Häufig gestellte Fragen
What does EDIFACT mean?
EDIFACT stands for 'Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport' and denotes a syntax standard, standardised by the United Nations, for the electronic exchange of structured business documents across industries and countries. The syntax rules were adopted in 1987 as the international standard ISO 9735; today the standard is maintained and developed by UN/CEFACT under the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). Documents such as purchase orders, despatch advices and invoices are transmitted in a compact, segment-based text format that can be processed from IT system to IT system without manual rework. EDIFACT is thus one of the central formats within classic EDI data exchange.
Which EDIFACT message types are most important in the ERP context?
The UN/EDIFACT standard comprises a very large number of standardised message types, but only a few of them are really common in the day-to-day business of an ERP system. Users most frequently encounter ORDERS for the purchase order, ORDRSP for the order confirmation, DESADV for the despatch advice and INVOIC for the invoice. In addition there is the control and acknowledgement message CONTRL, which confirms the technical receipt of a transmission and reports back syntax check results. Which message types a company actually needs depends on its business processes and the requirements of its retail or industry partners.
How does EDIFACT differ from XML formats such as XRechnung or ZUGFeRD?
EDIFACT uses its own segment- and character-based text syntax in which data elements are delimited by separators such as plus signs and colons and segments are terminated by an apostrophe. XRechnung and ZUGFeRD, by contrast, are based on XML and follow the European standard EN 16931 for electronic invoicing, with ZUGFeRD being a hybrid format of PDF/A-3 with embedded XML. EDIFACT covers the entire procurement and delivery cycle, from purchase order through despatch advice to invoice, whereas XRechnung and ZUGFeRD are geared specifically to the structured e-invoice. In practice, both worlds often run in parallel, as many supply chains still operate on EDIFACT.
How is an EDIFACT message transmitted between partners?
EDIFACT only defines the structure of the message, not the transport route, which is why transmission takes place via separate transfer protocols. Common choices are AS2, OFTP2 and SFTP as well as the older X.400, often mediated by an intermediary EDI service provider or an integration platform. On the receiving side, middleware or a converter breaks the message back down into the internal data model of the ERP system. A control message (CONTRL) confirms technical receipt, so sender and recipient can verify correct delivery.
Is EDIFACT still relevant despite the e-invoicing mandate and modern APIs?
EDIFACT remains one of the most widely used EDI formats worldwide and is firmly anchored in the supply chains of retail, industry and logistics, particularly in Europe. For new integrations, companies increasingly rely on API-based approaches with JSON over REST, but in established B2B document exchange EDIFACT continues to be the standard. In connection with the German B2B e-invoicing mandate, existing EDI procedures may continue to be used for a transitional period under current law, provided both parties agree and all VAT-relevant data can be extracted correctly. In the medium term, however, invoice-related EDI processes must be brought into line with the EN 16931 standard, so coordination with business partners and the tax advisor is recommended.
What are EDIFACT subsets such as EANCOM, ODETTE or VDA?
The full UN/EDIFACT standard is very extensive, which is why reduced subsets are used in practice that make only the segments, fields and code lists relevant to a particular industry binding. Well-known examples are EANCOM in retail and the consumer goods sector, ODETTE in the European automotive industry and EDIFICE in the electronics and telecommunications industry; the classic VDA recommendations of the German automotive industry were originally a separate format with fixed record lengths, but newer VDA recommendations are likewise based on EDIFACT. A subset determines which fields are mandatory and how a document is to be filled in concretely, and thus decides whether two systems communicate smoothly. When introducing EDI, the first step should therefore be to clarify which subset and which transmission route the respective partners require.