EDI 997 Functional Acknowledgment: What is an EDI 997 transaction set and how does it work

What is EDI 997 Functional Acknowledgment?

An EDI 997 Functional Acknowledgment is an electronic version of a receipt. The Functional acknowledgment tells a sending organization that a receiving organization has in fact successfully received EDI transactions. For example, when a buyer sends a supplier an 850 Purchase Order, the buyer will want the supplier to send a 997 Functional Acknowledgment back to indicate that the Purchase Order was received.

EDI 997 Functional Acknowledgement Key Data

• AK1 – Functional Group Response Header (Group Acknowledgment)
• AK2 – Transaction Set Header (Document Acknowledgment)
• AK3 – Data Segment Note (Reports errors in specific segments of the document received)
• AK4 – Data Element Note (Reports errors in specific elements of the document received)
• AK5 – Transaction Set Response Trailer (Type of Acknowledgement)

How the EDI 997 Functional Acknowledgment Works

Part of the EDI Functional Acknowledgment document will contain envelope information. The envelope information specifies which trading partner is sending the document and which trading partner is receiving the document

EDI is a mature electronic document format that has been carefully defined both by the companies that require their trading partners to use EDI and by standards bodies. The two recognized standards for EDI are ANSI X.12 and UN/EDIFACT. ANSI X.12 is by far the most widely used standard in the

United States. UN/EDIFACT is more popular outside the United States, although it is used by US automotive manufactures.

Each EDI 997 Functional Acknowledgment document will have data organized into segments and data elements. Each segment contains at least one data element. Each data element is a data field.

Examples of data elements on the Functional Acknowledgement include vendor number, item, quantity, price per item, street address, city, state and zip code, just like on a paper Functional Acknowledgement. The standards bodies have allowed for every conceivable possibility for data on the EDI Functional Acknowledgment document. Any one company will use a small subset of the available choices within the ANS X.12 or UN/EDIFACT standards.

EDI plays a vital role in vendor compliance as just about all major retailers require EDI transactions.

To learn more on how we can implement EDI for Functional Acknowledgment, and integrate with any of your internal systems, please contact Infocon Systems at +1 888-339-0722 or email at sales@infoconn.com. We’d love to help.