GENRAL — General Purpose Message (D.96A)

GENRAL is EDIFACT's generic message, intended to transmit textual information between EDI partners when no more specific standard message exists for the use case.

Purpose

Per the UN/CEFACT functional definition, GENRAL is "a message to enable the transmission of textual information". The message was designed primarily to:

• "facilitate early transmission testing between new EDI partners";
• "broadcasting of known problem areas to EDI partners";
• "transmission of text (preferably structured or coded) to supplement or further clarify previously transmitted EDI standard messages" (e.g. flagging earlier data as test data, or as containing intentional errors to qualify error routines);
• "transmission of small amounts of structured text where no existing messages exist".

When NOT to use GENRAL

The specification is explicit: GENRAL must not:

• "be used as a substitute for an existing UNSM under development, under trial or at approved status";
• "be used to avoid the development of a more specific application message";
• "be used as a replacement for existing electronic mail systems".

Concretely: routinely transmitting a maintenance notification through GENRAL is fine. Transmitting prices through GENRAL when PRICAT exists is misuse. Replacing an application APERAK with GENRAL is also misuse.

Segment structure

GENRAL D.96A is one of the simplest messages in the directory: a very light header and eight segment groups. The full table is in genral_s.htm.

Header

Mandatory header segments: UNH M and BGM M . The DTM C segment is conditional in the header (×1).

Segment groups

Eight groups, only one of which is mandatory:

• SG1 (C, ×10) — RFF + DTM: references (to the original message when GENRAL is a follow-up).
• SG2 (C, ×2) — NAD + LOC + SG3 RFF/DTM + SG4 CTA/COM: sender-side parties with their locations, internal references, and contacts.
• SG5 (M, ×100) — FTX + SG6 NAD/LOC + SG7 RFF/DTM + SG8 CTA/COM: the heart of the message. The FTX M segment is mandatory inside the group: it carries the transmitted text. The sub-groups let each text block be tied to specific recipient parties, references and contacts.

The message closes with UNT M .

Mandatory / conditional

Strictly mandatory in every GENRAL D.96A:

• UNH, UNT — frame the message.
• BGM — general-document type and number (qualifier set by bilateral convention).
• SG5 FTX — at least one occurrence of FTX, inside the mandatory SG5. This is what makes GENRAL specific: without FTX there is no message.

Everything else — including NAD parties, DTM, and references — is conditional. The minimalism is intentional: GENRAL enforces no business semantics.

Real-world example

Operational notice sent by a buying group to a supplier, announcing an EDI maintenance window:

UNB+UNOC:3+5410000000123:14+5410000000456:14+260513:0900+CTRL000301'
UNH+1+GENRAL:D:96A:UN'
BGM+999+NOTICE-2026-WK19+9'
DTM+137:20260513:102'
NAD+SE+5410000000123::9++BUYING GROUP SA'
NAD+BY+5410000000456::9++ACME SUPPLY GMBH'
CTA+IC+EDI001:Jane Doe'
COM+jane.doe@buyinggroup.example:EM'
FTX+AAI+++MAINTENANCE WINDOW PLANNED 2026-05-17 22:00 UTC TO 2026-05-18 04:00 UTC.'
FTX+AAI+++NO ORDERS WILL BE ACKNOWLEDGED DURING THIS WINDOW.'
FTX+AAI+++FALLBACK CONTACT: ops@buyinggroup.example - +33 1 23 45 67 89.'
UNT+11+1'
UNZ+1+CTRL000301'

• BGM+999+NOTICE-2026-WK19+9 — qualifier 999 (other — no dedicated code for notices), number NOTICE-2026-WK19, status 9 (Original).
• DTM+137 — document date.
• NAD+SE / NAD+BY — Sender and Buyer (EDI partner).
• CTA+IC — Information Contact (qualifier IC = Information Contact), technical contact name.
• COM+...:EM — communication details, EM = email.
• Three FTX+AAI — Free text qualifier AAI (General Information). Each FTX carries one line of the notice.
• UNT+11+1 — 11 segments in the message.

Common errors

• FTX at the header instead of SG5 — GENRAL does not allow FTX at the header (unlike ORDERS, QUOTES, INVOIC). The text must live in the mandatory SG5. Placing FTX between BGM and NAD trips strict syntactic validators.
• BGM with an un-negotiated code — the 1001 BGM code list is long. Without bilateral agreement, 999 (other) is the safe default.
• FTX exceeding 70 characters — each text component is limited (composite C108 = 5 × 70 chars). For longer messages, multiply FTX rather than overflowing a single component.
• UNOA encoding — UNOA only supports A-Z, 0-9, space, and basic punctuation. For accented French, use UNOC in UNB[0].
• Used in place of an existing UNSM — see "When NOT to use GENRAL": if a standard message covers your case, use it. GENRAL is not a catch-all.

Related messages

GENRAL fits no standard flow; it complements any EDIFACT flow as needed:

• CONTRL D.96A — syntactic acknowledgment of GENRAL (and any EDIFACT).
• APERAK D.96A — for application errors (prefer it to GENRAL in that case).
• If you transmit pricing, prefer PRICAT; for forecasts, prefer DELFOR; etc.

JSON equivalent

JSON projection of the notice above:

{
  "interchange": {
    "controlRef": "CTRL000301",
    "from": { "id": "5410000000123", "qualifier": "14" },
    "to": { "id": "5410000000456", "qualifier": "14" },
    "datetime": "2026-05-13T09:00:00Z",
    "syntax": { "id": "UNOC", "version": "3" }
  },
  "message": {
    "ref": "1",
    "type": "GENRAL",
    "version": { "syntax": "D", "release": "96A", "agency": "UN" }
  },
  "notice": {
    "number": "NOTICE-2026-WK19",
    "function": "999",
    "status": "9",
    "documentDate": "2026-05-13",
    "parties": {
      "sender": { "gln": "5410000000123", "name": "BUYING GROUP SA" },
      "recipient": { "gln": "5410000000456", "name": "ACME SUPPLY GMBH" }
    },
    "contact": {
      "qualifier": "IC",
      "code": "EDI001",
      "name": "Jane Doe",
      "email": "jane.doe@buyinggroup.example"
    },
    "messages": [
      "MAINTENANCE WINDOW PLANNED 2026-05-17 22:00 UTC TO 2026-05-18 04:00 UTC.",
      "NO ORDERS WILL BE ACKNOWLEDGED DURING THIS WINDOW.",
      "FALLBACK CONTACT: ops@buyinggroup.example - +33 1 23 45 67 89."
    ]
  }
}