The flows
Order confirmation
You confirm the sales order in Dynamics; the partner is told what you are actually going to deliver. It is the only chance to disagree before the goods move.
The confirmation answers the order. It is not an acknowledgement that the order arrived, which is a different thing entirely and is handled by acknowledgements. This one is a business answer: yes, at that price, in that quantity, on that date, or not quite.
What starts it
Confirming a sales order, in the ordinary way. If there is an outbound agreement for a confirmation with that partner, the document is produced from the confirmation you just posted, not from the order as it stood before.
Confirm again and a second confirmation goes out. That is correct: the partner needs to know that something changed, and the newer one supersedes the older on the tracker.
Line by line
The interesting part of a confirmation is per line, and each carries a status.
| Status | What you are telling them |
|---|---|
| Accepted | As ordered. Same item, same quantity, same price, same date |
| Changed | Coming, but not exactly as asked. A different quantity, a later date, another price |
| Rejected | Not coming. Discontinued, unavailable, or not something you sell them |
Partners act on these automatically. A changed line updates their expected receipt; a rejected line often starts a purchase from someone else within the hour. It is worth being accurate rather than optimistic.
Confirm what is true
The most common mistake with EDI confirmations is not technical. It is confirming an order in full because that is the quickest path through the screen, and letting the delivery discover the difference. A partner who trusts your confirmations plans on them; one who does not will chase every order by phone, and the EDI has bought you nothing.
The purchase side of the same document
When you are the buyer, the same document arrives from your supplier and updates the purchase order. That is the purchase side, and it is the same wire format read the other way round.
On the tracker
The confirmation appears on the sales order beside the order it answers, in the order things happened, with its own receipt states. If a partner says they never got a confirmation, the tracker either shows it transmitted and acknowledged, in which case it is their side, or it shows why it never left.