Organization File

The organization file will contain most of the identifying information about the locations where you sell or store merchandise, including physical locations (such as a brick & mortar store) and virtual locations (such as a web store or virtual warehouse entity). The file structure follows certain rules based on the Retail Merchandising Foundation Cloud Services (RMFCS) data model, as that is the paradigm for retail foundation data that we are following across all RAP foundation files. The columns below are the minimum required data elements, but the file supports many more optional fields, as listed in the Interfaces Guide.

Table 8-4 Organization File Required Fields

Column Header	Usage
ORG_NUM	The external identifier for a location, including stores, warehouses, and partner locations. This value MUST be a number if you will use Retail Insights. RI cannot use non-numeric organization IDs.
ORG_TYPE_CODE	The type code of the location. It must be one of `S`, `W`, or `E`, representing a Store, Warehouse, or External location.
CURR_CODE	This is the 3-character base currency code of the organizational entity, such as `USD` or `CAN`.
ORG_HIER10_NUM	Default Level for District, which is the first level above Location in the hierarchy. Hierarchy values MUST be a number if you will use Retail Insights. RI cannot use non-numeric hierarchy IDs.
ORG_HIER11_NUM	Default Level for Region.
ORG_HIER12_NUM	Default Level for Area. Also referred to as the Channel level in some Planning applications.
ORG_HIER13_NUM	Default Level for Chain.
ORG_TOP_NUM	Default Level for Company. Only one company is supported at this time. You may not have 2+ companies in the same instance.
ORG_DESC	Short name or short description of the location.
ORG_SECONDARY_DESC	Full name or long description of the location.
ORG_HIER10_DESC	Default Level for District Description.
ORG_HIER11_DESC	Default Level for Region Description.
ORG_HIER12_DESC	Default Level for Area Description. Also referred to as the Channel level in some Planning applications.
ORG_HIER13_DESC	Default Level for Chain Description.
ORG_TOP_DESC	Default Level for Company Description.
PHYS_WH_ID	The physical warehouse ID linked to a virtual warehouse. Must be specified for warehouses, can be null otherwise. A physical warehouse record can have its own ID as the value here. A virtual warehouse should have the linked physical warehouse ID that contains the virtual location.
VIRTUAL_WH_FLG	Indicates whether the warehouse record is a physical or virtual WH. Planning GA solutions only use virtual WHs so flag must be `Y` to send the WH to Planning. Physical warehouse records (`VIRTUAL_WH_FLG=N`) are not used by planning applications but are used for AI Foundation (such as for Inventory Planning Optimization).

The organization hierarchy fields use generic level names to support non-traditional hierarchy levels (for example, your first hierarchy level may not be called District, but you are still loading it into the same position in the file which is used for Districts). Other levels, such as 1 to 9, have columns in the interface but are not yet used in any module of the platform.

Warehouses get special handling both in the input interface load and throughout the RAP applications. Warehouses are not considered a part of the organization hierarchy structure. While you are required to put some value in the hierarchy level fields for warehouses (because the columns are not nullable) those values are not currently used. Instead, the values will be discarded and the warehouses are loaded with no parent levels in the data warehouse tables. You should provide a unique reserved value like 1 or 9999 on all hierarchy level numbers between location and company for warehouses, just to ensure the data is loaded without violating any multi-parentage rules. When exporting the warehouse locations to Planning applications, each warehouse ID is assigned its own name and number for each parent level, prefixed with WH to make the level IDs distinct from any store hierarchy level. The warehouses must then be mapped to channels from the MFP user interface before you can use their data.

Example data for the ORGANIZATION.csv file columns above as well as some optional fields available on the interface:

ORG_NUM,ORG_TYPE_CODE,CURR_CODE,STATE_PROV_NAME,COUNTRY_REGION_NAME,ORG_HIER10_NUM,ORG_HIER11_NUM,ORG_HIER12_NUM,ORG_HIER13_NUM,ORG_TOP_NUM,ORG_DESC,ORG_SECONDARY_DESC,ORG_HIER10_DESC,ORG_HIER11_DESC,ORG_HIER12_DESC,ORG_HIER13_DESC,ORG_TOP_DESC,CHANNEL_ID,CHANNEL_NAME,PHYS_WH_ID,STOCKHOLDING_FLG,STORE_FORMAT_DESC,STORE_FORMAT_ID,STORE_TYPE,TRANSFER_ZONE_ID,TRANSFER_ZONE_DESC,VIRTUAL_WH_FLG,STORE_CLASS_TYPE,STORE_CLASS_DESC,WH_DELIVERY_POLICY,WH_REPL_IND,DUNS_NUMBER,STORE_REMODEL_DT,STORE_CLOSE_DT,INBOUND_HANDLING_DAYS,FLEX1_CHAR_VALUE,FLEX2_CHAR_VALUE,FLEX3_CHAR_VALUE,FLEX4_CHAR_VALUE,FLEX5_CHAR_VALUE,FLEX6_CHAR_VALUE,FLEX7_CHAR_VALUE,FLEX8_CHAR_VALUE,FLEX9_CHAR_VALUE,FLEX10_CHAR_VALUE
1000,S,USD,North Carolina,United States,1070,170,1,1,1,Charlotte,Charlotte,North Carolina,Mid-Atlantic,Brick & Mortar,US,Retailer Ltd,1,North America,,Y,Store,1,C,101,Zone 101,N,1,A,,,,,,,WH-1,Warehouse - US,1,Store Pick Up / Take With,3,Comp,6,Mixed Humid,1,Very Large
1001,S,USD,Georgia,United States,1023,400,1,1,1,Atlanta,Atlanta,Georgia,South Atlantic,Brick & Mortar,US,Retailer Ltd,1,North America,,Y,Kiosk,2,C,101,Zone 101,N,6,F,,,,,,,WH-1,Warehouse - US,2,Deliver/Install at Customer ,3,Comp,7,Hot Humid,3,Medium
1002,S,USD,Texas,United States,1104,230,1,1,1,Dallas,Dallas,Texas,Gulf States,Brick & Mortar,US,Retailer Ltd,1,North America,,Y,Store,1,C,101,Zone 101,N,6,F,,,,,,,WH-1,Warehouse - US,3,Home Delivery,3,Comp,4,Hot Dry,3,Medium

It is important that your organization hierarchy follow the standard rules laid out at the beginning of this chapter. All IDs must be unique (within their level) and IDs can never be re-used under multiple parents. All IDs must be numbers if you are using Retail Insights. The entire 6-level structure must be filled out, even if your source system doesn’t have that many levels.

Note:

You may duplicate a higher level down to lower levels if you need to fill it out to meet the data requirements.

Also note that some optional fields come in pairs and must be provided together or not at all. This includes:

Banner ID and description
Channel ID and description
Store format ID and description

Description fields can be set to the same value as the identifier if no other value is known or used, but you must include both fields with non-null values when you provide the data.