How Globus Systems keeps your supply chain talking to itself — smoothly.
If you’ve worked with large retailers, logistics providers, manufacturers, or healthcare companies, you’ve already felt the impact of EDI transactions – even if you weren’t calling them that.
Every time a purchase order is raised, an invoice is issued, a shipment moves, or a claim is filed, there’s a good chance an EDI document is moving quietly in the background, keeping both sides in sync. When those flows break, you see it immediately: delayed orders, mismatched inventory, chargebacks, and frustrated trading partners.
This guide breaks down what EDI transactions are, how the common codes work, and where standards and communication methods fit in – with a very practical lens:
How do you keep all of this working reliably, at scale, using Cleo – and a cleo cloud integration partner like Globus Systems?
What Are EDI Transactions?
At the simplest level, an EDI transaction is just a business document in a standard electronic format.
Instead of emailing PDFs or passing around spreadsheets, your systems exchange structured messages such as:
- A purchase order from buyer to supplier
- An invoice from supplier to buyer
- An advance ship notice (ASN) from warehouse to retailer
- A payment remittance from payer to payee
Each of these messages is assigned an EDI code – a three-digit number that tells every system in the chain exactly what kind of document it is and what to expect inside it.
A few everyday examples:
- EDI 850 – Purchase Order
- EDI 810 – Invoice
- EDI 856 – Ship Notice / Advanced Ship Notice (ASN)
- EDI 820 – Payment Order / Remittance Advice
- EDI 997 – Functional Acknowledgment
When these documents move through a platform like Cleo Integration Cloud, the information flows directly from one application to another — ERP to WMS, TMS to finance, retailer portal to supplier backend — without manual re-typing. That’s the real power of EDI: structured data, moving automatically, in a format that everyone in your ecosystem understands.
Why EDI Codes Matter More Than They Look
It’s easy to see EDI codes as just “numbers on a spec sheet.” In reality, they are the shared language that lets hundreds of systems collaborate without constantly re-negotiating formats.
For example:
- An EDI 850 Purchase Order tells a supplier exactly which items to ship, how many, to which location, and when.
- An EDI 855 Purchase Order Acknowledgement confirms back what will ship, what changed, and when the buyer can expect it.
- An EDI 856 ASN gives the receiver a heads-up on what’s coming, how it’s packed, and how to prepare their dock or store.
- An EDI 810 Invoice closes the loop with billing details and payment terms.
- A 997 Functional Acknowledgment confirms that a document was received and processed at a technical level.
Put together, these EDI transactions define your order-to-cash and procure-to-pay lifecycles. When codes are mapped correctly and exchanges are stable, your supply chain feels “quiet” and predictable. When they’re not, your team spends their day chasing down errors.
That’s exactly where a cleo cloud integration partner like Globus Systems comes in – not just to set up these codes, but to make sure they keep running reliably as your trading partner network grows.
EDI Standards: The “Grammar” Behind the Codes
If EDI codes are the words, EDI standards are the grammar and punctuation. They define:
- Which pieces of information must appear in a document
- In what order
- With what structure
- Using which separators and qualifiers
Every EDI document is built from three core pieces:
- Elements – the smallest building blocks (e.g., item number, quantity, price, city, state).
- Segments – groups of related elements (e.g., a segment for header info, a segment for line items, another for totals).
- Transaction Sets – the complete document (e.g., “this whole file is an EDI 850 purchase order”).
Different regions and industries tend to rally around different standards, such as:
- ANSI ASC X12 – Dominant in North America across logistics, retail, finance, healthcare, and more.
- UN/EDIFACT – Widely used internationally, especially in Europe for trade, transport, and customs.
- TRADACOMS – Historically important in UK retail, still seen in some legacy environments.
- ODETTE – Focused on the European automotive industry with specialized messaging needs.
Most organizations don’t want to manage all of this complexity internally. Cleo takes care of the heavy lifting at the platform level, and Globus Systems translates that into mappings, transformations, and monitoring tailored to your business processes.
