Boomi X12 EDI Validation Explained

EDI documents are structured document formats that follow standard rules and guidelines defined in the specifications. Despite our best efforts, it is possible that you receive erroneous documents from your trading partners or we could generate incorrect EDI documents ourselves. We must have robust processes in place to report invalid documents so that appropriate remediation can be taken in time. It is imperative we are proactive and have the right processes in place for any fall backs.

9 EDI best practices to supercharge your EDI X12 workflows with Boomi validation:

1. Inbound EDI validation is turned ON only when “Functional Acknowledgment Options” is set to either “Acknowledge Functional Groups” (or) “Acknowledge Transaction Sets”. Ensure to enable FA even if the Trading Partner is NOT expecting a 997 in return. Setting this option to “Do Not Acknowledge” would turn off INB EDI validation.

2. Boomi Inbound X12 processor rejects a document with interchange control errors such as invalid control numbers or mismatched counts and sends it down to the error path. You can either terminate the execution with the exception shape or report it via an error handler.

3. An Inbound document with syntax errors (EDI Profile errors) such as missing or misplaced segments or conditional data element missing is categorized as “accepted with Errors” and would be sent down the document path. Such invalid transaction sets when sent down the document path can be processed further or stopped from further processing using Is Valid Message Document Property Check.

4. EDI profile which is referenced in registered document types is used as templates for EDI validation. It is best to keep dedicated EDI profiles for each partner so that validation can be tailored per partner. It is best to import only the segments that are required rather than importing all as keeping your profile slim would avoid unexpected validation errors.

5. “Validate Qualifier” is an optional validation which can be turned on/off when registering document types. When turned ON, the document would be flagged “Accepted with Errors” if a qualifier that is NOT added to the EDI profile is included in the document.

6. Though Boomi has “Filter Functional Acknowledgments” to filter Inbound FA’s at the process start, it is best to disable this option so that the document is sent down the document path to inspect if AK5/AK9 segment indicates error or rejection.

7. For an outbound EDI document validation, ensure to enable “Validate Outbound Transaction Sets” in Registered document types. Also, ensure to have appropriate EDI profile referenced as the outbound processor uses the profile to inspect the document for errors.

8. An outbound document which is found to be invalid would be sent down the error path. Document Properties “Outbound Validation Status” and “Outbound Validation Report” can be used to capture the validation errors and passed to the error handler for reporting.

9. Outbound EDI maps does validate mandatory segments, data types and length/size validation, but doesn’t perform segment validation rules.

Learn the EDI best practices to migrate from your current EDI software to a cloud-based EDI software Boomi.