Processing Advanced Shipping Notices
(ASN) for Essendant (formerly United)
About the ASN Feature
The Advanced Shipping Notice (ASN) in DDMS® Version 10.5 adds several features, including the following:
•
Carton counts: Allows the dealer to download the carton count from Essendant™ (formerly United
Stationers) into their shipping/delivery manifest. The dealer can now see their own carton count and
the carton count from Essendant as separate fields in the manifest. This allows for quicker departures
of the dealer’s delivery trucks.
•
Carton IDs: Allows the dealer to download either the Essendant carton IDs or the tracking numbers
from the third party carriers into the DDMS sales order. Settings allow the dealers to choose which to
download, or to download both.
•
Freight Tracking #s: Allows order takers to see the third party tracking numbers for Essendant’s
carton IDs through a hyperlink in the Order Analysis window.
•
Short Ships/Quantity Exceptions: This allows for the auto updating of both sales orders and
purchase orders. This saves time used correcting the sales order and time used in accounts payable
reconciling the payable record.
The (TR2)[A] processing program allows you to specify which vendor shipping information (carton IDs,
freight tracking numbers, carton counts, and short ship exceptions) to update on the tickets and
P/Os. You can choose to report on the parts of the ASN together or on separate reports. You can also create
procedure files (procs) for both the download and update to run automatically before the morning process
of receiving begins. (PSN is shut down nightly for maintenance between 12:45 AM and 1:30 AM CT. Do not
schedule any procs or proc files related to PSN to run during this time. Also, do not attempt to manually
send or retrieve any PSN related files.) A report of what was updated prints automatically.
Note: You can only receive ASN data for the P/Os that are sent after you set up PSN for DDMS.
Before You Begin
Make sure Essendant PSN is set up. For more information, see Setting Up & Using the Essendant PSN (pdf).
Setting Up and Using the Essendant ASN
The process involves four main steps. See the following headings.
Setting (L6F) Parameters
To begin using this feature, set up parameters in the (L6F) United Communications screen. Once these
parameters are set, a prompt displays when using the (SR) [I] Receive Electronic Invoice function.
1. From the text-based Master Menu, type L to open the (L) Parameters screen.
2. In the (L) screen, type 6 to open the (L6) Vendor & Wholesale Communications screen.
3. In the (L6) screen, type F to open the (L6F) United Communications screen.
4. Tab to the second PSN field and type Y.
5. Tab to the ASN field and type Y.
Note: By changing this prompt to Y, you are prompted to download ASN or Invoices in the (SR) [I]
screen. The default is set to Invoice.
6. Tab to the E Inv field and enter the information provided by Essendant.
Updated March 2017
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Processing Advanced Shipping Notices
(ASN) for Essendant (formerly United)
7. Tab to the Pass field and enter the information provided by Essendant.
10:27:19
United Communications Screen
10/16/12
============================================================================--
Communication Parameters
|
United Parameters [ 1]
---------------------------------------------+---------------------------------Hayes Only ?
Log ?
Canadian Dealer ?
| Acct Id [
] Pass [
]
Prefix
?
Reliable ?Y
| Account #1
[
] [
]
Uni-Link
#18007334067 Baud :19.2
PSN ?Y | Account #2
[
] [
]
Score
#18007334068 Baud :19200
| Account #3
[
] [
]
Elec. Inv #
Credits ?
PSN ?Y | Account #4
[
] [
]
Block Size #32
Time Out #
ASN ?Y
| Account #5
[
] [
]
Phone Line #M1
Transmission #00004
| E. Inv [
] Pass [
]
Custom String [
]
| Interlink System Id [
]
Order Type ?12
File Type
?U |
Shipping Inst. , , , , ,
ADOT ?
W-N-L ?
Consolidated W-N-L ?
|
Consumer Text
, , , , ,
Multiple Drop Ships ?
Zipcode Routing ?
|
Barcode ?
Sub. List ?
Allow Backorders
?
Ignore NDS
?
|
ASI Label ?
Line Comments ?
Exc. Mfg [
] [
] [
] [
]
|
Label Format
[
]
Consolidate Locations on Orders
?
|
Route : (R/S/Z) Tag [
]
Item Description on Acknowledgment ?
|
Ref# : (I/C/P) Tag [
]
Break Page Between Each Order
?
|
P/O# : (C/P)
Tag [
]
Pre-Receive ?
Update Cost ?
| Terminal Type #
Control ?
Printer [ ]
| Region ID
?
=============================================================================
8. Press Enter until the system returns to the (L6) screen to save your changes.
Note: If you have multiple (L6F) screens with Essendant account numbers that need to be included in
the data retrieval via ASN, you must set up the ASN parameters in each of the (L6F) screens.
Setting Up Vendor Supply Options
New boxes added to the Vendor Supply Options dialog box allow you to set up your system to enable
processing of Essendant carton IDs/freight tracking numbers, Essendant carton counts, and/or short ship
exceptions when retrieving an ASN document.
1. From the Master Menu, double-click
2. In the Vendor Master tab, click
.
.
3. Click the Vendor # box and enter the vendor number for Essendant.
4. Click
5. Click
.
. The Supply Options dialog box opens.
6. Choose the information to update when downloading the ASN. For example, choose carton counts
only if you use a shipping manifest.
6.1
Click Carton Counts to specify to include carton counts when processing the file. This updates
the VEN-CTNCT file.
