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. 

You can integrate AAFES through Radial, which is an e-commerce platform used to manage supplier dropshipping. Their dropship solution allows you to leverage dropship suppliers’ inventory and resources to fulfill online orders directly to your customers.

The Army & Air Force Exchange Service Integration allows you to sell on their platform through Sellercloud. This integration works through EDI documents, transmitting information between the two services. The following plugins are currently available in Sellercloud:

• Order Import – Imports orders from AAFES to Sellercloud in EDI 850 format.
• Tracking Export – Exports tracking information to AAFES in EDI 856 format.
• Invoice Export – Exports invoiced orders to AAFES in EDI 810 format.
• Product Export – Exports inventory to AAFES in EDI 846 format.
• PDF Invoice – Creates printable PDF packing slips.

You can contact 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.

Custom Company Settings

Create the following Custom Company Settings in your Default Company:

• STControlNumber

• GSControlNumber

• ISAControlNumber
• AAFES_HandlingFeePerOrder

Create the following Custom Company Settings in the Company you created for the integration. Coordinate the ISA IDs and Qualifiers with Radial.

• AAFES_CustomerISAID – usually a unique phone number.

• AAFES_ISAID – usually VNEXCHANGE.

• AAFES_Qualifier – usually ZZ.

• AAFES_CustomerQualifier – usually 01.

• 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.

• AAFES_LockShippingMethod (optional) – if True, it will prevent the Shipping Method from being changed by any plugins or other automation you may have set in Sellercloud.
• AAFES_MarkOrdersUnpaid (optional) – if True, orders will be imported with Payment Status: Unpaid.

Sellercloud Support

You must contact Sellercloud Support and request:

1. To install the AAFES Plugins on your server.
2. The following custom product and order columns:

Custom Product Columns

• AAFES_ItemCode – Product code at AAFES.
• AAFES_Enabled – Set to True to enable a product for AAFES. While not required in order for the plugin to work, it can help distinguish which products are listed, and you can use it as a filter for the Inventory Export Saved Search.
• AAFES_SafetyQty (optional) – A Safety Quantity for products on AAFES.

Custom Order Columns

• AAFES_RETURN_ADDRESS – Type nTEXT.
• CustomerReferenceNumber – type String.

Order Import

This 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 regularly imports orders from AAFES to Sellercloud:

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 – select the designated AAFES company.
   4. Select the Start Time.
   5. Click CREATE.
4. The following message appears at the bottom of your screen: “Scheduled task created successfully. Click Here to configure the task details.” – click the link.
5. Click the Edit button on the top right.
6. In the Details section:
   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.
7. In the Import Options section, set Import From to FTP and fill out the FTP credentials you got from the Channel.
8. In the Frequency section, specify the task frequency. For optimal performance, select a range between thirty minutes and one hour.
9. In the General section, click the Enable button.
10. Click Save on the top right.

Tracking Export

This plugin exports Tracking information from Sellercloud to AAFES, following the 856 EDI format.

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

• Company – Choose the AAFES company
• Order Status – InProcess Or Completed
• Shipping Status – FullyShipped
• Payment Status – Charged
• Tracking Uploaded – No

Automate Tracking Export

To create a Scheduled Task that regularly exports order tracking from Sellercloud to AAFES:

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. The following message appears at the bottom of your screen: “Scheduled task created successfully. Click Here to configure the task details.” – click the link.
5. Click the Edit button on the top right.
6. In the Details section:
   1. Click the User ID menu and select your ID.
   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.
7. In the Export Options section, set Export To to FTP and fill out the FTP credentials.
8. In the Frequency section, specify the task frequency. For optimal performance, select a range between thirty minutes and one hour.
9. In the General section, click the Enable toggle button.
10. Click Save on the top right.

Invoice Export

This 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 regularly exports invoices from Sellercloud to AAFES:

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. The following message appears at the bottom of your screen: “Scheduled task created successfully. Click Here to configure the task details.” – click the link.
5. Click the Edit button on the top right.
6. In the Details section:
   1. Click the User ID menu and select your ID.
   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.
7. In the Export Options section, set Export To to FTP and fill out the FTP fields.
8. In the Frequency section, specify the task frequency. For optimal performance, select a range between thirty minutes and one hour.
9. In the General section, click the Enable toggle button.
10. Click Save on the top right.

Order PDF Invoice

This plugin creates packing slips with information about your orders and the products they include. This plugin doesn’t require a scheduled task.

To set up the invoice plugin:

1. Go to the Company Settings of the company where you set up AAFES.
2. Click Toolbox and select Invoice Settings.
3. Click Per Channel Preferences.
4. For Website, select Invoice type: Plugin > Plugin: AAFES PDF Invoice.
5. Click Save.

Inventory Export

This plugin exports inventory from Sellercloud to AAFES in EDI 846 format. 

Make sure to enable your products for AAFES by setting their AAFES_Enabled Custom Column for Products 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 where the scheduled tasks are. The export will include the products you select with your Saved Search. 

Before you move on, create a Saved Search for products filtered by AAFES_Enabled – True. Optionally, you can add more filters to the search.

Automate Inventory Export

To create a Scheduled Task that regularly exports inventory from Sellercloud to AAFES:

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. The following message appears at the bottom of your screen: “Scheduled task created successfully. Click Here to configure the task details.” – click the link.
5. Click the Edit button on the top right.
6. In the Details section:
   1. Click the User ID menu and select your ID.
   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.
7. In the Export Options section, set Export To to FTP and fill out the FTP fields.
8. In the Frequency section, specify the task frequency. For optimal performance, select a range between thirty minutes and one hour.
9. In the General section, click the Enable toggle button.
10. Click Save on the top right.