Every EDI document in RetailReady has a status that tells you exactly where it is in its lifecycle. Understanding these statuses helps you quickly identify which documents need your attention and which are flowing smoothly.
Status Reference
| Status | What It Means | Action Required |
|---|---|---|
| Pending | The document has been created in RetailReady but has not been sent yet. You can still edit it. | Review the document for accuracy, then send it when ready. |
| Sent | The document has been successfully transmitted to your trading partner's system. You are waiting for their acknowledgment. | No immediate action. Monitor for the 997 acknowledgment. |
| Acknowledged | A 997 Functional Acknowledgment has been received, confirming the trading partner's system received and could read your document. | No action needed. This is a good status — your document was delivered successfully. |
| Failed | The document could not be transmitted at all. This is typically a technical problem — a connection timeout, invalid credentials, or a network issue. | Action needed. Check the error message, troubleshoot the connection, and retry. |
How Statuses Progress
A healthy outbound document follows this path:
Pending → Sent → Acknowledged
If something goes wrong, the document may end up at Failed instead. This requires your attention.
997 Acknowledgment Status
When a document reaches "Acknowledged" status, it means a 997 Functional Acknowledgment was received. The 997 itself contains a status code that tells you whether the document was structurally valid:
- Accepted (A): Your document was received and parsed without errors. This is the expected outcome.
- Accepted With Errors (E): Your document was received and will be processed, but minor structural issues were found. Review the details for future improvements.
- Rejected (R): Your document had structural errors and could not be processed. You need to fix the issues and resend.
These 997 codes describe whether the document format was valid — they do not indicate whether the retailer accepts the business content (correct prices, quantities, etc.). See the Functional Acknowledgments (997) article for more details.
Statuses That Need Your Attention
In your RetailReady dashboard, keep an eye out for these statuses:
- Failed: This means the document never made it to the retailer at all. The issue is usually technical — a connection problem, expired credentials, or a temporary outage on the retailer's side. See the Troubleshooting Failed Documents article for a step-by-step guide.
- 997 Rejected: The document was delivered but had structural errors. Open the document to see the specific error codes, fix the underlying issue, and resend.
Tip: RetailReady can send you email notifications when a document is rejected or fails. Set up alerts in your notification preferences so you can respond quickly and avoid compliance penalties.
Inbound Document Statuses
Inbound documents (like purchase orders from your retailer) also have statuses, but these are simpler. They arrive as Received, and your system automatically sends a 997 acknowledgment. From there, your job is to process them — for an 850 Purchase Order, that means reviewing and acknowledging it with an 855.