How interSend simplifies EDI setup and testing with Sellercloud

A retailer has agreed to stock your products, and the next email is an EDI spec: 850s, 997s, 856s, 810s, an SFTP address and a test plan. You run your orders in Sellercloud and you would rather not build any of that yourself. This post explains what the partner is asking for, what interSend takes care of, and how you test a connection without a single wrong file leaving your account.

What an EDI partner actually wants#

EDI is a set of standard files that trading partners swap over a file server, usually SFTP, sometimes through a network such as SPS Commerce or Radial. The documents most retailers use are:

Document	Plain name	Direction
850	Purchase order	Retailer to you
997	Functional acknowledgment (we received your file)	Both ways
855	Purchase order acknowledgment (we accept the order)	You to retailer
856	Advance ship notice	You to retailer
810	Invoice	You to retailer
846	Inventory advice	You to retailer

Retailers ask for 997s so they know a file arrived and was readable, and they often hold back payment until the 810 matches the 856. Each retailer has its own layout, file names and rules about when each file is due, which is why a connection that works for one partner rarely works for the next without changes.

What interSend handles for you#

interSend sits between the partner and Sellercloud and does the file work:

• Orders in. A partner's purchase order becomes a Sellercloud order with the partner's PO number, items, prices and ship-to address.
• Shipments out. When Sellercloud says an order shipped and has tracking, the partner is told, with every tracking number, and EDI partners also get an invoice.
• Stock out. On a schedule, each partner is told how much of each product you have, after any stock you hold back. A partner that should never get stock has its Send the stock feed switch turned off.

Some partner rules are built in. Rooms To Go, for example, gets a 997 and an 855 for every order, its invoices carry a TSCA statement and your Remit To address, and its stock file uses each product's Rooms To Go SKU. ShopHQ uses Radial's ship-method codes. For a partner that is not listed, Another EDI partner starts with ShopHQ-style files and you adjust from there.

File rules instead of custom code#

Under Identifiers → File rules, each EDI partner can change how its files are built: the layout (Radial or SPS), the file names, when the 997 goes, whether an 855 goes, which IDs replies go to, and how files are written. Each rule starts as the partner's preset. Leave them alone unless the partner's spec says otherwise, and when it does, it is a setting change rather than a development job.

Testing without risk#

The part most people worry about is the test phase: reading real orders without creating duplicates in Sellercloud, and not sending a file to the partner before they are ready. interSend's setup is built around that worry.

1. Integrations → Add integration, pick the partner. The first step lists what to have ready.
2. Fill in each step. Only what is needed is shown; optional settings are folded under More options.
3. The connection starts paused with both write switches off. A Setup card on its page ticks off each step and picks out the next one.
4. Set the status to Test and press Check for new orders. A real order is read and shown, and nothing is created.
5. Turn on Create orders in Sellercloud, run again, and check the order in Sellercloud.
6. Turn on Send to partner when the partner says they are ready, then set the status to Live to start the schedule.

Because the two switches are separate, you can prove the inbound side (orders landing correctly in Sellercloud) before the outbound side (ship notices, invoices and stock reaching the partner). If you use Claude with a Look and fix small things key, it can also rehearse a connection that is in Test with both switches off and tell you what it still needs. It never turns on writing or sets a connection live; those stay with you.

When something goes wrong after go-live#

EDI problems tend to be quiet: a file that did not send, a carrier the partner has no code for, an order that already existed. interSend turns those into plain alerts:

• When a run fails, you get a short email (and a Slack message if you have added a webhook): which connection, what was running, when, what went wrong in a sentence, and a See what happened button that opens the entry on Activity.
• A failed order is tried again on every run, but you are alerted only the first time, and again if the reason changes.
• If a shipment is waiting because the partner needs a carrier code, the order page and dashboard ask for it, and the shipment goes out as soon as you save.
• If Sellercloud already has the order, interSend compares SKUs, quantities and customer email. A match is linked and carries on; a mismatch shows Import failed with what differs, so nothing ships against the wrong order. Fix it in Sellercloud and press Try this order again.
• On Activity, Ask about this opens Help with the entry's debug report attached, so you can ask what happened in plain words.

Each order's page keeps the files exchanged for it, and the statuses are easy to read: Imported, Awaiting tracking, Shipment sent, Invoiced.

What it costs#

If you are weighing up a new retailer, the EDI partner page explains what goes back and forth and what to have ready, with separate pages for Rooms To Go and ShopHQ. To talk through your partner's spec before you start, book a setup call with Stronger eCommerce.