Date time field in an EDI Message

An EDI message has 3 parts, i.e Interchange, group and transactionset, to which the message comply to. Each of these sections has a date time field.

Why does an EDI message has Date and time field in Interchange, group as well as the transaction set?

All the three date/time elements are having specific purpose in an EDI message and are used to intepret at various levels

1. The Interchange date is the date of envelop creation date. Ideally this would be the latest date among all.

2. Group is optional element, it is used to group various transaction sets depending on the business requirement.

3. The Transactionset date is the date in which the particular EDI message was created. In the case of batching, the messages might get created at varied intervals and the transaction set date/time will hold this value.