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Envelopes

Envelopes define the routing and identification settings that wrap EDI transmissions. They populate the ISA and GS headers – the “from” and “to” addresses on every EDI interchange. You need at least one internal envelope (your own settings) and one external envelope for each trading partner.

Internal vs External

There are two types of envelopes:

  • Internal – represents your organization’s EDI identity. You typically need just one internal envelope, shared across all your trading partners.
  • External – represents a trading partner’s EDI identity. You need one external envelope for each partner you exchange EDI with.

When Tediware generates an EDI transmission, it combines the internal envelope (sender settings) with the external envelope (receiver settings) to build the ISA and GS headers.

Envelope Fields

Name

A label for your own reference. This is never visible to trading partners and can be changed at any time.

Interchange ID

The routing identifier placed in the ISA header. Think of the interchange ID and its qualifier together as an email address – they tell the receiving system who the transmission is from (or who it is addressed to).

  • For external envelopes, your trading partner provides their interchange ID during onboarding.
  • For internal envelopes, your partner may also tell you what interchange ID to use. If you do not have one assigned, you can make one up. It is wise to search the internet for the value you choose to make sure it is not already in common use by another organization.

Interchange ID Qualifier

Defines the type of interchange ID. Your trading partner will specify which qualifier to use alongside their interchange ID.

If you made up your own interchange ID for an internal envelope, use ZZ – it means “Mutually Defined” and is the standard choice when no formal identifier type applies.

Application Code

Used in the GS (group) header. This is typically the same as the interchange ID. If you leave it blank, Tediware sets it to the interchange ID automatically.

EDI Separators

External envelopes include separator settings that control how the EDI output is delimited. The defaults are standard X12 separators:

  • Segment separator – ~
  • Element separator – *
  • Component separator – :

Use the defaults unless your trading partner specifies otherwise. Each separator must be a single non-alphanumeric character, and all three must be different from each other.

Separators are only configurable on external envelopes. Internal envelopes do not need them.

Assigning Envelopes to Partners

Each partner requires one internal envelope and one external envelope. Assign them from the partner detail page:

  1. Navigate to Partners and select the partner
  2. Choose an Internal Envelope and an External Envelope from the dropdowns
  3. Click Save Envelopes

You can reuse the same internal envelope across multiple partners. Each partner should have its own external envelope.