EDI guide: document 850
The 850 is the document that starts every wholesale order. A retailer sends it to the brand; the brand's 3PL ships against it. Here is what sits inside one, how to read a sample, and why 850s fail.
What it is
An EDI 850 is a purchase order in a machine-readable format. Instead of a PDF or an email, the retailer's system sends a structured file to the brand's EDI platform or ERP, where it becomes a sales order without anyone retyping it. It carries the same things a paper PO would: who is buying, where the goods go, what is wanted, how many, at what price and by when.
For a brand, the 850 is the first document in the retail flow and the one every later document has to reference. The PO number in the 850 must appear on the 855 acknowledgment, the 856 advance ship notice, the carton labels and the 810 invoice. If it is wrong anywhere in that chain, the retailer's receiving system cannot match the shipment to the order and the chargeback clock starts.
For a 3PL, the 850 is the source of the pick ticket. Most warehouses never see the raw EDI; the brand's EDI provider translates it and pushes an order into the WMS by API or flat file. What the 3PL does need is every constraint the 850 carries: ship window, ship-to DC number, carton and pallet rules from the routing guide, and any item substitutions the retailer allows.
Sample layout
Illustrative values. Each retailer or carrier publishes an implementation guide with the exact subset of segments and codes it accepts.
| Segment | What it carries | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ISA / GS | Envelope: who is sending, who is receiving, control numbers, date and time | ISA*00* *00* *ZZ*RETAILERID *ZZ*BRANDID *260916*0930*... |
| ST | Start of the transaction set and its type | ST*850*0001 |
| BEG | Purpose (00 original, 01 cancel, 05 replace), PO type (SA stand-alone, RL release), PO number and PO date | BEG*00*SA*4500123456**20260916 |
| REF | Reference numbers: department (DP), vendor number (IA), promotion (PD) | REF*DP*042 |
| DTM | Dates: 010 requested ship, 002 requested delivery, 001 cancel after | DTM*010*20260923 |
| N1 / N3 / N4 | Parties and addresses: ST ship-to (with the DC number), BT bill-to, BY buying party | N1*ST*DC 6021*92*6021 |
| PO1 | One per line item: line number, quantity, unit (EA, CA), unit price, price basis, product IDs (UP for UPC, VN vendor part, IN buyer item) | PO1*1*48*CA*18.50*PE*UP*012345678905*VN*SKU-7781 |
| PID | Plain-text description of the line | PID*F****Oat milk 1 L, case of 12 |
| CTT | Transaction totals: number of line items (and sometimes total quantity) | CTT*1 |
| SE / GE / IEA | Closing segments and envelope trailers with matching control numbers | SE*12*0001 |
How it flows
Common rejection reasons
The failures that show up in 997s, exception queues and retailer chargebacks.
Before you sign
Warehouses already receiving 850s from major retailers and shipping against them.
Questions
Retailer asking for EDI?
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