997 Functional Acknowledgment (Tractor Supply Company EDI)

997 Functional Acknowledgment Header Notes and Guidelines

997 Functional Acknowledgment is required for each functional group transmitted. The 997 Functional Acknowledgment must be sent by the receiver of the functional group, to the sender, by the close of the next business day after receipt, to acknowledge the receipt and the syntactical condition of the functional group. The minimum level of detail for the 997 Functional Acknowledgment is the group, i.e. it is not required to acknowledge at the transaction set, nor is it required to acknowledge specific segments and data elements in error. Acknowledgment at a level lower than the group is by agreement between the trading partners. The Tractor Supply Company EDI Functional Acknowledgment transaction provides a positive response that informs the sender if the content of the transmission was syntactically correct. The syntactical correctness is based on the X12 syntax documented in the ASC X12.6 standard. It is not an acknowledgment of any application data such as terms, discounts, etc. The 997 Functional Acknowledgment transaction can provide increasing levels of detail.

The acknowledgment, in the simplest form, provides response at the functional group level using the AK1 and AK9 segments. Individual transactions can be acknowledged by using the AK2 and AK5 segments, and, individual segments in error can be indicated by using the AK3 and AK4 segments. In practice, acceptance and rejection are controlled at the functional group level. Acknowledgment at detail levels below the group require added complexity at the sending and receiving points in addition to the added cost of transmitting the additional data. The level of detail used in the 997 Functional Acknowledgment is controlled by the trading partners.

997 Functional Acknowledgment Guides

The mentioned information concerns Functional Acknowledgment Transaction Set (997) for use within the context of the Tractor Supply Company Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) environment. This Tractor Supply Company EDI transaction set can be used to define the control structures for a set of acknowledgments to indicate the results of the syntactical analysis of the electronically encoded documents. The encoded documents are the transaction sets, which are grouped in functional groups, used in defining transactions for business data interchange. This standard does not cover the semantic meaning of the information encoded in the transaction sets.

1. These acknowledgments shall not be acknowledged, thereby preventing an endless cycle of acknowledgments of acknowledgments. Nor shall a Functional
   Acknowledgment be sent to report errors in a previous Functional Acknowledgment.
2. The Functional Group Header Segment (GS) is used to start the envelope for the Functional Acknowledgment Transaction Sets. In preparing the functional group of acknowledgments, the application sender’s code and the application receiver’s code, taken from the functional group being acknowledged, are exchanged; therefore, one acknowledgment functional group responds to only those functional groups from one application receiver’s code to one application sender’s code.
3. There is only one Functional Acknowledgment Transaction Set per acknowledged functional group.
4. AK1 is used to respond to the functional group header and to start the acknowledgement for a functional group. There shall be one AK1 segment for the functional group that is being acknowledged.
5. AK2 is used to start the acknowledgement of a transaction set within the received functional group. The AK2 segments shall appear in the same order as the transaction sets in the functional group that has been received and is being acknowledged.
6. The data segments of this standard are used to report the results of the syntactical analysis of the functional groups of transaction sets; they report the extent to which the syntax complies with the standards for transaction sets and functional groups. They do not report on the semantic meaning of the transaction sets (for example, on the ability of the receiver to comply with the request of the sender).

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