Glossary
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.
In short
An order acknowledgement is the seller's answer to a purchase order. It confirms the items, quantities, prices, delivery dates and terms. In Germany it is called Auftragsbestätigung (AB).
In EDI it is a standard message: X12 855 Purchase Order Acknowledgment in North America, and EDIFACT ORDRSP (purchase order response) internationally.
The buyer checks every acknowledgement against the order: dates, quantities, prices and article numbers, line by line.
Example
A buyer sends purchase order PO-4711 for 48 pieces. The seller answers with an acknowledgement that repeats the items and states the confirmed delivery date. The buyer compares it with the order and checks each line. If one line shows a later date, the buyer has to decide whether that date works. The acknowledgement refers back to the purchase order number, so the two documents can be matched.
In X12 the acknowledgement is an 855 transaction set, and its header refers to the order PO-4711. In EDIFACT the same message is an ORDRSP with its own document number, AB-4711. The EDI 855 viewer shows the structure of such a message.
What to watch for
Check every deviation line by line: quantity, price, article number and delivery date.
Watch for partial confirmations, where only some lines are confirmed.
Changed delivery dates need a check.
In a drop shipment the manufacturer's acknowledgement has to be passed on.
Not to be confused with
Purchase order: the buyer's document. The acknowledgement is the seller's answer to it.
Sales order: the seller's record of the order. The acknowledgement is the message sent to the customer about that sales order.
Order confirmation (e-commerce): the receipt email of an online shop. It shows that the order arrived. It does not show that the seller accepts it.
Despatch advice (Lieferavis): the notice that goods have been shipped. In EDI it is EDIFACT DESADV or X12 856.
EDIFACT: UNH+1+ORDRSP:D:96A:UN'
BGM+231+AB-4711+29'
X12: ST*855*0001~
BAK*00*AD*PO-4711*20261113~Related terms
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.
Sales order
A sales order is the record a seller keeps of a customer order in its own ERP system. It is created from the customer’s purchase order or from an accepted quote.
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.
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.
Touchless order processing
Touchless order processing (German: Dunkelverarbeitung) is a business process that runs fully automatically, without anyone touching it. An incoming order is read, checked against master data and created in the ERP without manual work.
Streckengeschäft (drop shipment in wholesale)
A Streckengeschäft (drop shipment) is a sale in which the wholesaler buys and sells the goods, but the manufacturer delivers them directly to the customer or the construction site. The goods never pass through the wholesaler’s warehouse.
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