EDI Communication Options: AS2 vs VAN (In Plain Language)
Once you know what to send, the next question is how to send it.
Two of the most common options you’ll hear about are AS2 and VAN.
AS2 (Applicability Statement 2)
Think of AS2 as a secure, direct, encrypted tunnel over the internet between you and your trading partners. It uses HTTP/HTTPS and digital certificates to:
- Encrypt the data
- Digitally sign the message
- Provide message disposition notifications (MDNs) so you know whether it was successfully received
AS2 is:
- Widely required by major retailers and big trading partners (like Walmart and others)
- Cost-effective for high volumes (no per-document VAN fees)
- Flexible enough to handle EDI, XML, flat files, and more
Cleo Integration Cloud provides robust AS2 connectivity out of the box. As your cleo cloud integration partner, Globus Systems designs, configures, and monitors those connections so your team isn’t stuck decoding MDN errors at 2 a.m.
VAN (Value-Added Network)
A VAN is more like a post office:
- Each partner has a “mailbox”
- Messages get routed through the VAN, stored, then picked up by the receiver
- You usually pay based on volume or mailbox usage
VANs are familiar and can simplify some connectivity, but:
- They introduce an extra layer between you and your trading partners
- They can become costly at scale
- They may not offer the same real-time control and visibility as modern cloud-based options
Most modern ecosystems are shifting toward AS2 and API-based connectivity via platforms like Cleo. Globus Systems helps you modernize without breaking existing VAN-based flows overnight. You get a practical transition plan, not a big-bang disruption.
EDI Codes by Industry: A Quick Orientation
You don’t need to memorize every EDI code. But it helps to recognize the “families” you’ll meet most often in your own industry.
Transportation & Logistics
Logistics-focused EDI transactions help carriers, 3PLs, and shippers stay aligned on loads, routes, status, and billing, such as:
- EDI 204 – Motor Carrier Load Tender
- EDI 210 – Motor Carrier Freight Details and Invoice
- EDI 214 – Shipment Status
- EDI 990 – Response to Load Tender
In Cleo, these messages can feed directly into your TMS and visibility tools, tying status updates to real-world milestones.
Manufacturing & Retail
Retail and manufacturing flows are built around orders, forecasts, inventory, and replenishment, including:
- EDI 830 – Planning Schedule with Release Capability
- EDI 840 – Request for Quotation
- EDI 850 – Purchase Order
- EDI 852 – Product Activity Data
- EDI 855 / 856 / 857 / 860 / 870 / 945 / 947 – Various order, shipment, and status messages
Globus Systems designs these flows inside Cleo so your ERP, WMS, and planning systems stay synchronized with retailer and distributor requirements.
Finance & Payments
Finance-related transactions link billing, adjustments, and payments, for example:
- EDI 810 – Invoice
- EDI 812 – Credit/Debit Adjustment
- EDI 820 – Payment Order / Remittance Advice
Clean mapping and reconciliation between these transactions reduces manual finance work and prevents payment disputes.
Healthcare & Insurance
In healthcare, EDI codes handle eligibility, claims, and payments, such as:
- EDI 270 / 271 – Eligibility Inquiry and Response
- EDI 276 / 277 – Claim Status Request and Response
- EDI 835 – Claim Payment / Advice
- EDI 837 – Healthcare Claim
Because these flows sit under strict regulatory pressure, standards compliance and security are non-negotiable. Cleo’s platform capabilities combined with Globus Systems’ implementation and cleo support help you maintain that compliance without sacrificing agility.
How EDI Transactions Look Inside Cleo
If you’re using Cleo Integration Cloud, EDI transactions are not just files on a server – they are live, traceable events in a unified cockpit.
A few examples of what this looks like in practice:
- A 997 Functional Acknowledgement gets automatically sent back once a partner’s document is validated, giving you confidence that the message was accepted at a technical level.
- An EDI 856 ASN can be auto-generated from your WMS or supply chain visibility tool and sent to your retail partner as soon as goods are packed.
- An EDI 810 Invoice can fire automatically once the EDI 850 purchase order and dispatch events reach the right status.
