Knowledge Hub
Insights, guides and case studies
221 articles on EDI, eInvoicing and supply chain automation, from what the mandates actually require to how other businesses made the move.
221 articles · page 1 of 19
- EDINovember 2026What is an invoice? What a UK retailer expects on a supplier invoiceA guide to the UK invoice: the details GOV.UK lists for every invoice, the extra fields HMRC sets for a VAT invoice, what large buyers add in their supplier manuals, and how an invoice differs from a PO or a receipt.
- EDINovember 2026What is inventory turnover (stock turn)? How a retailer's stock turn can shape supplier ordersInventory turnover, or stock turn, counts how often a business sells and replaces its stock. The formula, a worked example in units, a table from turns to days and weeks of cover, and what a higher retailer stock turn can mean for suppliers.
- EDINovember 2026What is a flat file? CSV, fixed-width and how flat files relate to EDIA flat file is a plain-text file of records with no built-in relationships. The main types from CSV to fixed-width, how they differ from an EDI message, and one illustrative order written three ways.
- EDINovember 2026What is the bullwhip effect? Why small changes in retail sales hit suppliers hardWhy a small change in shelf sales reaches a UK supplier as a large swing in orders: an illustrative worked example, the four causes Lee, Padmanabhan and Whang named in 1997, and what a supplier can do.
- EDINovember 2026What is stock replenishment? How UK retailers reorder from suppliersStock replenishment explained from the UK supplier's side: the rules retailers use to decide what to reorder, how the purchase order reaches you, and the documents you send back.
- EDINovember 2026What is a warehouse management system (WMS)? A guide for UK suppliersA warehouse management system (WMS) runs the warehouse work behind each customer order, and, like the ERP, can generate the SSCC pallet labels and the despatch advice (ASN). The ERP holds the order, and EDI carries the order in and the ASN out.
- eInvoicingNovember 2026What is Factur-X? A guide for UK suppliersFactur-X explained for UK suppliers with French customers: a PDF/A-3 with the invoice data inside as XML, and one of the formats every French business must be able to receive since 1 September 2026. Belgium runs on Peppol.
- EDINovember 2026What is an ERP? A guide for UK suppliersWhat an ERP is, what it does with a customer's order from purchase order to sales order to invoice, and how EDI differs from it and connects to it, written from a UK supplier's side.
- EDINovember 2026What is lead time? A guide for UK suppliersHow order lead time is counted from a supplier's side, what Travis Perkins, M&S, Wickes and NHS Supply Chain documents say about setting it, and which GS1 EANCOM dates on the order and despatch advice carry it.
- EDINovember 2026What is a sales order? A guide for UK suppliersHow a customer's purchase order becomes a supplier's sales order, which order numbers later EDI messages carry under GS1 EANCOM and Peppol, and five checks to run when an EDI order lands in your ERP.
- EDIOctober 2026What is a SKU (stock keeping unit)? A guide for UK suppliersWhere a supplier's own code, the buyer's item number and the GTIN each sit on an EANCOM order, despatch advice and invoice line, what NHS Supply Chain and Ocado ask suppliers to quote, and five checks that keep the three codes in step.
- EDIOctober 2026What is Web EDI? A guide for UK suppliersHow web EDI turns browser forms into data a customer's system can use, how NHS Supply Chain, HMRC and Transport for London send orders to suppliers and take their invoices, the signs a supplier has outgrown keying by hand, and what the 2029 eInvoicing roadmap does and does not settle.
