AAFES Account Integration through Radial

Overview

The Army & Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) is a retailer that operates on United States military installations worldwide. AAFES manages various types of retail facilities, including department stores, convenience stores, gas stations, food courts, and restaurants, and offers a wide variety of products, including clothing, electronics, household goods, furniture, appliances, jewelry, and more. 

Integrating AAFES into your Sellercloud account allows you to seamlessly import orders, upload tracking information, and ensure your AAFES store is always up-to-date with the latest inventory data. This integration works through EDI documents, transmitting information between the two services via plugins and Scheduled Tasks. The document exchange goes through Radial.

If necessary, you can open a ticket with Sellercloud Support to request additional customizations or other plugins for this integration. Any such modifications will be billable.

Prerequisites

Before you can integrate AAFES with Sellercloud, complete the following requirements.

Radial Support

You must contact Radial for your FTP details: Server Name, Username, and Password. You will need them when setting up the scheduled tasks to automate the plugins.

Sellercloud Support

Open a ticket with Sellercloud Support and request that the following plugins be installed on your server:

• AAFES 850 Order Import – Imports orders from AAFES to Sellercloud in EDI 850 format.
• AAFES 856 Tracking Export – Exports tracking information to AAFES in EDI 856 format.
• AAFES 810 Invoice Export – Exports invoices to AAFES in EDI 810 format.
• AAFES Product Export EDI846 – Exports inventory to AAFES in EDI 846 format.
• AAFES PDF Invoice – Generates a printable PDF packing slip in a format that complies with AAFES’s requirements.

Custom Company Settings

Create the following Custom Company Settings:

On your default company:

• STControlNumber

• GSControlNumber

• ISAControlNumber
• (Optional) AAFES_HandlingFeePerOrder – Used by the Invoice Export plugin. Set the Data Type to Decimal.
• (Optional) AAFES_MarkOrdersUnpaid – Used by AAFES 850 Order Import. If set to True, orders will be imported with Payment Status: Unpaid. Set the Data Type to Boolean.

On the company created for the integration:

• AAFES_CustomerISAID – Your ISA ID. Enter a unique phone number that you don’t use for any other EDI integration.

• AAFES_ISAID – AAFES’s ISA ID. Typically, it’s VNEXCHANGE. Contact Radial to confirm the value of this setting.

• AAFES_Qualifier –  AAFES’s Qualifier. Typically, it’s ZZ. Contact Radial to confirm the value of this setting.

• AAFES_CustomerQualifier – Your Qualifier. Set to ZZ.

• AAFES_SendOnOrderInsteadOfDiscontinuedIn846InventoryFeed – If set to True, Sellercloud will send status On Order, rather than Discontinued, for products that have no available quantity. The expected In Stock period sent will be 3 weeks.
• (Optional) AAFES – Warehouses To Use When Exporting Inventory – Used by the AAFES Product Export EDI846 plugin. A comma-delimited list of warehouse IDs that specifies which warehouses to send inventory from.

• (Optional) AAFES_LockShippingMethod – Used by AAFES 850 Order Import plugin. If set to True, prevents the Shipping Method from being changed by any plugins or other automation you may have set in Sellercloud.

Custom Product Columns

Create the following Custom Product Columns:

• AAFES_ItemCode – Product code at AAFES. Used by the Invoice and Inventory Export plugins.
• (Optional) AAFES_Enabled – Enable only specific products for AAFES. Set to True for any products you want to send with the Inventory Export plugin. Set the Data Type to Boolean.
• (Optional) AAFES_SafetyQty – The Safety Quantity, which is to be subtracted from the Available Quantity to prevent overselling on AAFES. Set the Data Type to Integer.

Custom Order Columns

Create the following Custom Order Columns:

• AAFES_RETURN_ADDRESS – AAFES’s return address. Used by the Order Import and PDF Invoice plugins. Automatically populated. Set Data Type to nTEXT.
• CustomerReferenceNumber – The customer’s reference number. Used by AAFES 850 Order Import. Automatically populated. Set the Data Type to String.

Order Import

The AAFES 850 Order Import plugin imports order data from AAFES to Sellercloud in EDI 850 format. Orders will be created with username AAFES_[CompanyID]@SellerCloud.com.

Automate Order Import

To create a Scheduled Task that imports orders:

1. Navigate to Settings > Scheduled Tasks > Manage Scheduled Tasks.
2. Click the green + icon: Create New Scheduled Task.
3. Complete as follows:
   1. Click Task Type and select Import Orders.
   2. Set the Task Name.
   3. Select the Company.
   4. Select the Start Time.
   5. Click CREATE.
4. On the Scheduled Task page, click the Edit button at the top right corner.
5. In the Details panel:
   1. Click the Create Orders For Company menu and select the company you designated for this integration.
   2. Click the Plugin menu and select AAFES EDI 850 Order Import.
6. In the Import Options panel, set Import From to FTP and fill out the FTP fields.
7. In the Frequency panel, specify the task frequency. For optimal performance, select a range between thirty minutes and one hour.
8. In the General panel, click the Enable button.
9. Click Save.

