Audience: EDI analysts, integrators, logistics and transportation teams

This article explains how to configure Orderful to send POD PDFs to your shipper over SFTP as part of a standard logistics workflow.

As a carrier, you exchange the standard logistics workflow with your shipper over EDI — receiving load tenders (204), and sending back responses (990), status updates (214), and invoices (210). At the end of the delivery flow, your shipper requires you to send a Proof of Delivery (POD) PDF for record keeping. You generate these PDFs using your own tooling and drop them onto an SFTP folder.

Orderful picks up each PDF, creates a PROOF_OF_DELIVERY transaction on the correct relationship, and stores the file so it can be accessed and downloaded from the transaction details page. The transaction appears in your Transaction List alongside your standard EDI transactions for the same partnership.

💡 Tip: Any file transactions don't have an order-to-cash workflow like standard EDI. Choose your POD business number wisely — for example, include the shipment ID so you can tie the POD back to the original load tender (204).

Orderful cannot route any file transactions based on file content — including PDFs. PDFs are binary files that Orderful does not read or parse. Even for text-based formats like XML or CSV, routing based on content is not supported in MFT mode: Orderful acts as a pass-through and does not inspect what is inside the file.

Routing must be configured on the communication channel itself, using either static values or a regex pattern applied to the file name. If routing is not configured, no transaction is created and you will receive an unprocessed notification.

For a channel dedicated to one carrier sending one type of document, you can use Static mode for all routing fields — no regex needed.

Open the communication channel settings and fill in the MFT advanced settings as follows:

Sender identifier
Mode: Static → select your own EDI account.

Receiver identifier
Mode: Static → select your shipper's EDI account.

Transaction type
Mode: Static → select PROOF_OF_DELIVERY.

Stream
Mode: Static → select LIVE.

Business number (displayed in the Transaction List — does not affect routing)
Choose one of:

If PDFs are being dropped on the SFTP folder but no transactions are being created, check that the SFTP communication channel is active in Orderful and that the relationship is in LIVE status — or TEST if you are testing. If the channel is inactive, the polling schedule will not run and no files will be picked up.

If transactions are still not being created, contact [email protected] with:

What if the same SFTP channel receives PDFs from multiple carriers?

Switch to Regex mode for the Sender identifier field and write a regex that identifies the carrier from the file name. Then use a mapping table to map each extracted value to the corresponding EDI account.

Can I download the original PDF from Orderful?

Yes. Open the transaction, go to the Data tab, and use the download link to retrieve the original file in its native format.

Will POD transactions appear alongside my standard EDI transactions in the Transaction List?

Yes. All any file transactions appear in the same unified Transaction List as your standard EDI transactions. You can filter by transaction type to isolate PROOF_OF_DELIVERY transactions or view all types together.

Will POD transactions appear alongside my workflow?

No — any file transactions don't have an order-to-cash workflow like your standard EDI transactions (204, 990, 214, 210). However, if you set your POD business number to match the business number of the original load tender (204), you can use the business number search in the Transaction List to tie your POD back to the corresponding workflow.