---
title: Adding and modifying EDI trading partners
description: The step by step guide you need for setting up new trading partners or adjusting existing ones. You will need to first obtain a license for the EDI trading partner from your Acctivate sales rep.
---

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April 10, 2025

# Adding and modifying EDI trading partners

## The step by step guide you need for setting up new trading partners or adjusting existing ones. You will need to first obtain a license for the EDI trading partner from your Acctivate sales rep.

There are two types of Trading Partners in Acctivate – **Customer** and **Warehouse**. Below you will find detailed instructions on how to create or edit an EDI Trading Partner in Acctivate. If you’re wanting to Edit an existing trading partner, this article explains all the available options as it goes through creating a new one. Check out the [EDI webinar](https://help.acctivate.com/webinars/edi-process-oct-2015/) for an in depth demo on how to set this up.

1. Go to **File \> Configuration Management \> EDI \> Trading Partners**
2. To add a new partner, click **New**. To edit an existing partner, select the partner in question and click **Edit**.  
   ![](https://hub.acctivate.com/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png-Jul-01-2024-03-45-32-0585-PM.png?width=688&height=458&name=image-png-Jul-01-2024-03-45-32-0585-PM.png)

#### Customer Trading Partner

1. After following the steps above by clicking **New**, select the **Trading Partner Type** of **Customer**
2. Give the new partner a **Partner ID**. This is the short name found in the EDI Transaction files.
3. Assign a **Partner Name** which is typically the full customer name  
   ![New Customer Trading Partner](https://help.acctivate.com/wp-content/uploads/New-Customer-Trading-Partner.jpg)
4. **Save** the new partner
5. Click **Add Item** to add assign this new trading partner to a customer in Acctivate using the lookup window. If you are needing to assign multiple customers to this trading partner, you’ll need to make sure the ship to locations match up to the store numbers being sent in the EDI transaction files.
6. To add the specific documents, click **Add Transaction** and select the proper transaction files. Do this for each type of file you require – **Customer Purchase Order, Customer Advance Ship Notice, **or **Customer Invoice**.  
   ![New Trading Partner](https://help.acctivate.com/wp-content/uploads/New-Trading-Partner.jpg)
7. For more options, click **Show Advanced  
   ![Advanced Options](https://help.acctivate.com/wp-content/uploads/Advanced-Options.jpg)**
8. Leave **Partner Qualifier **as **ZZ** unless instructed otherwise
9. The **Partner Vendor ID**, **Our Qualifier**, **Our ID, **and **ICN** cannot be updated.
10. Usage will be set to **Production** or **Testing** depending on where you are in the EDI implementation with your EDI provider.
11. If you need to **Consolidate Shipments, **check the box.
12. The **Defaults for Incoming **and **Outgoing Files** will default based on the information specified in the **\<system\>** trading partner. You can override this value if the file paths are different from the default in this section. To override the **Mailbox File Mask, **double-click in the field to see available fields to pull from the trading partner setup or type what should always be listed.  
    To set up FTP mailbox paths, follow [this guide](https://hub.acctivate.com/articles/setup/edi/ftp-connection-set-up-for-edi?hsLang=en).
13. If the **File Extension** is different from the **\<system\>, **enter it in this section.
14. You can set specific options in the **Option Name/Setting** section. The available options are: 
      - **Packaging Option – Automatic, Single Carton, **or** No Auto Packaging**. This tells Acctivate how to handle the Trading Partner orders in **Packaging Manager**. For more information on these options, [go to this article](https://hub.acctivate.com/articles/packaging-options-for-edi-configuration?hsLang=en). 
      - **Store as Alternate Customer ID** – check the box if you wish to store as the alternate Customer ID.
15. The remaining steps go through each Customer Transaction for EDI. As always, the **Mailbox Path, File Mask,** and **File Extension** default to what’s setup in the **\<system\>**trading partner. Users can override when it needs to be a different value than the default. You can also enable or disable the transaction file, if necessary: 
      1. **Customer Purchase Order (850)** Options: 
             - **Product Search Order** – The default search order is **Customer Product ID (BP) \>Product ID (VP) \> Product UPC (UPC) \> Alternate Product ID (VP)**. If the 850 does not include a matching product record, you will see a warning in the EDI tool.
             - **Ship To Distribution Center** – Yes or No depending on whether you’re shipping to a distribution center for your trading partner  
               ![Customer PO](https://help.acctivate.com/wp-content/uploads/Customer-PO.jpg)
      2. **Customer Advance Ship Notice (856)** 
             - Include SSCCAI – This tells Acctivate to include the SSCC application identifier in the 856 ASN transaction file export. This will add a prefix of '00', changing the 18 digit SSCC code to 20 digits. 
             - **Shipment Structure** – **Choose Pick & Pack (SOPI), Standard Pack (SOIP),** or **No Pack (SOI)** based on the specifications of your trading partner. Check out our [help article on these structures](https://help.acctivate.com/articles/3920/) to see what is included.
      3. **Customer Invoice (810)** 
             - **Invoice Selection** – **EDI Only** will prompt Acctivate to only create 810 documents for orders created via the EDI tool.** Include All** will create an 810 document for any order for the customer assigned to the trading partner regardless of how it was created.
16. **Save** when complete

#### Warehouse Trading Partner

1. After clicking **New**, select a **Trading Partner Type** of **Warehouse**.  
   ![3PL Warehouse TP](https://help.acctivate.com/wp-content/uploads/3PL-Warehouse-TP.jpg)
2. Give the new partner a Partner ID, Partner Name and Save the new Partner. 
3. Click **Add Item **to select an Acctivate Warehouse to assign to the new 3PL
4. Select **Add Transaction** to add the **Warehouse Order** and **Warehouse Shipment** transactions
5. **Show Advanced** to update any **Mailbox Path, File Mask, **or **File Extensions** for these transactions  
   If the Mailbox Path uses an FTP folder, review [this guide](https://hub.acctivate.com/articles/setup/edi/ftp-connection-set-up-for-edi?hsLang=en)for setup.
6. The following information lists the different options for the 3PL Warehouse documents. As always, you can override the Mailbox Path, File Mask, and File Extension for each transaction, if different than **\<system\>**: 
     1. **Warehouse Order (940)** 
            - **Filter Orders By Work Flow** – By default, the Warehouse Orders will only pull orders with a work flow status of Ready to Pick. If you want to use a different work flow status, choose it here.
            - **Order Work Flow Status – **Choose the work flow status to use after you’ve created the 940 and sent to your warehouse.
     2. **Warehouse Shipment (945) **– The only thing you can modify for this document is the **Mailbox Path, File Mask, **or **File Extension.**
7. **Save** when complete

#### Delete or Disable Trading Partner

There are three ways to remove the transaction files from the EDI tool.

1. **Remove Partner **– Only allowed when trading partner not listed on any Acctivate transactions  
   ![Remove Partner](https://help.acctivate.com/wp-content/uploads/Remove-Partner.jpg)
2. **Remove Transaction** – From the **Partner Options **screen, click **Remove Tran** and select the EDI transaction you wish to remove from the partner.  
   ![Remove Transaction](https://help.acctivate.com/wp-content/uploads/Remove-Transaction.jpg)
3. **Disable** – If the trading partner is listed on transactions, you’ll need to disable the transactions themselves. We block deleting trading partners with history. Go into each Transaction and uncheck the **Enabled **box.  
   ![Disable partner](https://help.acctivate.com/wp-content/uploads/Disable-partner.jpg)

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