Pet Food and Treats EDI: Align Retailer Product Codes and Case Quantities

What this looks like in pet food and treats

A retailer orders cases of a small bag using its internal product code. The brand also sells the same recipe in a larger bag and a mixed trial pack. A family-level mapping can select the wrong sellable configuration while still producing a syntactically valid order and shipment notice.

Records, ownership, and update rules

Work through the process

1. 01
   Approve the item relationship

   Review retailer code, internal item, recipe, package size, and case count together. Keep trial packs and individual products distinct even when the retailer description abbreviates the name.
2. 02
   Validate incoming units

   Confirm the requested unit and case multiples against the partner’s rules. Unknown pack definitions should stop acceptance until product operations resolves them.
3. 03
   Generate from actual records

   Build acknowledgments from accepted decisions, shipment notices from actual packing evidence, and invoices from the finance-owned transaction. Keep partial quantities and original line references visible.
4. 04
   Exercise mapping changes

   Test a new bag size, discontinued recipe, changed case count, and partial shipment. Verify both technical document handling and the business meaning of each product line.
5. 05
   Reuse a retailer code for a new bag size and check both orders

   Take a retailer purchase order from Orderful for cases of the small bag, and confirm the NetSuite sales order line shows that bag's item and case configuration, not the family-level product. Ship it two cases short and check that the shipment notice reports the packed count while the remainder stays open in NetSuite. Have product operations version the retailer code to a new bag size with an effective date, then send a second order. It should resolve to the new item; the first order must show the original bag and case count. A wrong bag, a closed remainder, or a first order changed by the remapping stops the rollout.

Handle the exceptions explicitly

Retailer code is reused for a new size

Version the mapping and preserve historical orders under their original definition.

Warehouse proposes another recipe

Require the appropriate commercial decision and partner-compliant representation.

Shipment contains partial cases

Follow the approved partner unit and packing rules rather than rounding the quantity.

What to verify before expanding

• Each retailer line resolves to the exact recipe and package.
• Shipment quantities reconcile to actual packed units and the order remainder.
• A retailer code reused for another bag size preserves historical orders under the previously approved item and case definition.
• A partial-case shipment follows the partner's approved unit rules and retains the actual quantity without rounding it to a full case.

Technical references

• Orderful transaction model
• Stacksync NetSuite supported objects