UN/EDIFACT

United Nations/Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport

Overview

UN/EDIFACT (United Nations/Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport) is the international EDI standard developed under the auspices of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). It is the most widely used EDI standard globally, particularly dominant in Europe, Asia-Pacific, and for international trade across all regions. EDIFACT provides a comprehensive set of syntax rules, message design guidelines, and standardized message types for multi-industry electronic business document exchange.

EDIFACT is maintained by the UN Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT). The standard is published as ISO 9735 and is freely available, which has contributed to its widespread adoption. Unlike proprietary formats, EDIFACT is an open standard that any organization can implement without licensing fees.

History

The development of EDIFACT began in the early 1980s as an effort to create a single international EDI standard that could bridge the gap between the North American ANSI X12 standard and the European TRADACOMS and other regional standards. The first version of the EDIFACT syntax rules was published in 1987 as ISO 9735. The standard has been continuously updated, with new directories (versions) released biannually by UNECE.

EDIFACT gained rapid adoption in the late 1980s and 1990s, particularly among European governments, customs authorities, and multinational corporations. The European Union's adoption of EDIFACT for customs declarations and trade documentation was a major catalyst. By the mid-1990s, EDIFACT had become the de facto standard for international EDI, with over 200 standardized message types covering virtually every aspect of trade, transport, and administration.

Structure and Format

EDIFACT messages follow a hierarchical structure organized into interchanges, functional groups, messages, segments, composite data elements, and simple data elements. The syntax uses specific service characters to delimit these structural components.

Syntax Characters

The default EDIFACT service characters are defined in the UNA (Service String Advice) segment:

  • Component data element separator: colon (:)
  • Data element separator: plus sign (+)
  • Decimal notation: period (.)
  • Release character: question mark (?)
  • Segment terminator: apostrophe (')

Message Structure

An EDIFACT interchange is structured as follows:

  • UNA - Service String Advice (optional, defines delimiters)
  • UNB - Interchange Header (sender, recipient, date/time)
  • UNG - Functional Group Header (optional)
  • UNH - Message Header (message type, version)
  • Message body segments - The actual business data
  • UNT - Message Trailer
  • UNE - Functional Group Trailer (if UNG used)
  • UNZ - Interchange Trailer

Example

Below is a simplified example of an EDIFACT ORDERS (Purchase Order) message: 

UNA:+.? '
UNB+UNOC:3+SENDER001:ZZ+RECEIVER002:ZZ+230615:1200+00000000000001'
UNH+1+ORDERS:D:96A:UN'
BGM+220+PO-2023-00451+9'
DTM+137:20230615:102'
NAD+BY+5412345678908::9'
NAD+SU+4012345000009::9'
LIN+1++4000862141404:SRV'
QTY+21:500'
PRI+AAA:25.00'
UNS+S'
CNT+2:1'
UNT+11+1'
UNZ+1+00000000000001'

Key Message Types

EDIFACT defines over 200 standard message types. Some of the most commonly used include:

  • ORDERS - Purchase Order
  • ORDRSP - Purchase Order Response
  • DESADV - Despatch Advice (Advance Ship Notice)
  • INVOIC - Invoice
  • PRICAT - Price/Sales Catalogue
  • INVRPT - Inventory Report
  • CUSCAR - Customs Cargo Report
  • CUSDEC - Customs Declaration
  • IFTMIN - Instruction for Transport
  • PAYMUL - Multiple Payment Order
  • REMADV - Remittance Advice
  • SLSRPT - Sales Data Report

Use Cases

EDIFACT is used across a wide range of industries and scenarios:

  • International trade: Customs declarations, certificates of origin, trade financing documents
  • Retail and distribution: Purchase orders, invoices, despatch advices, inventory reports (often via the GS1/EANCOM subset)
  • Transportation and logistics: Booking confirmations, shipping instructions, waybills, arrival notices
  • Financial services: Payment orders, bank statements, direct debits
  • Healthcare: Insurance claims, patient referrals (in some European countries)
  • Government: Tax declarations, statistical reporting, public procurement

Advantages

  • Global reach: Accepted worldwide, making it ideal for multinational organizations and cross-border trade
  • Comprehensive: Over 200 message types cover nearly every business scenario
  • Open standard: Freely available with no licensing fees, maintained by the United Nations
  • Mature ecosystem: Decades of tooling, middleware, and service provider support
  • Industry subsets: Specialized subsets like EANCOM provide focused implementations for specific industries
  • Multi-lingual support: Supports various character encodings for international use

Related Standards

EDIFACT is closely related to several other standards. GS1/EANCOM is the most widely used EDIFACT subset, tailored for the retail supply chain. Many organizations have migrated or are migrating from EDIFACT to XML-based formats like UBL, often maintaining EDIFACT for existing trading partners while adopting XML for new integrations. In North America, ANSI X12 is the counterpart to EDIFACT, and mapping between the two standards is a common requirement for international businesses.