Manual Data Entry: An EDI Compliance Risk

Retail orders often pass through human hands twice. Someone types a purchase order into the ERP. Later, someone types an invoice out of it. Every keystroke is a chance to introduce an error, and retailers’ systems are built to catch them.

Where keying goes wrong

Two points in the order cycle carry most of the risk.

• Purchase orders typed into the ERP. The 850 from your retailer lists items, quantities, prices and destinations. When someone retypes those details into your system, a transposed digit in an item number or a wrong unit price creates a mismatch between your records and the retailer’s.
• Invoices typed from the ERP. After shipping, someone builds the invoice. If it is keyed from internal sales records instead of pulled from the original order, differences slip in.

The errors that follow

• Price mismatches: $12.05 typed as $12.50.
• Quantity mismatches: a case count entered where the retailer expects an item count.
• Wrong item numbers, which can lead to billing disputes.
• Wrong terms or locations, which can delay payment.

Many retailers compare the order, the receipt and the invoice automatically. When they do not agree, the invoice can be held, short-paid or deducted from. Deductions then have to be researched and disputed by your team, which takes time. Repeated mismatches may also count against you in a retailer’s compliance review, though the rules differ by retailer.

Manual keying also appears in portals, which we cover in Vendor Portals vs. EDI Integration.

How to reduce it

The most direct way to cut keying errors is to stop retyping. When order data flows from the retailer into your ERP automatically, and the invoice is built from that same order data, there are fewer places for a mistake to enter. EDI does this. Even without it, you can reduce risk by having a second person check price and quantity before an invoice goes out.