ASC X12 is the ANSI Accredited Standards Committee charged with developing EDI standards for use in the United States. The committee develops standards to facilitate electronic interchange relating to such business transactions as order placement and processing, shipping and receiving, invoicing payment and cash application data. The work of ASC X12 is conducted primarily by a series of subcommittees and task groups whose recommendations are presented periodically to the full ASC X12 Committee for ratification (Data Interchange Standards Association, 1990).

The ASC X12 standards specify the segments used in a transaction set, the sequence in which the segments must appear, whether segments are mandatory or optional, when segments can be repeated, and how loops are structured and used.