, the invoice becomes INVOIC, the product file becomes PRICAT. Rejected messages go into a work queue. So nobody has to retype order lines from a mailbox any more.
What is EDIFACT integration software?
EDIFACT integration software translates between your trading partners' messages and the fields in your own systems. Inbound: an order sent as ORDERS becomes an order in your ERP, with the right customer, the right delivery address and your own item numbers. Outbound: your delivery note becomes a DESADV, your invoice an INVOIC. The software monitors the envelope, sends a CONTRL back and records what happened to each message.
Without an integration like this, messages end up in a mailbox or in a conversion tool that nobody dares to change. A food wholesaler receives ORDERS from a retail chain every day, prints them and retypes the lines into the ERP. An item with a changed GTIN is then booked incorrectly, the delivery is wrong and the invoice comes back with an APERAK. After that, the department spends its time on the phone instead of delivering.
We build custom software because no two trading partners ask for the same thing. One works with an EANCOM subset and requires DESADV with an SSCC per pallet, another only wants ORDERS and INVOIC. On top of that come your own agreements: tiered pricing, packaging, splitting order lines per warehouse. A generic package doesn't know your item master data, nor the difference between your customers and their branches.
Receiving and sending messages
The software retrieves messages via AS2, SFTP or your network service provider, unpacks the UNB envelope, checks the syntax and confirms with a CONTRL. Outbound, it builds the envelope per partner.
Mapping per trading partner
For each partner, you define which segments are populated, which GLN belongs to which debtor and how GTIN codes are converted to your item numbers. Add new partners without a new project.
Work queue for rejected messages
Every message that fails validation appears in a work queue with the rejected line. Your employee corrects it and resubmits it, without involving a supplier.
How we build your EDIFACT integration software
We start with the messages you already receive today, including the ones that were rejected last week.
For each trading partner, we go through which messages you exchange, via which channel, in which subset and with which agreements on packaging, prices and delivery addresses. Sample files guide this process.
Trading partners with their GLN, branches, items with GTIN and your own numbers, units and VAT codes. We set up the translation tables and check them against real messages from your archive.
Receive, validate, convert and pass on to your ERP or WMS, with confirmations sent back and a worklist for anything that gets rejected. Outgoing DESADV and INVOIC follow from your own process steps.
We take the integrations with your ERP, WMS and accounting system live, first run alongside your existing route, and then take over management, monitoring and onboarding of new partners at our own cost.
What EDIFACT integration software actually does
The components below come up in almost every EDIFACT integration. Which ones you need depends on the messages your partners require and on the systems where the work happens.
Message traffic per channel
Collecting and delivering via AS2, SFTP or a network service provider, with retries, confirmations and an alert when a channel goes quiet.
Mapping tables
Define, per partner and per message type, which segments and fields are populated, including fixed values, units, rounding rules and the texts your customer expects.
Validation and acknowledgement
Syntax checks on the envelope and segments, content checks on customer, item and price, and a CONTRL or APERAK sent back to the sender.
Message search
Search by order number, GLN, item or date, with the original file, the conversion and the status shown side by side.
Alerts
An alert when a message gets stuck, a partner sends nothing on a working day, or an invoice has been rejected by the recipient.
Certificates and keys
Management of certificates, keys and login credentials per trading partner, with a warning well before a certificate or password expires and traffic grinds to a halt.
Who we build EDIFACT integration software for
The software is intended for organisations that exchange orders, deliveries and invoices with fixed trading partners every day, and where re-keying data costs money.
Food and non-food wholesale
Retail chains require ORDERS, DESADV with SSCC and INVOIC in a fixed subset. The core here is the mapping per chain and the checking of item codes.
Manufacturers and suppliers
Call-off messages and delivery schedules drive production planning. The core here is converting call-offs into orders and reporting shipments back.
Logistics service providers
Instructions and status messages come from several clients at the same time. The core here is the integration with the WMS and the separation per client.
Technical and medical wholesale
Price lists and item files change frequently here. The core is processing PRICAT and maintaining customer-specific item numbers alongside your own numbers.
Technology and integrations
This page is about connecting your own systems to the EDIFACT traffic of your trading partners. For e-invoices, see our page on the Peppol integration, for orders in a single system our page on a custom order management system, and for wholesalers our page on wholesale software. You can read about our approach on custom software development.
Why Appfront for your EDIFACT integration software?
An EDIFACT integration is only as good as the master data beneath it. That is what we build on: first get the translation tables right, and only then automate.
We work with your own messages
We test on real files from your archive, including the rejected ones. That way you run into problems during the build rather than at the first delivery.
A new partner is not a new project
Because mapping, code tables and channel settings per partner are simply configurable on screen, you add a trading partner without any code having to be changed anywhere.
Your people see what went wrong
Rejected messages show the line and segment where the error sits. Your back office fixes it themselves instead of raising a ticket.
Security and privacy in EDIFACT integration software
The integration holds order data, delivery addresses, contact persons, purchase prices and invoice lines. Access is role-based: the back office sees orders and worklists, finance sees invoices, and administrators see certificates and mappings. Every change to a mapping and every manual resend is logged with the user and timestamp. Personal data of contact persons falls under the GDPR, and invoice messages under your statutory tax retention obligations.
The software runs in a European data centre, with encrypted storage and daily backups. Integrations with your ERP, WMS, accounting system and the network service provider use their own keys, which can be revoked per integration.
Frequently asked questions about EDIFACT integration software
Questions that wholesalers and manufacturers ask before getting started.
The software receives and sends EDIFACT messages on your behalf. Incoming ORDERS become orders in your ERP, using your own customer and article numbers. Outbound, the software turns your delivery note into a DESADV and your invoice into an INVOIC. It also stores every file and puts rejected messages in a worklist.
You can, but you don't always have to. If you work with partners who communicate via a network, that connection stays in place and the software integrates with it. If you exchange directly via AS2 or SFTP, the software handles that itself. In practice, both routes often exist side by side.
We build what your partners require. In practice that is mainly ORDERS, ORDRSP, DESADV, RECADV, INVOIC and PRICAT, supplemented by CONTRL and APERAK for acknowledgements. If you work in manufacturing, call-off and delivery schedule messages are added. For each partner, we document which subset and which version applies.
That message is not silently discarded. The software rejects it, reports the reason back to the sender and puts it in a worklist showing the segment and line where it goes wrong. Your colleague adds the missing article number, for example, and resubmits the message, without needing an administrator.
Yes. We connect to the interface your ERP offers, via an API, an import route or the database when that is the only option. The same approach applies to your WMS and your accounting system. We document per system which fields are populated and which system is the source of truth.
That is possible within the same integration. Some of your customers, especially government bodies and healthcare institutions, ask for an e-invoice in a format other than INVOIC. The software then generates the right message per customer from the same invoice data, so your finance team only has to invoice once.
Check that first. If your ERP has an EDI module and you work with a few partners who use a standard subset, that module is often enough. Custom development pays off once you have many partners with their own arrangements, have mappings adjusted by an external party every time, or need messages to flow through multiple systems.
Want to see every ORDERS message arrive in your ERP without retyping?
Tell us which trading partners you exchange with, which messages they require and which ERP the work lands in. We will show you what the mapping per partner, the worklist for rejected messages and the integration with your existing systems look like.