Invalid Characters | Fulfillment Help Center

There are a number of characters that are not able to be input into the document format that is sent to your trading partner. This issue is particularly relevant in EDI transactions, especially in the PID05 field of invoices, where invalid characters can prevent successful transmission.

Common Invalid Characters

Below is a list of the most common invalid characters. If you have any of these characters in your data, you will need to remove or replace them.

These characters often originate from external documents or systems, especially when data is copied and pasted.

€ ƒ „ ... † ‡ ˆ ‰ Šn ‹ Œ Žn ‘ ’ “ ” – — ̃ TM š › œ ž Ÿs ¡ ¢ £ ¤ ¥ ¦ § ̈ © a « ¬ ® ̄ ± 2 3 ́ μ ¶ · ̧ 1 o » 1⁄4 1⁄2 3⁄4 ¿ Àe Áe Âex Ãe Äs Åve Æ Çlla Èe Ée Êex Ës Ìe Íe Îex Ïs Ð Ñe Òe Óe Ôex Õe Ös × Øke Ùe Úe Ûex Üs Ýe Þ ß à á â ã ä å æ ça è é ê ë ì í î ï ð ñ ò ó ô õ ö ÷ ø ù ú û ü ý þ ÿ Hard Returns White Spaces. Common problematic characters include registered trademarks (®), smart quotes (“ and ”), and typographic symbols copied from external sources.

To avoid issues, always replace smart quotes with straight quotes (' and ").

‘ ’ “ ” (invalid) vs ' " (valid)

The invalid set is stylized. You can see that it has more of an angle or curve to it, this is sometimes automatically done by word processors for a stylistic look. For your data to process into the proper formats for your trading partner you need to use the vertical ' " characters.

This ensures compatibility with EDI systems and prevents errors during data processing.