Overview
Trace Exchange enables sharing of FSMA 204 Shipping KDE's between organizations via the Trace Exchange Trading Partner Network. The Trading Partner Network contains In-Network and Out-Of-Network Trading Partners:
- In-Network: These organizations are also using the Trace Exchange platform. In-Network Trading Partners can utilize the full suite of Trace Exchange data sharing options including flat file via SFTP, API, or EDI/ASN.
- Out-Of-Network: These organizations do not use the Trace Exchange platform but your organization will still need to share Shipping KDE's with them to meet the FSMA 204 data sharing requirement. Data sharing options with Out-Of-Network Trading Partners include email and EDI/ASN.
What Happens When You Connect With A Trading Partner?
Connecting with Customer Trading Partners in Trace Exchange enables the sharing of Shipping KDE's between you and your trading partner's organization. Once you connect with a specific Customer Trading Partner and then record a Shipping CTE for that customer in your account, that Shipping CTE will be automatically shared with that Customer Trading Partner either through an In-Network or Out-Of-Network data sharing method. This means that your organization no longer has to understand and setup different data sharing methods with all of your different customers...Trace Exchange handles this for you.
How to Connect To Customer Trading Partners
Trace Exchange offers two methods to connect with Customer Trading Partners:
- Search For and Connect with A Single Customer Trading Partner
- Submit a Customer List to Connect To Multiple Customer Trading Partners
Search For and Connect With A Single Customer Trading Partner
This method allows you to connect to Customer Trading Partners one at a time and is suitable for organizations who only have a handful of customers to share data with. Follow the below steps to connect with a single Customer Trading Partner:
- From the Customer Portal Homescreen, click on the Networks menu.
- Click the Connect My Customers button.
- Click the Connect Trading Partners button.
- Click the Select Partners button.
- On the Customer Connections screen, you can search for and browse available In-Network Customer Trading Partners to connect with. When you find a customer you want to connect with, click the Learn More button on that customer's card.
- The card will flip over and briefly describe that customer's data sharing requirements. Click the Connect button when ready.
- Congratulations, you are now connected with that In-Network Customer Trading Partner!
Submit a Customer List to Connect To Multiple Customer Trading Partners
This method allows you to connect to multiple Customer Trading Partners at once and is suitable for organizations who only have many customers to share data with. Follow the below steps to connect with multiple Customer Trading Partners at once:
- From the Customer Portal Homescreen, click on the Networks menu.
- Click the Connect My Customers button.
- Click the Connect Trading Partners button.
- Click the Upload a CSV button.
- Click the Trading Partner Customer Template link to download the required template. Fill in the template with all of your customers' names (Partner Name) and a relevant Contact Email at that company. Save the file in CSV file format and then upload it using the Upload List button.
- Your customer upload results will be sorted into either In-Network Matches, Potential Trading Partner Matches and Out-Of-Network Trading Partners.
- Go to each tab where you have results and either click the Plus button to confirm connection to that Customer Trading Partner or click the Trash button to cancel the connection.
- Congratulations, you now know how to upload a Customer List to connect to multiple Customer Trading Partners at once!
How to View Current Customer Trading Partner Connections
- From the Customer Portal Homescreen, click on the Networks menu.
- Click the Connect My Customers button.
- Click the In-Network Partners tab to view currently connected In-Network Customer Trading Partners and view how many records have been shared with each over the last 30 days.
- Click the Out-Of-Network Partners tab to view currently connected Out-of-Network Customer Trading Partners. Click the Pencil button to edit the contact email or click the Trash button to remove the connection.
