EDI 997 FA: indicating receipt of transaction
The EDI 997 Functional Acknowledgement (FA) is a transaction sent by the receiver of a transaction to the sender. It indicates receipt of the transaction and syntactical acceptance or rejection by indicating to the sender any technical problems encountered by the translator. It is not intended to serve as an approval of the actual data content.
An FA may be sent at the transmission group level, especially if it is an “Accept” FA. For example, it may accept a group of ASN ship notices rather than each individual ship notice.
- An FA checks compliance for the correct envelope structure, which includes the outer Interchange data. Nested within that level is a Group of like transactions, e.g. ASN Ship Notices, and nested inside the Group are the individual documents or transactions.
- The correct indicators are needed to determine where each level starts and stops.
- Each level is given a unique control number, which is used in the FA.
- An FA indicates if mandatory data is missing
- Within a transaction, there are mandatory segments of data, such as the segment in the ASN which provides information on the items shipped.
- Within a segment, (whether the segment itself is mandatory or optional), there are mandatory data elements, such as a PO number.
- Within a segment there may be optional data elements, but when used they require additional information (e.g. a date may be optional but when given, must be qualified by the type of date – Ship Date or Receive By Date, etc.).
* Source: RVCF Supplier Guide Summary
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