EDI Receipts/Invoices and Return to Vendors

EDI, or Electronic Data Interchange, is the transfer of data from one computer system to another.
In Yellow Dog Inventory, EDI allows you to download invoices from your vendors to the program
automatically. 

Vendors participating in EDI send Invoices and Return to Vendors electronically, then Yellow
Dog Inventory picks them up through its sync applications with each vendor. The amount of
time between physical delivery and EDI will depend on the vendor and on how often the EDI
sync runs. Invoices from a Vendor can be pulled in as either a Receipt or an Invoice. It is
important to remember when setting up EDI that each item has the correct Vendor SKU
associated with it. If it does not, the EDI will create duplicate items.

These documents will be created in Yellow Dog Inventory automatically, but will need to be
reviewed for accuracy, then committed.

Invoices

After you’ve received a new order from an EDI vendor, search for the invoice number in the
Invoice Records list. You can also filter the records by the store where the items were received,
or by the vendor.
Open the document, review and verify that the items, counts, vendor prices, fees, and total are
correct based on what you physically received.

Item Aliases

Invoices created by EDI frequently include new items as well as those substituted by the vendor.
When a new item is created via EDI, it will appear in the Invoice Record with a notation in the
Notice column that it is a new item without any transactions. (Clients upgraded to v360 may
need to choose the Notice column from the Choose Columns menu.) These items can then be
substituted with existing items, if necessary, by clicking the Create Alias button. Please note the
items must have a one-to-one packaging relationship for this to work, e.g. 25# case to 25# bag. If
the item is new and not a substitute, the notice can be disregarded.

Create Alias will open the Item Lookup screen. From there, search for the existing item. In the example below, the new 990016 item is being aliased with the existing 300031 item. You can tell which items are new by the level they are assigned to. Most EDI levels begin with a 9.

Once you select the existing item, the system will prompt you to confirm the alias.

This function is related to the “Multiple Vendor SKUs” option on the Additional Vendors tab of the Item Editor. If you look at the old item after aliasing it, it should now have the new item’s vendor SKU as well as its existing one.

Once the invoice is correct, enter any notes you may have, then commit the invoice.

Set Item Alias in Receipts

Similarly, to the feature in the Invoices module, we have now added the ability to create Item Alias in Receipts.

Receipts created by EDI will frequently include new items as well as those substituted by the Vendor. In the later case, these items can be aliased to existing items by clicking on the Create Alias button.

The Create Alias button will open the Item Lookup screen which is used to search for the existing item. Once you select the existing item you want to alias, the system will prompt you to confirm.

The substitute item’s Vendor SKU will now be associated to the existing item you chose so any future orders that contain this substitution will bring in the existing item.

Return to Vendors

In cases when an invoice is changed upon delivery (i.e. a mistake is noted, or an item is damaged or unusable and must be returned), a vendor will either correct the invoice before sending it via EDI so that the invoice total will reflect the change, or they will send a separate return to vendor document. Return to vendors sent by EDI will be automatically created in Yellow Dog as well and will be found in the Return to Vendors list.

Like invoices, these documents will not be committed automatically and must be located based on return to vendor number, reviewed and committed.

If the line item total does not match the return to vendor record total, you will not be able to commit the document. Adjust any quantities that need to be adjusted, make sure the totals match, and commit to finalize the document.

Item Substitution

One of the challenges of using EDI is item substitution. In most cases, using the “Create Alias” function will solve the problem. However, for non-“one-to-one” substitutions, you will need to either manually replace the item or create the new item as a child of the original parent.

Replacement

• To replace an item that is not a one-to-one relationship with an item that already exists in your system, highlight the item, hit “Replace Item” and find the item you have been ordering. The Vendor Price you paid for the substitute will remain. Change the quantity to reflect the relationship between the items. For example, if we are replacing a half gallon jug of oil with a gallon bottle, the cost stays the same, but the quantity is divided by 2, since there are 2 half gallons to a gallon. If the item you normally buy is smaller than the replacement item, your quantity would be multiplied. Once you’ve made your replacement, make sure to validate the cost is correct based on the size you selected.
  

Parent-Child Relationships

• By far the best of the non-“one-to-one” solutions, using parent-child relationships to assist with substitutions needs to be done before the invoice is touched at all.
  
  • From the Inventory Item screen, find the existing item and the replacement. Highlight both using Shift-click or Ctrl-click and right click. Choose “Set Parent/Child Relationship”.  
    
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  • Choose the parent, then set the relationship quantities. Existing children should keep theirs, just set them for the new children. In this case, the new item is a 40-pound pack, while the old is a 50-pound case. Check “Use in Purchase Orders” and finish filling out the details.
    

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    • Save and close the item.
      
    • You can now receive the Invoice as normal.