Subscription Level: Unlimited
Overview
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is a standard used across multiple industries to connect systems and streamline workflows. The benefits of using EDI include:
Reduction in the amount of time spent performing data entry
Elimination of errors during the data entry process
Opens up new business opportunities with customers/shippers that require EDI.
To facilitate the translation and exchange of documents, we've partnered with Kleinschmidt, who you will need to reach out to and have an agreement in place before exchanging messages.
Requirements
As our integration with Kleinschmidt takes advantage of our API, you will need to generate an API token and provide this to your account rep at Kleinschmidt. This can be done within Configuration by:
Navigate to the Integrations > Third Party
Fill in "Kleinschmidt" in the name field and then click Create
Copy the generated token, and email it to the Kleinschmidt team.
Accessing the EDI Module
Once testing has been completed and approved between Tailwind, Kleinschmidt and your trading partner, you'll notice in the top navigation bar the "EDI" module is enabled. As your load tenders start to come in from your trading partner, a red circle will be displayed to indicate that you have a new unread tender that needs action taken on it.
Navigating EDI
Upon clicking on "EDI," you'll notice that the module is broken out it two sections, 'Incoming' and 'Outgoing.'
All inbound messages from all trading partners will be found in the 'Incoming' List. This will be where you'll find your Load Tenders (204)
You'll notice that each message has a colour-coded status associated with it for:
Not Read = New Tender that hasn't been viewed by any users of Tailwind
Read = Tender that has been seen by a user, but no action has been taken
Accepted = User has reviewed the tender and accepted the load
Declined = A user has reviewed the tender and declined the load
Working with Load Tenders
When clicking into one of your load tenders from the incoming list, you'll be able to review the details and then either accept or decline the tender.
If you need to decline the tender, you will need to provide a reason using the provided drop-down.
Upon clicking on either of these buttons, you'll see that it's generated an outbound message (990) to send to your trading partner.
Outbound messages
Much like our incoming list, this is where you'll find your outbound messages to all of your trading partners, and again each message has its own status:
Not Sent – Queued for Kleinschmidt to receive
Sent - Kleinschmidt has received the message
Accepted - The message was accepted by the trading partner
Declined – The message had an issue and was declined by the trading partner
Shipment Statuses (214)
If your customer has requested that you send Shipment Status messages through the system, there will be little change to your normal workflow.
The dispatch gets updated either through POD Complete or by a dispatcher updating the dispatch directly, and the corresponding Shipment Status message will be generated behind the scenes.
Customer Invoicing (210)
If your customer has requested to receive their invoices via EDI, you'll need to modify the invoice method in their customer record. The rest of the invoicing process will remain the same, and the system will create an EDI message instead of an email to your customer.
