Vacations and Holiday EDI Processing

School is out, summer is here and it's time for that long overdue vacation. Add to that, with Independence Day coming up, it's easy to overlook our holiday EDI processing. What happens to your transactions when you're not there? Does your EDI system work behind the scenes without human intervention? Or is there some manual manipulation that needs to happen? 

If you do plan to completely shut down operations for a long weekend, it would serve you well to keep the following in mind.

Advice for Holiday EDI Schedules

• You may still receive EDI, but if your machine is off...there will be no outgoing 997s.
• The clearer the communication with your trading partners, the better. Consider sending out a holiday EDI schedule of when you will not be sending or receiving transactions.
• If you ARE working the holiday weekend, your trading partners may not have any EDI staff available for holiday EDI support.
• Likewise, your EDI service provider also may not have holiday EDI support or support may be slow.
• Be aware of your trading partners' holiday EDI and shipment receiving schedules. If they are not accepting transactions or shipments, they will not receive your documents or merchandise when they are due which may result in charge backs. In some cases, they might require a transaction the day BEFORE the observed holiday, especially where money is concerned.

Following some or all of this advice just might get you through your vacation and/or holiday EDI schedule with as few headaches as possible. Better yet, leave EDI to the experts and contact GraceBlood for a consultation on EDI Managed Services. Above all, have a safe and wonderful holiday weekend...

GraceBlood LLC specializes in EDI implementation and data integration solutions. For more information, please contact Shandra Locken, at slocken@graceblood.com.