Automatically importing trading partners

Trading partners such as suppliers or customers can be uploaded automatically to Enable via SFTP data feeds to calculate rebate earnings.

This article will guide you through:

1. How to download the trading partners template
2. How to populate the trading partners template
3. How to save the trading partners file
4. Checking the universal requirements for the file
5. How to upload the trading partners file

Looking for something else?

• Importing trading partner data for special pricing agreements rather than rebate agreements? Learn about automatically importing trading partners for SPAs here.
• Looking to import dimensions for trading programs via the Enable user interface? Learn about manually importing trading partners here.
• Alternatively, see our Help Center for more on managing data for trading programs.

Trading partner data is located within the Config area of the Trading programs app.

Channel admin users will have access to the Config area and trading partners template within Enable. If you require additional help, please reach out to our support team here.

To download the trading partners template:

Step 1: Click on Config in the green banner at the top of the page.

Step 2: Click on Structure in the drop-down menu.

Step 3: Click on the Trading Partners tab. Note: This may be named differently (e.g. Suppliers or Customers), but will always represent your trading partners.

Step 4: On the right hand side, click Download template and set the checkbox for Populated with existing to download a template containing all existing trading partner data within your Enable channel. Alternatively, leave the checkbox not set to download a blank template.

Step 5: Click Download to save the template to your computer’s downloads folder.

If you are importing trading partners via SFTP, you may navigate away from the config area within Enable, and continue with the steps in the next section.

Once the trading partners template has been downloaded, you will need to populate each row with the following column data for your trading partners. Column headers must not be changed or renamed in the file.

• Trading Partner Name: Enter a unique name for the partner. Each trading partner name must only occur once in the column.
• Trading Partner Reference: Enter a unique reference for the partner - this should match the reference that will input on transaction lines. Each trading partner reference must only occur once in the column.
• Trading partner attributes: This will be changed to your channel’s specific trading partner attributes label.
• Approval for trading partner-fed transactions: If Collaborator-fed transactions are set up in your channel, enter Y to require approval from a member of your team for any transactions uploaded by your trading partner collaborators, or N for transactions uploaded by your trading partner collaborators to be automatically accepted into your transactional data.

Note: Some columns in this template may be labelled differently, or more columns may exist if additional trading partner attributes have been set up during your Enable implementation. Please refer to the data guide provided by your implementation team, or reach out to our support team here if you require additional assistance.

If required by your implementation team:

• (Optional) Add the row count in the final row in the form “ROWCOUNT IS X”, where X is the total number of trading partners you are uploading. In the CSV file, this will be the total row count - 2. This must all be in uppercase.

Save your CSV file and rename the file to the format “{TRADING PARTNER NAME}-TIMESTAMP.csv”, where:

• {TRADING PARTNER NAME} is replaced by the pluralized label given to the trading partners in your channel, e.g. PARTNERS.
• TIMESTAMP is replaced by a 14-digit number in the form yyyyMMddhhmmss made up of the creation date, e.g. PARTNERS-20240417030422.csv.

The following criteria must be satisfied for each file imported via the SFTP:

• The dataset to be imported must be a CSV file within an encrypted ZIP file.
• The name of the ZIP file must be the same as the CSV file.
• AES-256 encryption must be used.
• The compression method must be either 0x08 (deflate) or 0x00 (store).
• The CSV file must use UTF-8 encoding and rows delimited by CRLF.

The CSV file must have:

• A first row consisting of correctly named labels for each column/field.
• Comma delimited fields in each row.
• If commas are used in text fields within the CSV file, double-quote characters should be used for the text fields.
• If double-quote characters are used in text fields within the CSV file, these should be represented by two double-quote characters.

Step 1: Connect to your SFTP location using the SFTP credentials provided by your implementation team.

Step 2: Navigate to the Imports folder.

Step 3: Upload the Trading Partners CSV file into the Imports folder.

Step 4: Create an empty file with the same name as the Trading Partners CSV file with an additional appended “.ok” (e.g. PARTNERS-20240417030422.csv.ok). This will begin the import process into your channel.

Step 5: Check to see if the file was received by Enable once the file has finished processing. If the Trading Partners CSV file is in the Succeeded folder, this indicates that the trading partner data is now in the Enable platform. If the Trading Partners CSV file is in the Failed folder, this indicates that the file has failed and a corresponding Error.txt file will be generated describing the error.

What’s next?

Need help resolving SFTP errors? Learn how to understand SFTP errors here.