6.2
Click Freight Tracking # to include third party tracking numbers when processing the file. This
updates the VEN-CTNID file.
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Processing Advanced Shipping Notices
(ASN) for Essendant (formerly United)
6.3
Click Carton IDs to specify to include Essendant carton IDs when processing the file. This
updates the VEN-CTNID file.
6.4
Click Short Ships to specify to include short ship exceptions when processing the file and
update the tickets and P/Os with this information. This updates the VEN-QTY file.
7. When finished, click Exit.
8. Click
.
Using New Features in Essendant Invoice
Receive
New files are created when the ASN file is brought in during the (SR)[I] function depending on the options
chosen in the Supply Options dialog box. They are stored on the P/O’s unit, as identified in the (L0) Global
Master parameter screen. Essendant Carton IDs and UPS freight tracking numbers are stored in the VENCTNID file. Carton counts are stored in the VEN-CTNCT file, and the information in this file is made available
in for shipping manifests in Report Writer. Short ship exceptions are stored in the VEN-QTY file.
To download ASNs manually, do the following:
1. From the text-based Master Menu, type SR to open the (SR) Purchase Order Reports screen.
2. In the (SR) screen, type I in the Request field.
3. In the Who field, type F to select Essendant.
4. In the Location field, hit the space bar twice to clear the field. The cursor should move the Printer
field.
5. Tab through the Printer field to accept the default.
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Processing Advanced Shipping Notices
(ASN) for Essendant (formerly United)
6. Press Tab until the Are You Sure Prompt displays.
7. Type Y. The Requesting Advanced Shipping Notices or Invoices prompt displays.
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The Office Products Dealer Communication System
Requesting Advanced Shipping Notices or Invoices A/I ?A
8. Type A to select ASN. Press Enter. The system begins communicating with Essendant through PSN.
When complete, the Receive Terminated screen opens, displaying the Start and End times.
Note: If you have any issues downloading the advanced shipping notices, please contact Essendant to
have them restore the data.
Updating Vendor Shipping Information
Once the ASN has been downloaded and processed, you need to run the update function in the (TR2)
screen. The new (TR2) Order Entry Reports screen lets you process the individual pieces of information from
the ASN. When you process this information, a report prints from VEN-LOG showing what information was
updated and what exceptions occurred.
Note: To accurately update the correct ticket’s dash number, -0, -1, and so on, orders should be
processed to a status 8 or 9 before running the (TR2)[A] procedure. This ensures the ticket
resides at the expected dash number, so it can update the proper ticket. If you do not perform
the (TR2)[A] procedure, the tracking number or carton ID may update an incorrect ticket, the -0
ticket, for example, when it should have updated the -1 ticket.
1. From the text-based Master Menu, type TR to open the (TR) Order Entry Reports screen.
2. In the (TR) screen, type 2 to open the (TR2) Order Entry Reports screen.
3. In the (TR2) screen, type A in the Report field to choose the Update Vendor Shipping Information option.
4. To process carton IDs and freight tracking numbers for both Wrap and Label and drop ship orders,
type Y next to Carton IDs. The VEN-CTNID file is updated and this information is written to P-SPECIAL
as MMMM lines.
Note: The system only processes the freight tracking numbers and/or carton IDs if you selected these
options using the Vendor Supply Options dialog box. For details, see the previous heading
Setting Up Vendor Supply Options.
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Processing Advanced Shipping Notices
(ASN) for Essendant (formerly United)
5. To process carton counts and update the shipping manifest database with the vendor piece count
in its own field in M-MASTER, type Y next to Carton Counts. The VEN-CTNCT file is updated. This
information is available through Report Writer for printing on the delivery manifest and can be
viewed in the DDMS Delivery Manifest window.
10:45:52
(TR2) Order Entry Reports(06/30/10)
08/05/10
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------A. Update Vendor Shipping Information
Add On Amounts ?. Y/N
Carton Counts ?. Y/N
Carton IDs
?. Y/N
Quantity Chg ?. Y/N
B. Purge Vendor Files up through ../../..
Add On Amounts ?. Y/N
Carton IDs
?. Y/N
(includes log file “VEN-LOG”)
Carton Counts ?. Y/N
Quantity Chg ?. Y/N
------------------------------------------------------------------------------Report [A] Loc [ 1] Printer [P1]
Note:
The order must exist on a non-released manifest. If it is not on a manifest, the system
rechecks for 15 days, after which, the data is purged. If the order is a drop-ship order and is
not found on a non-released manifest, the data is purged after the first attempt.
6. To process short ship exceptions, type Y next to Quantity Chg. This updates the ship quantity with
the actual shipped quantity. The pick ticket is updated to reflect the actual shipped quantity on
the ASN if it is a status 6 or 7. If the ticket is an 8 or 9, the ticket is updated as long as there are not
multiple dash tickets at a status 8 or 9. Multiple dash tickets are logged as quantity (or short ship)
exceptions.
Note:
When tickets are updated in a proc, and cannot be updated above a status 9, you must
time your ASN process accordingly.
This function also updates PO-MASTER, JOUR-PO, and VER-EXCEPT with quantity exceptions,
updates I-AUX with changes, and updates the VEN-QTY file.
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© 2017 ECi Software Solutions, Inc.
Processing Advanced Shipping Notices
(ASN) for Essendant (formerly United)
7. Tab to the Printer field and enter the printer name.
8. Press Enter. The pick tickets/manifests are updated with the information specified and a report
prints.
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