consensus-based, interoperable, syntax‑neutral data exchange standards
Alphabetized listing of current X12 members organizations.
Join other member organizations in continuously adapting the expansive vocabulary and language used by millions of organizations while leveraging more than 40 years of cross-industry standards development knowledge.
Membership categories and associated dues are based on the size and type of organization or individual, as well as the committee you intend to participate with.
To apply for an X12 membership, complete and submit an application form which will be reviewed and verified, then you will be notified of the next steps. Some important considerations for your application include the type and size of your organization, your named primary representative, and committee-subcommittee you intend to participate with.
Online access to all available versions of X12 products, including The EDI Standard, Code Source Directory, Control Standards, EDI Standard Figures, Guidelines and Technical Reports.
Multi-tier licensing categories are based on how licensees benefit from X12's work, replacing traditional one-size-fits-all approaches. Categories include Commercial, Internal, Developer and more.
X12 produces three types of documents to facilitate consistency across implementations of its work.
X12 defines and maintains transaction sets that establish the data content exchanged for specific business purposes. Each transaction set is maintained by a subcommittee operating within X12’s Accredited Standards Committee.
X12 standards are the workhorse of business to business exchanges proven by the billions of daily transactions within and across many industries including:
X12 has developed standards and associated products to facilitate the transmission of electronic business messages for over 40 years. X12 manages the exclusive copyright to all standards, publications, and products, and such works do not constitute joint works of authorship eligible for joint copyright.
All X12 work products are copyrighted. Any use of any X12 work product must be compliant with US Copyright laws and X12 Intellectual Property policies.
Chartered by the American National Standards Institute for more than 40 years, X12 develops and maintains EDI standards and XML schemas which drive business processes globally. X12's diverse membership includes technologists and business process experts in health care, insurance, transportation, finance, government, supply chain and other industries.
X12 standards are the workhorse of business to business exchanges proven by the billions of transactions based on X12 standards that are used daily in various industries including supply chain, transportation, government, finance, and health care. Millions of entities around the world have an established infrastructure that supports X12 transactions.
Introducing neX12...
X12 is well-positioned to continue to serve its members and the large install base by continuing to support the existing metadata, standards, and implementation tools while also focusing on several key collaborative initiatives.
X12 is led by the X12 Board of Directors (Board). The X12 Board and the Accredited Standards Committee’s Steering group (Steering) collaborate to ensure the best interests of X12 are served. Each group has specific responsibilities and the groups cooperatively handle items or issues that span the responsibilities of both groups.
X12 appoints various types of liaisons, including external and internal liaisons. Internal liaisons coordinate between two X12 groups. External liaisons represent X12's interests to another organization as defined in a formal agreement between the two organizations. More information is available in X12 Liaisons (CAP17).
X12 welcomes the assembling of members with common interests as industry groups and caucuses.
Current and past groups and caucuses include:
X12 is pleased to recognize individual members and industry representatives whose contributions and achievements have played a role in the development of cross-industry eCommerce standards.
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The EDI Standard is published once per year in January.
Proposed modifications to the current EDI Standard proceed through a series of ballots and must be approved by impacted subcommittees, the Technical Assessment Subcommittee (TAS), and the Accredited Standards Committee stakeholders in order to be included in the next publication
The tabels on this page depict the key dates for various steps in a normal modification/publication cycle.
View X12 release schedule, click here
X12 has submitted the first in a series of recommendations related to advancing the version of already adopted and mandated transactions and proposing additional transactions for adoption.
Based on industry feedback, X12 is using a phased approach for the recommendations rather than presenting the entire catalog of adopted and mandated transactions at once. Each recommendation will cover a set of logically grouped transactions and will include supporting information that will assist reviewers as they look at the functionality enhancements and other revisions.
View X12 recommendations to NCVHS, click here
X12 welcomes feedback. Submit the form with any questions, comments, or suggestions related to corporate activities or programs. This feedback is used to inform X12's decision-making processes, policies, and question and answer resources. This form is not used to request maintenance (revisions) to X12 products or to submit comments related to an internal or public review period.
X12 maintains policies and procedures that govern its corporate, committee, and subordinate group activities and posts them online to ensure they are easily accessible to members and other materially-interested parties.
Frequently Used Forms
Browse and download meeting minutes by committee.
Review X12's official interpretations based on submitted RFIs related to the meaning and use of X12 Standards, Guidelines, and Technical Reports, including Technical Report Type 3 (TR3) implementation guidelines. Submit a request for interpretation (RFI) related to the implementation and use of X12 work.
Information about the X12 organization, its activities, committees & subcommittees, tools, products, and processes. Information is presented as a PowerPoint deck, informational paper, educational material, or checklist. Content is added to this page regularly.
Information related to the X12 corporation is listed in the Corporate section below. Committee-level information is listed in each committee's separate section. Policies and procedures specific to a committee's subordinate groups, like subcommittees, task groups, action groups, and work groups, are also listed in the committee's section.
X12 defines and maintains transaction sets that establish the data content exchanged for specific business purposes and, in some cases, implementation guides that describe the use of one or more transaction sets related to a single business purpose or use case. The diagrams on the following pages depict various exchanges between trading partners.
Contact us through email, mail, or over the phone. All of our contact information is here.
X12's work is used extensively across many industries to benefit organizations of all types and sizes.
If your organization intends to use X12's work - the content of its standards, guides, or codes - in a solution to license to your customer, a third party - then your use of X12's work is considered commercial.
As such, in order to embed the X12 content in your offering for use in a production environment, you'll need to become an X12 Commercial Use Licensing Partner.
Commercial usage rights, along with access to available downloadable artifacts. This including Table Data, XSDs, and Spreadsheets, as well as other artifacts. This also includes five Glass seats allowing access to X12's online viewer which supports direct viewing of X12 content.
Supports timely delivery of new versions as they are published, at a fixed annual cost;
Adapts X12's business model to include modern distribution mediums, and fairly shared costs, supporting the long-term vision for a strong library of effective, efficient, and responsive e-commerce standards; and,
Enables compliant licensees to leverage X12 Intellectual Property (IP) for their specific uses without being concerned about legal infringements or fair use violations.
Reference on X12's licensing partner page for promotion.
Much of X12's work is intended to facilitate computer-to-computer communication of standardized business documents; the content of these documents - the metadata - are often based on or use X12's work; this work includes X12 EDI Standard, implementation guides (TR3s), metadata, and code lists.
It's often advantageous for organizations such as software vendors to embed X12's work in the software creating a combined software solution that can be utilized by other entities. These other entities are typically customers and are licensing the use of software or software as a service through various means. These organizations' use of X12's work, embedded in their offering for the benefit of their customers, is considered commercial use.
These commercial use partners can benefit greatly from using X12's machine-readable representations of its work, in the form of Table Data, XSDs, or other derivatives.
After the application has been submitted, it is reviewed by the licensing team, who will contact the submitter to better understand their needs and intent.
Once the details have been clarified and confirmed, X12's commercial use partner license agreement is put in place, and the licensee will be granted access to download X12 artifacts from the product browser as well as assign the Glass user seats to individuals within their organization.
The primary drivers the X12 licensing team references are the size of the company, the primary purpose of their business, with respect to using X12's work, and the long term value of a licensing partnership.
License terms are available after application has been reviewed, and based on the next steps of the initial follow-up contact.