Connect IFS to EDI instantly
Join thousands of businesses moving EDI orders, invoices and fulfilment updates between IFS and their trading partners on XEDI, no manual re-keying.
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Getting started with IFS EDI
XEDI connects IFS with trading partner EDI so customer orders, despatch advice and invoices move between IFS and your partners without manual entry, across the manufacturing, service and asset-heavy operations IFS tends to run.
One managed platform, no custom code
XEDI maps IFS to your trading partners and validates every document, so data flows straight into the systems your teams already use.
IFS estates are rarely a standard shape
IFS is deployed across manufacturing, construction, aerospace, energy and field service, and which modules a customer runs varies enormously. Two IFS sites can describe the same document flow using different objects, because one is running project-driven delivery and the other repetitive manufacture.
So the useful first question is not how to reach IFS but which IFS you have. We scope against the modules and version in play rather than a reference implementation, because a mapping built against the wrong assumption is discovered late and expensively.
Where project and service work complicate a retail-shaped flow
EDI messages assume a commercial rhythm: an order, a delivery, an invoice. IFS customers frequently do not work that way. Delivery can be staged against a project, billing can follow milestones or a service agreement, and the thing being shipped can be against a work order rather than a stock item.
That does not stop an EDI programme working, but it decides where the documents attach. Getting that right at the start is what keeps a despatch advice from being raised against something that has no commercial meaning to the partner receiving it.
What your team sees day to day
You get an EDI mailbox and a portal that works like an inbox. Partner documents arrive and your team is notified, without waiting for the IFS work to complete.
Documents then build on each other: the order becomes the despatch advice, amended where the delivery differs, with SSCC labels for the pallets, and becomes the invoice on delivery, whose arrival is confirmed in the dashboard.
The integration sits over that workflow and automates it, so documents land against the right IFS objects and deliveries raise the outbound messages. Smaller operations run the portal alone; our API suits enterprises wanting finer granularity; an IFS estate usually wants the integration.
Documents you can exchange
- Customer orders landing in IFS
- Order acknowledgements returned to trading partners
- Despatch advice and ASN messages from IFS deliveries
- Customer invoices raised from IFS
- Supplier documents where IFS is on the buying side
Built for IFS teams
Whoever owns IFS in your business, XEDI keeps EDI accurate and hands-off.
- IFS administrators and integration teams
- Manufacturers and engineering businesses
- Service and asset-intensive operations
- Despatch and logistics teams
- Finance teams handling customer billing
IFS EDI document types
Which of these apply depends heavily on the IFS modules in play, which is settled during scoping.
| Document | What it carries | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Customer orders | Partner demand landing as an IFS customer order against the right company, site, parts and delivery address. | Partner to IFS |
| Order acknowledgements | What IFS confirms it will deliver and when, including amendments and lines that cannot be met. | IFS to partner |
| Advanced shipping notices | Pack detail raised from an IFS delivery, to handling unit level where the partner requires it. | IFS to partner |
| Invoices | Customer invoices raised from IFS, referenced to the order and delivery so the partner can match them. | IFS to partner |
| Credit notes | Credits raised against the invoice they correct, carried with a credit document code. | IFS to partner |
| Supplier documents | Purchase orders out and supplier invoices in, where IFS is on the buying side of a relationship. | Either direction |
How to connect IFS with EDI using XEDI
Most of an IFS EDI build is deciding where documents attach in your particular estate. The sequence below is what onboarding looks like from your side.
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01
We scope which IFS company, sites and customer orders carry EDI traffic, and whether any supplier flows are in scope too.
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02
We build the mapping between each partner's documents and your IFS customer orders, parts and delivery addresses.
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03
We configure validation so a document is checked against the partner's rules before it enters IFS.
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04
We prove the order, delivery and invoice flows against what each partner requires and against the IFS modules you actually run.
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05
You get documents flowing against the right company and site, and we keep them there as your IFS estate changes.
Ready to connect IFS?
Talk through documents, mapping, testing and go-live with XEDI.
Everything about IFS EDI
Common requirements
- IFS company, site and integration account details
- Customer and delivery address structure
- Part number and packaging data
- Delivery and part-shipment rules
- The trading partners you deal with, or plan to
What we need from you to build it
Only what we cannot hold for you, which with IFS means the shape of your estate as much as your data.
- IFS access and modules
- Company, site and an integration account, together with which modules are in play, since that decides where documents attach.
- Customer and delivery structure
- Each partner mapped to an IFS customer, with delivery addresses resolvable without manual matching.
- Part and packaging data
- Part numbers against the identifiers partners use, and packaging levels for despatch and labelling.
- Commercial rhythm
- Whether delivery and billing follow discrete orders, project stages or a service agreement, because that decides what a document attaches to.
- Which partners you deal with
- The partners in scope now and next. Their requirements are already held by us.
Why suppliers choose XEDI for IFS
- Partners are typically connected already, which matters when scoping an IFS estate takes longer than anybody expected.
- The build is scoped against the IFS modules you actually run rather than a reference implementation.
- Where documents attach is decided deliberately at the start, which is what keeps a despatch advice meaningful to the partner receiving it.
- A new partner is our work rather than another project against your IFS estate.
- Documents are validated against the partner's rules before they enter IFS, so problems surface early.
- If a partner raises an issue, it comes to us and we rectify it on your behalf.
Can XEDI connect IFS to EDI trading partners?
Yes. XEDI maps each partner's documents onto IFS customer orders, deliveries and invoices, and returns acknowledgements, despatch advice and invoices in the format each partner requires.
Does it work with our IFS modules?
The build is scoped against the modules and version you run, because IFS estates differ substantially and where a document attaches depends on whether you are running repetitive manufacture, project delivery or service.
Can IFS be on the buying side as well?
Yes. Where IFS issues purchase orders and receives supplier invoices, those flows are handled in the same way, with inbound documents validated before they reach IFS.
Plan your IFS EDI setup
Everything you need to scope, map and go live with IFS, in one place.