Electronic Data Interchange has underpinned efficient supply chain practices in the book industry for many years. Standards evolve and the BIC approved documents linked to below reflect current best practice with invaluable contributions provided by the BIC membership and other industry professionals and organisations.

The specifications and guidelines enshrine the consensus decisions reached on implementation issues at BIC’s regular Technical Implementation Clinics. They provide overall guidance on the use of BIC approved TRADACOMS and EDIFACT messages, as well as details on each individual message.

Given the global nature of the book supply chain, there are implementation guidelines, code lists and transmission structures provided for both the UK TRADACOMS standard maintained by BIC; as well as the international EDIFACT and EDItX XML standards maintained by EDItEUR.

It is important that organisations new to book industry EDI standards talk to BIC members about issues affecting their EDI implementations. If further clarification is needed, please contact the BIC Technical Implementation Clinic. The clinics are online, drop-in sessions. However, attendance is strictly for BIC member organisations only. More information about the BIC Technical Implementation Clinic is available here.

BIC has a schedule for reviewing its standards and best practice documents and will highlight on the website any documents that are subject to update by a BIC Review Group.

The latest and most significant update to the TRADACOMS documentation in October 2021 relates to Code List 54 – Price & Availability and Order Acknowledgement Codes.

There are millions of price and availability updates to books in the UK every year, yet key supply chain organisations all cite price and availability (P&A) as a common cause of confusion. Indeed, poor P&A can have a detrimental impact on order management if industry book buyers can’t rely on clear and unequivocal information. The purpose of the revised Code List 54 is to reflect current industry needs and best practice with a reduced set of unambiguous and actionable codes. Several codes have also been deprecated and should be removed from use immediately. Similarly, Code List 55 ( order action codes) has been updated to reflect current industry usage. Code Lists 54 and 55 should be used together.

This latest iteration of Code List 54 and Code List 55 is available as a separate document below whilst the full set of TRADACOMS code lists is overhauled.   

Code List 54 and Code List 55 Version 11 (Updated January 2023)

Code Lists Version 11 (updated January 2023)

BIC Tradacoms Trade Implementation Guidelines

Reviewed and updated December 2022 / January 2023

The Order File (updated January 2023)

The Acknowledgment of Order File (updated December 2023)

The Delivery Notification File (updated January 2023)

The Invoice File (updated January 2023)

The Credit Note File (updated December 2022)

The Statement/Remittance Details File ( updated January 2023)

The Book Trade Price and Availability Updates File (updated January 2023)

VAT Calculator model (reviewed January 2023)


Download the electronic (text file) code list for TRADACOMS.

Tradacoms transmission structure ( updated January 2023)


BIC EDIFACT Implementation Guidelines

Implementation guidelines for EDIFACT messages for the book trade are maintained by EDItEUR.

Changes to trade book supply guidelines since Issue 1.1 (Updated January 2017, Reviewed 2022)

View an electronic (text file) code list for EDIFACT

The first two documents below relate to specific UK usage and provide guidelines on the UK requirements of HM Revenue and Customs. 

EDIFACT Implementation Guidelines – UK Code List, Issue 1, Version 1.3
(July 2014, reviewed December 2022) 

Using the EDItEUR invoice message for UK book trade invoices 
(updated December 2022)

Using the EDIFACT Taxcon Message for UK book trade invoices and credit notes
(updated December 2022)


Invoice and Delivery Note Provision for Book Deliveries

Advisory on Invoice and Delivery Note Provision for Book Deliveries
(updated February 2023)


Industry Returns Initiative (IRI)

IRI standards


Managing FTP file transfers

EDItEUR filenaming conventions for use in FTP file transfers 
Version 4, May 2008. reviewed January 2023


EDItX XML transaction specifications

XML versions of all the major transactions in trade applications have been developed.

Printers Despatch Advice

Printers Despatch Advice documentation
(reviewed January 2023)