ANSI ASC X12 Standards Overview
Last Updated on October 1, 2024 by Tatyana Vandich
This post was updated to reflect current trends and information.
To exchange business documents and transactions between business partners via EDI (electronic data interchange), most companies in North America use the EDI ANSI ASC X12 Standards. This overview provides some basic information about the X12 standards for electronic data interchange (EDI).
What do ANSI, ASC, X12, and RSC mean?
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is a non-profit organization that controls the development of standards for processes, services, and products in the United States. ANSI also synchronizes U.S. standards with international standards so that American products can be used all over the world.
X12 Overview
Chartered by the ANSI for over 40 years, X12 develops and maintains EDI standards and XML schemas that govern business processes around the world.
X12 is comprised of thousands of experts representing over 600 companies from various industries. X12 Membership is open to any organization, company, or even individual, who directly and materially affected by X12 activities.
To facilitate the exchange of business transactions, X12 members regularly optimize the EDI standard.
X12 consists of two committees:
– Accredited Standards Committee (ASC)
– Registered Standards Committee (RSC).
Accredited Standards Committee ACS
Since 1979, the Accredited Standards Committee X12 (ASC) has been developing and maintaining the X12 standard, which can be represented as US national standards or UN / EDIFACT international electronic data interchange standards.
The ASC is composed of different subcommittees:
– X12C – Communications and Controls
– X12F – Finance
– X12I – Transportation
– X12J – Technical Assessment
– X12M – Supply Chain
– X12N – Insurance
Registered Standards Committee (RSC)
The RSC is responsible for the development and support of X12 work products for various industries but is not intended to be presented as US national standards.
What is EDI ANSI ASC X12 Standards?
The ANSI ASC X12 Standards is sometimes called the EDI ASC X12, ANSI X12, ASC X12, or simply the X12 Standard. X12 is a set of standards and rules that determine a specific syntax for structuring and transferring electronically business documents between partners. There are different types of business documents in EDI, which often are called “Transaction Sets”.
ASC X12 Transaction Set
The Transaction Set – is a single business document such as a Purchase Order, Invoice, Student Educational Record (Transcript), Healthcare claim, Ship Notice (ASN). There are hundreds of Transaction Sets available in the ANSI ASC X12 standards. Each set of transaction data is identified by a 3 digits code number:
X12 Transaction Set Structure
Many X12 transaction sets have 3 parts. The segments that can be used in each of these parts in a particular document (such as an invoice) are listed in the related tables defined in the X12 standards document. For example:
ASC X12 Segments and Sequence
The following Purchase Order example, shows which segments can be used in the transaction set and the desired sequence of segments:
ID TITLE
ST Transaction Set Header
BEG Beginning Segment for Purchase Order
CUR Currency
REF Reference Identification
PER Administrative Communications Contract
TAX Tax Reference
FOB F.O.B. Related Information
CTP Pricing Information
PAM Period Amount
CSH Sales Requirements
TC2 Commodity
Beginning and Ending ASC X12 Transaction Sets:
• A transaction in an X12 document, always begins with the Transaction Set Header (ST) segment
• A transaction in an X12 document always ends with the Transaction Set Trailer (SE) segment
If you want to learn more about the structure of EDI ANSI ASC X12, please read this article: EDI ANSI ASC X12 – Technical Overview
ANSI X12 EDI document types
Since a uniform standard of EDI (electronic data interchange) ANSI X12 was developed, a huge number of companies use it in its business-to-business (B2B) operations. Although ANSI X12 standard was developed to support companies in different types of industries in North America, these days, businesses worldwide are using X12 EDI standard.
As mentioned above, there is a huge amount of ANSI X12 document types available for use. ANSI X12 standard is used in finance, transportation, healthcare, insurance, government, supply chain and other industries for performing diverse operations. The example below shows some of those EDI documents:
Communications and Control:
- EDI 864 Text Messages
- EDI 997 Functional Acknowledgment
- EDI 999 Implementation Acknowledgment
- EDI 993 Secured Receipt or Acknowledgment
Finance:
- EDI 130 Student Educational Record (Transcript)
- EDI 262 Real Estate Information Report
- EDI 810 Invoice
- EDI 812 Credit/Debit Adjustment
- EDI 131 Student Educational Record (Transcript) Acknowledgment
- EDI 149 Notice of Tax Adjustment or Assessment
- EDI 150 Tax Rate Notification
- EDI 821 Financial Information Reporting
Transportation:
- EDI 120 Vehicle Shipping Order
- EDI 106 Motor Carrier Rate Proposal
- EDI 419 Advance Car Disposition
- EDI 216 Motor Carrier Shipment Pickup Notification
- EDI 309 Customs Manifest
Supply Chain:
- EDI 846 Inventory Inquiry/Advice
- EDI 856 ASN (Advance Ship Notice)
- EDI 860 PO Change (Customer triggered)
- EDI 850 Purchase Order
- EDI 830 Planning Schedule with Release Capability
Insurance:
- EDI 270 Health Care Eligibility/Benefit Inquiry
- EDI 271 Health Care Eligibility/Benefit Response
- EDI 111 Individual Insurance Policy and Client Information
- 837 Health Care Claim
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