EDI Process

Previous sections explain all ordering options, this section pulls out the parts related to EDI or EDIFACT ordering to help those who are only using EDI for ordering.

Important

Koha uses the EDIFACT standard not the X12 standard for electronic ordering.

You will want to gather the following information from your vendors before beginning the set up process in Koha.

EDI Accounts: This is the basic connection information for your vendor. This will be used to fill in the EDI Accounts section.

  • Vendor: The name of the vendor

  • Description: A short description if additional explanation is needed ( especially if you have multiple accounts for one vendor ).

  • Transport: Does the vendor transmit EDI files via FTP, SFTP, or something else the requires special processing?

  • Remote host: The URL or IP address of the FTP/SFTP server

  • Username: The username for the above server

  • Password: The password for the above server

  • Download directory: The path on the server that contains files for Koha to download and process

  • Upload directory: The path on the server that Koha will upload files to for your vendor to process

  • Qualifier: Who assigned the SAN below?

    • Choose one of the following:

      (14) EAN International

      (31B) US SAN Agency

      (91) Assigned by supplier

      (92) Assigned by buyer

  • SAN: The identifier for the vendor

    Buyer qualifier and SAN are optional. Some vendors require a second buyer identifier in addition to the account EAN.

  • Buyer qualifier: Who assigned the SAN below?

    • Choose one of the following:

      (14) EAN International

      (31B) US SAN Agency

      (91) Assigned by supplier

      (92) Assigned by buyer

  • Buyer SAN: The identifier for the library

  • Quotes enabled: [y/n] Does this vendor support sending and receiving quotes via EDIfact and do you want to send and receive quotes via EDIfact?

  • Orders enabled: [y/n] Does this vendor support sending and receiving orders via EDIfact and do you want to send and receive orders via EDIfact?

  • Invoices enabled: [y/n] Does this vendor support sending and receiving invoices via EDIfact and do you want to send and receive invoices via EDIfact?

  • Order file suffix: The file suffix for order files

  • Quote file suffix: The file suffix for quote files

  • Invoice file suffix: The file suffix for invoice files

  • Account number(s): (list them all)

  • Account description(s): (the summary of what this number is for)

EANs: Each library using EDIfact needs to specify a buyer identifier know as a SAN or EAN. This will fill in the Library EANs setting.

  • Library

  • EAN

    • Choose one of the following:

      (14) EAN International

      (31B) US SAN Agency

      (91) Assigned by supplier

      (92) Assigned by buyer

MARC Order Fields or Grid Ordering: These values will fill in the MarcFieldsToOrder preference.

  • price: MARC21 field that contains the item price

  • quantity: MARC21 field that contains the number of items for the given record

  • budget_code: MARC21 field that contains the Koha budget code to be debited

  • discount: MARC21 field the contains the discount as a percentage the the price will be discounted by

  • sort2: MARC21 field that will populate custom field sort1

  • sort2: MARC21 field that will populate custom field sort2

Before you begin ordering using EDI you will want to take the following steps:

The first step in ordering using EDI happens on the book vendor's website. Each seller will use different language, but you will need to place your order on their site and then download the MARC order file. Some language that you might see included "basket", "order", "cart", and/or "MARC order." Once you have this MARC file downloaded to your computer you will want to log in to Koha and continue the process there.

Visit the Stage MARC Records for Import tool and upload your file. Once presented with the confirmation screen proceed to Acquisitions.

In Acquisitions create a basket for the vendor you ordered from. From the basket, choose to order from a staged file and click 'Order' next to the file you downloaded from your vendor and staged in Koha.

From the confirmation screen you will see all of the data in the MARC file related to your order. If you are not seeing fields such as fund and quanity filled in then be sure to confirm that your MarcFieldsToOrder preference is set right.

Once you have added all of the items to the basket you can click the 'Create EDIFACT order' button.

This will generate a pending file in the EDIFACT Messages in Koha. The pending files will be processed by the EDI Cron Job and sent to your vendor.

When the book vendor is done processing your files they will send an invoice via EDI as well. The EDI Cron Job will grab invoices and mark items found in the invoice as received and update your funds without any need for manual intervention.