EDI 856 advance ship notice
An EDI 856 is the ANSI X12 ship notice, usually called an advance ship notice or ASN: a document a supplier sends when goods leave, describing what is in the shipment and how it is packed, so the customer can plan receiving before the truck arrives.
What an 856 contains
An 856 is hierarchical. It describes a shipment as levels nested inside each other, each introduced by an HL segment:
- Shipment. The carrier, the bill of lading or tracking number, and the ship date.
- Order. The customer purchase order the goods belong to.
- Pack. A carton or pallet, often identified by the serial number on its shipping label.
- Item. The product and the quantity shipped, in an SN1 segment.
The BSN segment at the top carries the shipment number and date. Trading partners differ in how many levels they want and in what order, which is set out in each partner’s implementation guide.
Why customers require it
With an ASN, a receiving dock can scan a carton label and book the contents in without opening the box. The customer also learns about short shipments and backorders before the delivery, not after it. Because of that, many large buyers require an ASN for every shipment, expect it to arrive before the goods do, and charge suppliers when it is late or does not match what was delivered.
Where it goes wrong
- The ASN is sent after the shipment has already arrived.
- Quantities on the ASN differ from what was packed.
- The carton label does not match the pack level in the document.
- The ASN quotes a different purchase order number or line than the original EDI 850.
How Runtara handles it
Our team sets up each trading partner during implementation, from the partner’s specs and test files, and maps documents to and from your ERP inside the workflow. Ship notices are sent from ERP data, and each document is kept with its run record.