We’re having issues with EDI invoice imports from one of our major vendors failing in accounts payable. The error log shows “Invalid date format in invoice date field” but we’ve been receiving EDI files from this vendor for over a year without problems.
The vendor sends invoices in standard EDI 810 format, and the import worked perfectly until last week. Now every file from this vendor fails, while EDI imports from our other vendors process normally. When I examine the raw EDI file, the dates look correct to me (format appears to be YYYYMMDD).
I suspect something changed with either the vendor’s file encoding or our import configuration, but I can’t pinpoint what. The payment delays are becoming critical as we have invoices approaching due dates. Has anyone dealt with date format mismatches in EDI invoice imports?
Checked the hex dump and the encoding is definitely ASCII. But Robert, you might be onto something with the DTM qualifier. I see ‘DTM00320250705’ in the current files, but our older files from this vendor show ‘DTM01120240615’. The qualifier changed from 011 to 003. What’s the difference and how do I fix the import mapping?
First thing to check - open the EDI file in a hex editor and look at the actual byte values for the date fields. Sometimes vendors switch from ASCII to EBCDIC encoding without notice, which makes dates appear garbled even though they look normal in text editors. ICS 2023-1 expects ASCII by default.
Excellent resolution. Let me provide comprehensive guidance on all three aspects of your EDI invoice import issue:
EDI Invoice Import Process:
The CloudSuite AP module processes EDI 810 invoices through a multi-stage pipeline: file reception, encoding validation, segment parsing, field mapping, business rule validation, and finally posting to AP. Your failure occurred at the field mapping stage because the DTM segment qualifier didn’t match your configured expectations. The import process is strict about qualifier codes to ensure data integrity - it won’t assume which date is which without explicit qualifier matching.
Date Format Mismatch Root Cause:
The issue wasn’t actually the date format (YYYYMMDD vs YYMMDD) but rather the DTM qualifier code that identifies what the date represents. Your vendor switched from DTM011 (Ship Date) to DTM003 (Invoice Date), which is technically more correct per EDI 810 standards. However, your original import configuration was hardcoded to extract invoice dates from DTM*011 segments, so when the vendor corrected their implementation, your import started failing. The dates themselves were always in CCYYMMDD format - that never changed.
Vendor File Encoding Considerations:
While encoding wasn’t your specific issue, it’s worth addressing for completeness. ICS 2023-1 expects EDI files in ASCII encoding by default. Some vendors use EBCDIC (common in mainframe systems) or UTF-8 with BOM markers. To handle multiple encodings:
Navigate to System Configuration > EDI Settings > File Processing
Enable ‘Auto-detect encoding’ and add supported character sets: ASCII, UTF-8, EBCDIC
This allows CloudSuite to automatically convert files regardless of source encoding
Complete Solution Implementation:
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Update your EDI 810 import map in Accounts Payable > EDI Configuration > Import Maps
For Invoice Date field, change the mapping rule from:
`DTM011{CCYYMMDD}
to:
`DTM003{CCYYMMDD} OR DTM011{CCYYMMDD}
This accepts both qualifiers during any vendor transition period.
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Similarly update Due Date mapping to accept multiple qualifiers:
`DTM002{CCYYMMDD} OR DTM004{CCYYMMDD}
(002 = Delivery Date, 004 = Purchase Order Date - vendors vary on which they use for payment terms calculation)
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Enable EDI import logging for this vendor:
Go to Vendor Maintenance > [Vendor Code] > EDI Settings
Check ‘Enable detailed import logging’
Set log retention to 90 days
This captures the full parsing process for future troubleshooting.
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Process your backlogged invoices:
Navigate to Accounts Payable > EDI Import > Failed Transactions
Select all invoices from this vendor with error ‘Invalid date format’
Click ‘Reprocess with Updated Map’
CloudSuite will re-run the import using your corrected configuration
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Set up proactive monitoring:
Create an alert rule in EDI Configuration > Monitoring Rules:
Condition: ‘Import failure rate > 10% for any vendor over 24 hours’
Action: Email notification to AP team and EDI administrator
This catches similar issues before they create significant payment delays.
Best Practice for Vendor EDI Changes:
Establish a change notification process with your EDI vendors. Request 30-day advance notice for any EDI format changes, and ask them to provide sample files before implementation. This allows you to update CloudSuite mappings proactively rather than discovering issues when live transactions fail.
To update the mapping, go to Accounts Payable > EDI Configuration > Import Maps > 810 Invoice. Find the Invoice Date field mapping and change the DTM Qualifier filter from ‘011’ to ‘003’. You might also want to add both qualifiers as acceptable values using an OR condition so the import handles files with either format gracefully during any transition period from your vendor.
Updated the mapping to accept both qualifiers and the import is working again. Processing the backlog of failed invoices now. Thanks for the detailed help!