Glossary

ANSI X12

ANSI X12 (ASC X12) is the EDI standard used mainly in North America. It defines numbered transaction sets for business documents, such as the 850 purchase order and the 855 purchase order acknowledgment.

In short

  • ANSI X12 (ASC X12) is the EDI standard used mainly in North America. It is an ANSI-accredited, consensus-based, non-profit organisation that has been chartered by the American National Standards Institute for more than 40 years.

  • Each document type is a numbered transaction set with a name: 850 Purchase Order, 855 Purchase Order Acknowledgment, 856 Ship Notice/Manifest and 810 Invoice.

  • A message sits inside envelopes: ISA (interchange), GS (functional group) and ST/SE (transaction set). Segments end with a terminator, often a tilde, and elements are separated by an asterisk.

Example

An 850 purchase order for PO-4711 starts with the ST segment, which names transaction set 850. The BEG segment carries the order number PO-4711 and the date 20261113. The PO1 segment holds line 1: 48 each (EA) of the item HTR-22-600-1200. The header lists the document type first, then the order data, then the lines.

An acknowledgement of this order is an 855 transaction set. The seller sends it back to the buyer. The EDI 850 page shows the structure of such a message.

What to watch for

  • Each trading partner has an implementation guide. It states which segments and qualifiers are used.

  • Check the version. Partners may use versions such as 4010 or 5010.

  • A 997 functional acknowledgment confirms that a file was received, not that the order was accepted.

  • Acknowledgements and receipts are different messages, and they have to be kept apart.

Not to be confused with

  • EDIFACT: the international counterpart. 850 corresponds to ORDERS, 855 to ORDRSP, 856 to DESADV and 810 to INVOIC.

  • 850 and 855: the 850 is the buyer's purchase order and the 855 is the seller's answer to it.

  • 855 and 997: the 855 is the business confirmation of an order, which is the order acknowledgement. The 997 is only a technical receipt and says nothing about whether the order is accepted.

Header of an X12 850 purchase order
ST*850*0001~
BEG*00*SA*PO-4711**20261113~
N1*ST*Main Street Project*92*0042~
PO1*1*48*EA*12.50**VP*HTR-22-600-1200~

In Mercura

Mercura's free EDI viewer shows EDIFACT and X12 messages as readable tables.

Related terms

EDIFACT

EDIFACT (UN/EDIFACT) is the international EDI standard of the United Nations, maintained by UN/CEFACT. Its syntax rules are set out in ISO 9735, and it defines messages such as orders and invoices.

Purchase order (PO)

A purchase order (PO) is the buyer's document that orders goods or services from a supplier. It states the PO number, the buyer, the ship-to address, the line items, the requested dates and the terms.

Order acknowledgement

An order acknowledgement (Auftragsbestätigung, AB) is the seller's confirmation of a customer's order. It states the items, quantities, prices, delivery dates and terms.

Advance ship notice (ASN)

A Lieferavis (advance ship notice, ASN) is the supplier's electronic notice that goods have been dispatched or are ready for dispatch. It is sent before the goods arrive and says which order, packages and items are on the way.

On mercura.ai

Sources

Updated

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