Automatically importing trading partners

Trading partners are uploaded into Enable to calculate special pricing agreement (SPA) support. Manufacturers, distributors, and end-customers selected on a SPA rely on trading partner data imported into the Enable channel.

This article will guide you through:

1. How to download the trading partners template
2. How to populate the trading partners template
3. How to save the trading partners file
4. How to upload the trading partners file

Looking for something else?

• Importing trading partner data for rebate agreements rather than special pricing agreements? Learn about automatically importing trading partners for trading programs here.
• Looking to import trading partners for SPAs via the Enable user interface? Learn about manually importing trading partners for SPAs here.
• Looking to add trading partners to a special pricing agreement? Learn how to add parties to a new SPA here.
• Alternatively, see our Help Center for more on SPAs.

Trading partner data for SPAs are located within the Config area of the Trading programs app.

Channel admin users will have access to the Config area and trading partners template within Enable. If you require additional help, please reach out to our support team here.

To download the trading partners template:

Step 1: Click the hub switcher icon (nine dots) in the top right. This will show you the Apps you have access to. You can see an example below.

Step 2: Click on Trading programs.

Step 3: Navigate to Config in the green banner and select Structure.

Step 4: Click on the Partners tab. Note: This may be named differently (e.g. Customers), but will always represent your trading partners.

Step 5: On the right hand side, click Download template and set the checkbox for Populated with existing to download a template containing all existing trading partner data within your Enable channel. Alternatively, leave the checkbox not set to download a blank template.

Step 6: Click Download to save the template to your computer’s downloads folder.

If you are importing trading partners via SFTP, you may navigate away from the config area within Enable, and continue with the steps in the next section.

Once the trading partners template has been downloaded, you will need to populate each row with the following column data for your SPA trading partners. Column headers must not be changed or renamed in the file.

• Trading Partner Name: Enter a unique name for the partner.
• Trading Partner Reference: Enter a unique reference for the partner - this should match the reference that will input on transaction lines for claims.
• Business Type: Enter one of the following options: Manufacturer, Distributor, Customer.
• Approval for customer-fed transactions: Leave blank; channel user approval transactions imported by Collaborators is not currently supported for SPAs. Collaborators can still import their own sales transactions - learn more here.

Note: Some columns in this template may be labelled differently, or more columns may exist if additional trading partner attributes have been set up during your Enable SPAs implementation. Please refer to the data guide provided by your implementation team, or reach out to our support team here if you require additional assistance.

If required by your implementation team:

• (Optional) Add the row count in the final row in the form “ROWCOUNT IS X”, where X is the total number of trading partners you are uploading. In the CSV file, this will be the total row count - 2.

Save your CSV file and rename the file to the format “{TRADING PARTNER NAME}-TIMESTAMP.csv”, where:

• {TRADING PARTNER NAME} is replaced by the pluralized label given to the trading partners in your channel, e.g. PARTNERS.
• TIMESTAMP is replaced by a 14-digit number in the form yyyyMMddhhmmss made up of the creation date, e.g. PARTNERS-20240417030422.csv.

Step 1: Connect to your SFTP location using the SFTP credentials provided by your implementation team.

Step 2: Navigate to the Imports folder.

Step 3: Upload the Trading Partners CSV file into the Imports folder.

Step 4: Create an empty file with the same name as the Trading Partners CSV file with an additional appended “.ok” (e.g. PARTNERS-20240417030422.csv.ok). This will begin the import process into your channel.

Step 5: Check to see if the file was received by Enable once the file has finished processing. If the Trading Partners CSV file is in the Succeeded folder, this indicates that the trading partner data is now in the Enable platform. If the Trading Partners CSV file is in the Failed folder, this indicates that the file has failed and a corresponding Error.txt file will be generated describing the error.

What’s next?

Need help resolving SFTP errors? Learn how to understand SFTP errors here.

Looking to import branch data into Enable via SFTP? Learn how to automatically import branches for SPAs here.