997 Functional Acknowledgement basic definition and notes
The 997 Functional Acknowledgement transaction is a response that confirms a file was received and could be properly read by the translator. The 997 can also report on exactly what caused any errors on the original document. It can notify the sender whether the document was accepted or rejected. Functional Acknowledgements acknowledge receipt of the document, but they do not guarantee that the transaction will be put in use by the business process. For example, just because an acknowledgement is sent does not mean the invoice will be paid or the merchandise on a PO will be shipped.
997 Functional Acknowledgement should not be acknowledged with 997s, in order to prevent an endless loop of acknowledgements.
The following image shows an example of a 997 acknowledgement for an Invoice 810 document, the first transaction set 2698 is ‘A’ Accepted and the second transaction set 2699 is ‘E’ for accepted with errors.
997 Functional Acknowledgement Reconciliation
Most translators will automate the way 997s acknowledgements are handled. The process of sending 997s for incoming documents should be automated. Receiving 997s and reconciling them with the documents to which they are linked should be automated as well. A method must exist (e.g. e-mail notifications) to notify the EDI operations team of erroneous 997s. Not receiving a 997 acknowledgement usually means the document was not received.
A method should also exist to look for documents that have not been acknowledged. This is especially helpful for time sensitive documents. For example, an outgoing 856 Advance Shipping Notice (ASN) can be a very time sensitive document. Shipments could be due to arrive as little as hours after the ASNs are sent. In this case, there might be a requirement that the 997 Acknowledgement be received within four hours of the transmission time.
The EDI operations team may be notified via e-mail that a 997 has not been received according to the specified time window. The following is an illustration of how the 997 Functional Acknowledgement Reconciliation interface may look:
