EDI 855 purchase order acknowledgment
An EDI 855 is the ANSI X12 purchase order acknowledgment: the document a supplier sends back to a buyer to say whether an order is accepted, accepted with changes, or rejected, down to the individual line.
What an 855 says
A 997 functional acknowledgment only confirms that a file arrived and could be read. The 855 is the business answer to an EDI 850: will the supplier fill this order, and on what terms?
- BAK opens the document with the acknowledgment type, the buyer’s purchase order number and its date. The type says whether the order is accepted as sent, accepted with changes, or rejected.
- PO1 repeats each order line.
- ACK gives the status of that line, with the quantity and date the supplier commits to. Common statuses are item accepted (
IA), backordered (IB), price changed (IP), quantity changed (IQ) and rejected (IR).
Why buyers ask for it
The 855 tells a buyer what will actually ship before it ships. A changed price, a short quantity or a later date reaches the buyer’s system while there is still time to react. Many buyers set a deadline for it, such as within a day of the order, and track suppliers against that deadline.
Where it goes wrong
An 855 is only as good as the ERP data behind it. If it is sent before the order has been checked, it promises a price or a date the order cannot keep. If it is sent late, or acknowledges every line as accepted regardless of stock, the buyer stops trusting it.
How Runtara handles it
Our team sets up each trading partner during implementation, from the partner’s specs and test files. Order acknowledgments are sent from ERP data once the incoming order has been validated against your ERP, so the 855 reflects the order as it was entered. Each document is kept with its run record.