Leena: Interchange Control Numbers (ICN) will assist you in tracking your Interchanges with your VAN and less commonly TA1s. Your Group Control Numbers (GCN) and Transaction Control Numbers (TCN) are generally used to track your transactions with your Trading Partners and 997s.
For ICNs, simply start with 000000001 and continue with 000000002, 000000003, 000000004, etc. Left-padding with zeros to 9-digits is required for ICNs. When you receive a 997 it will refer to your GCN and your TCN(s). What we see work well here is that you number your GCN sequentially across all Groups you send. So your first Group would be 1, the second group 2, the third group 3, etc. Then within each Group number your Transaction Sets from 1 each time, then concatenate the GCN with the sequential TCN. For example if there were two Transactions in one Group: GCN: 4747 TCN: 47470001 TCN: 47470002 The benefit of this, is if your trading partner has stripped out the Group from the Transaction and has a question for you regarding a specific Transaction you will know exactly which one they are talking about with only the TCN. None of the above is an X12 rule, but conform to the rules and help keep track off all those 850s you will be sending out. I believe that left-padding is optional for GCNs and TCNs, as the minimum length is one if memory serves me right; I'm certain someone will correct me if I'm wrong. So, good luck and welcome to the wonderful world of EDI. Regards, Todd Gould Chief Technical Officer Loren Data Corp. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Most low income households are not online. Help bridge the digital divide today! http://us.click.yahoo.com/cd_AJB/QnQLAA/TtwFAA/OIFolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> . Please use the following Message Identifiers as your subject prefix: <SALES>, <JOBS>, <LIST>, <TECH>, <MISC>, <EVENT>, <OFF-TOPIC> Access the list online at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EDI-L Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EDI-L/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
