Connect EDI and ERP Without the Manual Work Between Them
Shep connects your customers’ EDI transactions directly to your ERP and fulfillment workflows, so orders and updates move between systems automatically. With ERP and EDI integration managed in one platform, your team stops rekeying purchase orders and chasing the updates trading partners expect.
- Automatically move EDI orders into your ERP as clean sales orders, with no rekeying.
- Reduce manual entry, errors, and repetitive workflow steps between EDI and your ERP.
- Automate acknowledgements, shipment updates, and invoices back to trading partners as orders move through fulfillment.
What Is ERP and EDI Integration?
ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) integration connects the two systems so information flows automatically between your internal operations and your trading partners, without manual data entry.
EDI is the standardized way trading partners exchange business documents like purchase orders and invoices. An ERP system manages your company’s internal order, inventory, fulfillment, and financial data. Without integration, your team may need to transfer information between systems manually.
Stop Rekeying EDI Orders Into Your ERP
An EDI purchase order arrives, and the manual work starts anyway. Someone keys it into the ERP, checks SKUs and pricing against what the customer sent, and fixes whatever doesn’t match before the order can move. Every new trading partner adds another version of that routine.
Shep’s Automated Order Entry removes that handoff. Shep ingests the EDI order, validates the data automatically, and posts it to your ERP, applying your business rules and each trading partner’s requirements along the way.
- Create clean sales orders in your ERP without manual keying.
- Reduce duplicate entry and the errors that come from typing the same order into two systems.
- Keep each trading partner’s requirements tied to your internal order workflow, so partner-specific rules don’t live in one person’s head or a checklist.
How Shep’s EDI ERP Integration Works
Here’s how EDI integration with your ERP works in Shep, from the incoming order to the updates that go back out:
Receive
Shep receives the customer’s EDI order using whichever protocol the trading partner requires, such as AS2, SFTP, FTPS, or a VAN.
Validate & Translate
Shep checks the order data against your business rules and the partner’s requirements, then translates it from X12, EDIFACT, XML, or CSV into the format your ERP expects.
Create or Update the ERP Order
Shep sends the validated data to your ERP, creating a new sales order or updating an existing one when the customer sends a change, without manual keying.
Fulfill
Your ERP and connected warehouse or 3PL systems process the order, while Shep tracks it across each system.
Send Updates Back
As the order progresses, Shep sends order and change acknowledgements, status updates, shipment information, inventory, and invoices back to the trading partner.
Automate More Than the Initial Order Entry
Basic EDI ERP integration solutions can move an order into your ERP while leaving the steps that follow largely manual. Change requests still need processing, acknowledgements and status updates need sending, and shipment details, ASNs, and invoices may need separate handling for each trading partner. Miss a partner’s deadline and you risk compliance issues or chargebacks.
Shep extends automation beyond initial order entry, using ERP data and business rules to keep trading partners updated without your team touching every step.
Order Changes
Shep’s Order Change Automation processes customer change requests and updates the corresponding sales orders in your ERP.
Acknowledgements & Status Updates
Automate order-related communications using ERP data, keeping trading partners informed as orders progress.
Shipment Information & Invoices
Automatically send shipment details and invoices back to trading partners as the order moves through fulfillment.
Other Steps
Shep’s Shipment, Invoice, and Inventory Operations automate multi-step workflows that enforce your business rules and each partner’s requirements.
Increase Efficiency With EDI ERP Integration
Every manual handoff between EDI and your ERP is work someone has to do: keying the order, checking it, sending updates back, and reconciling the two systems when they disagree. Shep automates those handoffs.
95%
Reduction in manual order process work
10X
Faster setup time with new integrations
ZERO
Additional tools needed for visibility and audit trails
- Less manual work: Order entry and the follow-up steps that used to need a person now run automatically, so order volume can grow without data entry growing with it.
- Fewer errors: When nobody retypes data between systems, wrong quantities and missed partner requirements stop turning into short shipments and chargebacks.
- Faster order processing: Orders reach your ERP as soon as they arrive, instead of waiting in a queue until someone has time to key them in.
See What Is Happening Across Every EDI and ERP Transaction
A trading partner calls about a missing order...was the EDI file never received, did it fail translation, did it post to the ERP with the wrong details, or was the acknowledgement never sent? When EDI, ERP, and fulfillment data sit in separate systems, finding the answer means checking each one and piecing together what happened.
Shep’s EDI ERP software puts the whole order lifecycle in one place, from the incoming EDI document to the ERP sales order to the invoice that goes back out, with zero additional tools needed for visibility and audit trails.
'Lifecycle' monitoring follows each order through every connected system, so you can see exactly which step it’s on.
'Records' keeps an end-to-end audit trail of every transaction, so you can see exactly what was sent and when.
Errors are flagged at the point they occur, so your team goes straight to the problem instead of searching for it.
Connect EDI Without Adding More ERP Customization
Every trading partner needs its own connections for orders, acknowledgements, shipments, invoices, and inventory, so 10 customers can easily turn into dozens of integrations and a heavily customized ERP.
Unlike point-to-point EDI and ERP integration solutions, Shep sits between your trading partners and your ERP, so each system maps once to Shep’s Common Data Model (CDM) instead of every partner getting a custom build.
- Keep integration logic outside the core ERP where appropriate. Business rules live in Shep’s Integration Fabric, not in custom ERP code.
- Add trading partners without rebuilding the ERP connection each time. New partners map to the CDM and reuse your existing workflows.
- Reduce integration and customization complexity as the business grows. Because systems are decoupled, upgrading or switching your ERP doesn’t break every partner integration.
Benefits of Integrating EDI and ERP With Shep
Automate Manual Order Work
Reduce rekeying and repetitive steps across the order workflow.
Improve Data Accuracy
Keep trading partner and ERP data in sync with fewer manual handoffs.
Move Orders Faster
Automatically transfer orders and updates between trading partners and your ERP.
Improve Visibility
Track transactions and exceptions across the connected workflow.
Scale Integrations More Easily
Add trading partners and connections without multiplying ERP complexity.
Get Managed Support
Work with one team that understands the complete workflow.
Why Choose Shep for ERP and EDI Integration?
Shep is an ERP and EDI integration system that connects your trading partners’ EDI to your ERP and automates the order-to-cash work between them, with one platform and one team behind it.
Shep connects to Sage 100, Sage 300, Batchmastrer. SAP S4 Hana, SAP Business One, Oracle Cloud ERP, Orcla Netsuite, Acumatica, Sage X3, Microsfot Dynamics 365 Business Central and more.
95%
Less manual order process work
Order entry, changes, and partner updates run without rekeying.
10x
Faster setup for new integrations
New trading partners map once to Shep’s Common Data Model.
75%
Fewer ERP integrations and customizations*
Integration logic stays in Shep, not in your ERP.
One
Managed platform and support team
One team owns setup, EDI requirements, and fixes, with no vendor blame game.
See How Shep Simplifies EDI and ERP Workflows
Manufacturers and distributors use Shep to connect EDI to their ERP and automate the order work in between. Here’s what they say:
Ready to Connect EDI Directly to Your ERP?
Tell us which trading partners and ERP you use. We’ll show you how Shep’s EDI ERP software connects them and where your manual order work can be automated.