Cleo gives you powerful monitoring, alerting, and drill-down tools. Globus Systems adds the missing piece:
We connect those flows to your specific business logic, dashboards, and exception processes – and then provide the ongoing cleo support you need as partners, volumes, and requirements evolve.
Why Work with a cleo cloud integration partner like Globus Systems?
You could, in theory, attempt to build and maintain all of this EDI complexity on your own. But most teams quickly run into a familiar pattern:
- Internal IT is already stretched
- Business users don’t want to learn EDI syntax
- Trading partners all have slightly different variants of the “same” standard
- Each new retailer, carrier, or supplier introduces yet another mapping set
As a dedicated cleo cloud integration partner, Globus Systems helps you:
- Onboard trading partners faster
- Reuse proven mapping templates and frameworks
- Handle partner-specific quirks without breaking the global model
- Stabilize existing EDI flows
- Clean up legacy mappings and brittle point-to-point scripts
- Set up proactive monitoring, alerts, and retry logic
- Gain real operational visibility
- Tie Cleo transaction views to business KPIs (orders, revenue, SLA adherence)
- Provide dashboards your operations and finance teams can actually use
- Rely on responsive cleo support
- When a critical trading partner changes specs, you’re not alone
- When something fails at 3 a.m., you have experts who know both Cleo and your process landscape
Our role is simple: let Cleo be the powerful engine, and let Globus Systems be the partner who tunes, extends, and maintains it for your real-world operations.
EDI Transactions: Common Questions, Straight Answers
1. How much does it really cost to implement EDI?
There’s no single price tag. Your total cost depends on:
- Whether you choose cloud vs. on-premise
- How many trading partners and documents you’re handling
- The complexity of mapping to your back-office systems
- Ongoing support and change management needs
The more important question is: What is the cost of not having stable EDI? Manual data entry, penalties, missed SLAs, and lost relationships often cost far more than a well-designed EDI setup.
Globus Systems helps you model both sides – investment and ROI – so you can build a business case that makes sense.
- Are EDI transactions secure?
They can be – when done correctly.
Key risk areas include:
- Unsecured endpoints or old servers
- Weak access controls and credentials
- Poor encryption or certificate management
- Lack of monitoring and auditing
Cleo Integration Cloud provides a strong base of encryption, certificates, and security controls. Globus Systems layers on secure architecture, role-based access, and operational best practices so your EDI flows meet both technical and compliance expectations. Combined with ongoing cleo support, that security posture isn’t just designed once – it’s maintained.
- How do we get started if we’ve never used EDI before (or our current setup is a mess)?
A practical roadmap usually looks like this:
- Clarify business goals
- Faster order processing? Fewer chargebacks? Better visibility?
- Inventory your current flows
- Who are your key trading partners? Which documents are in scope (850, 810, 856, 997, etc.)?
- Design your target architecture in Cleo
- Decide how Cleo connects to your ERP, WMS, TMS, and other systems.
- Prioritize partner onboarding and migration
- Start with your highest-impact partners and flows.
- Implement, test, and monitor
- Validate mappings, automate acknowledgments, set up alerts, and refine exceptions.
Globus Systems guides you through each of these steps, from initial assessment to steady-state operations, so you don’t have to learn every technical detail of EDI to reap the benefits.
Bringing It All Together
EDI transactions are not going away. In fact, as supply chains get more digital and more global, the quality of your EDI implementation is increasingly a competitive advantage:
- Fewer manual touches
- Faster and more accurate orders
- Better partner experience
- Stronger compliance and audit trails
Cleo gives you the platform to make that possible. A cleo cloud integration partner like Globus Systems makes sure it works the way your business actually runs – and keeps working as you grow.
Want to simplify your EDI landscape?
If you’re looking to:
- Consolidate fragmented EDI tools
- Modernize VAN-based connections
- Onboard high-value partners faster
- Or simply get reliable cleo support for your existing Cleo environment
Let’s talk.
Globus Systems can help you turn EDI from a constant headache into a quiet, dependable backbone for your B2B operations.
