Business Transaction Processing

GSA Global Supply’s industry direct delivery program meets customer demands by using mature industry delivery systems to lower the total operating costs of the federal supply chain. Any contractor interested in conducting business with GSA Global Supply must understand and adhere to the business rules and requirements as they relate to:

  • Processing of backorders;
  • Purchase order acknowledgements;
  • Shipment information;
  • Delivery information;
  • Delivery documentation;
  • Accuracy of data provided to GSA;
  • Contractor cancellations;
  • Customer cancellations;
  • Interpretation of GSA data in order to meet GSA shipping documentation guidelines; and
  • Processing of emergency purchase orders.

EDI and Vendor Portal

GSA Global Supply mandates that industry partners use one of the following business transaction processing methods:

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)

This is GSA Global Supply’s preferred method for conducting business transactions. EDI provides for fully electronic processing of all ordering transactions. GSA utilizes the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) X-12 family of transaction sets to electronically communicate both “Inbound” and “Outbound” transaction sets.

Read more about which EDI transactions are required [PDF - 227 KB] and instructions for the onboard process.

Vendor Portal (VP)

An online tool that gives industry partners who are not using EDI better visibility into their orders and enables automatic communications between GSA and its customers. While EDI remains the preferred processing method, industry partners with small order volume and less technical proficiency may choose to use Vendor Portal.

The shortcut to this page is gsa.gov/supplyedivp.

Last Reviewed: 2019-11-12