Trade Partner + Party Identification

Definition of Terms

Trade Partner
A terms referring to either a customer or a supplier.

Party
An entity attached to a trade partner. Example: Ship-To parties are entities receiving deliveries for a trade partner. Bill-To parties are entities receiving invoices.

Description

Based on the GLN data contained within incoming transactions, a trade partner (customer/supplier) as well as Ship-To (delivery) and Bill-To (billing) parties on that trade partner should reliably be identified within the ERP system.

Identifiers

Buyer GLN
Ship-To GLN (optional, fallback to Buyer GLN if not provided)
Bill-To GLN (optional, fallback to Buyer GLN if not provided)

Rules

All provided GLN information MUST be used and match parties on the same trade partner, meaning no fallbacks to standard settings such as a “standard delivery party” as known to the ERP system are allowed!

Example 1: A trade partner can be identified based on the provided Buyer and Bill-To GLN but a delivery party cannot be found using the provided Ship-To GLN on this trade partner. In this case, the corresponding transaction should not be processed and instead an error needs to be reported.

Example 2: Buyer GLN and Bill-To GLN on the order are different. A trade partner was uniquely identified using the Bill-To GLN but the Buyer GLN does not appear on the trade partner or one of it’s billing parties. In this case, the corresponding transaction should not be processed and instead an error needs to be reported.
If no Ship-To or Bill-To GLN are provided, they are to be considered equal to the mandatory Buyer GLN and transactions should be processed accordingly.

Implementation Checklist

✅ Trade partner can be identified using only the Buyer GLN
✅ Trade partner can be identified using Buyer, Ship-To and Bill-To GLN
✅ Trade partner identification fails, if ANY of the provided GLNs don't match a party on the same trade partner