There are people who do not think that EDI reports are worth using anymore. Other says that the ERP reports are for more useful than they used to be. There are different arguments in the debate though. The type of EDI reports that you request for will determine the importance of the data you analyze. Why not consider asking for more data on the EDI reports rather than the simple stuff that can be gotten from an accounting application? Here are some examples of data that is not often included in EDI reports: - Data on sales based on product categories, fill rates per store, items and sell through ratios. - Charge-backs that delay the process of orders - Data on the efficiency of partners. These can include transportation companies or 3PLs and others. If you decide to view all the documents that you utilize in talks with your clients/suppliers as Business Processing documents, you can have access to more information and insight from your EDI reports. Here is an example of how this works out. Most processes consist of documents and applied business rules. When these are grouped together, they can assist in providing useful information for reporting. They can also be used to measure the missing information between events in EDI reports and also include data from various business documents. The combination of data can help both the seller and the buyer. A seller may view old data that simply shows what clients are owing to my company. However, if you compare the data with an ASN for example, you will find that there are more details of what hasnt been paid for in the invoice. Most invoice tools in accounting software will not show this and you will not be notified of the changes as a result. This means that the ERP applications you are using are not helping you manage your customer relationships well. Most companies selling through retail channels are not utilizing the ERP model anyway. They may use tools made by Microsoft, Intuit and Sage but not the enterprise grade ERP systems. Without a centralized view of data reporting, it may be impossible to unite applications to work together. For retail partners, the process of managing the relationship with trading partners, whether they are involved in shipping, inventory, translation, shipping and other EDI areas is important. Since the bulk communication done between a trading partner and the retailer is done through EDI, it is better to be able to report on all areas of the “relationship”. This means that you should be able to see all the details, orders, exceptions and other aspects from one report. You can do this with a more detailed EDI report.