Tracking Export

The AAFES 856 Tracking Export plugin exports tracking from Sellercloud to AAFES in EDI 856 format.

Before you move on, create a Saved Search for orders filtered by:

• Company – The company you created for the integration
• Order Status – InProcess Or Completed
• Shipping Status – FullyShipped
• Payment Status – Charged
• Tracking Uploaded – No

Automate Tracking Export

To create a Scheduled Task that exports order tracking:

1. Navigate to Settings > Scheduled Tasks > Manage Scheduled Tasks.
2. Click the green + icon: Create New Scheduled Task.
3. Complete as follows:
   1. Click Task Type and select Export Orders.
   2. Set the Task Name.
   3. Select the Company.
   4. Select the Start Time.
   5. Click CREATE.
4. On the Scheduled Task page, click the Edit button at the top right corner.
5. In the Details panel:
   1. Click the User ID menu and select your email.
   2. Click the Saved Search menu and select the saved search you created earlier.
   3. Click the Export Via menu and select AAFES 856 Tracking Export.
   4. Check This Is Tracking Export.
6. In the Export Options panel, set Export To to FTP and fill out the FTP fields.
7. In the Frequency panel, specify the task frequency. For optimal performance, select a range between thirty minutes and one hour.
8. In the General panel, click the Enable toggle button.
9. Click Save.

Invoice Export

The AAFES 810 Invoice Export plugin exports invoices from Sellercloud to AAFES in EDI 810 format. The Plugin will include the SAC segment with a handling fee if the custom company setting AAFES_HandlingFeePerOrder on the default company has a value greater than 0. If the value is 0 or the setting is missing, the SAC segment will not be included in the 810 invoice export.

Before you move on, create a Saved Search for orders filtered by:

• Company – The company you created for the integration
• Shipping Status – Fully Shipped
• Order Status – InProcess Or Completed
• Invoice Uploaded – No
• Tracking Uploaded – Yes

Automate Invoice Export

To create a Scheduled Task that exports invoices:

1. Navigate to Settings > Scheduled Tasks > Manage Scheduled Tasks.
2. Click the green + icon: Create New Scheduled Task.
3. Complete as follows:
   1. Click Task Type and select Export Orders.
   2. Set the Task Name.
   3. Select the Company.
   4. Select the Start Time.
   5. Click CREATE.
4. On the Scheduled Task page, click the Edit button at the top right corner.
5. In the Details panel:
   1. Click the User ID menu and select your email.
   2. Click the Saved Search menu and select the saved search you created earlier.
   3. Click the Export Via menu and select AAFES 810 Invoice Export.
   4. Check This Is Invoice Export.
6. In the Export Options panel, set Export To to FTP and fill out the FTP fields.
7. In the Frequency panel, specify the task frequency. For optimal performance, select a range between thirty minutes and one hour.
8. In the General panel, click the Enable toggle button.
9. Click Save.

Inventory Export

The AAFES Product Export EDI846 plugin exports inventory from Sellercloud to AAFES in EDI 846 format. 

Optionally, you can enable only specific products for AAFES by setting their AAFES_Enabled Custom Product Column to True:

• For one product at a time: go to the Product Details Page > click Toolbox and select Custom Columns > click Edit, update the AAFES_Enabled column, and Save.
• For multiple products in bulk: follow the steps to Bulk Update Products and use the AAFES_Enabled column – set it to True for all products you want to enable.

Unlike core integrations, plugin integrations don’t require products to be in the company with the scheduled tasks. The export will include the products you select with your Saved Search. 

Next, create a Saved Search for products filtered by AAFES_Enabled – True. Optionally, you can add more filters to the search to narrow down the export further.

Automate Inventory Export

To create a Scheduled Task that exports inventory:

1. Navigate to Settings > Scheduled Tasks > Manage Scheduled Tasks.
2. Click the green + icon: Create New Scheduled Task.
3. Complete as follows:
   1. Click Task Type and select Export Products.
   2. Set the Task Name.
   3. Select the Company.
   4. Select the Start Time.
   5. Click CREATE.
4. On the Scheduled Task page, click the Edit button at the top right corner.
5. In the Details panel:
   1. Click the User ID menu and select your email.
   2. Click the Saved Search menu and select the saved search you created earlier.
   3. Click the Export Via menu and select AAFES Product Export EDI846.
6. In the Export Options panel, set Export To to FTP and fill out the FTP fields.
7. In the Frequency panel, specify the task frequency. For optimal performance, select a range between thirty minutes and one hour.
8. In the General panel, click the Enable toggle button.
9. Click Save.

Configure PDF Invoices

With the AAFES PDF Invoice plugin set up under your designated company, you can print PDF invoices with information about your AAFES orders and the products they include through Sellercloud or Shipbridge.

To set up the invoice plugin:

1. Go to the Company Settings of the company you created for the integration.
2. Click Toolbox and select Invoice Settings.
3. Click Per Channel Preferences.
4. For Website, select Plugin > AAFES PDF Invoice.
5. Click Save.