What You Need to Know About 850 EDI Documents

By Tisha Evans|September 24, 2022

Larger retailers like Walmart, Lowes, and The Home Depot often utilize Electronic Document Interchange (EDI) to send and receive data from suppliers. When these retailers want to purchase goods from suppliers such as greenhouse growers, they will usually send an 850 Purchase order document to the supplier’s EDI provider. In turn, the EDI provider will transform the data into a format to integrate with the supplier’s back-end system or needs.

An 850 EDI document is the paperless version of a purchase order. It contains the information of the purchase order that is sent from retailer to suppliers/purchaser to a vendor. The document includes key information like what store (or customer) is ordering, what date the order is expected to be received, and what line items, quantities, and prices are being ordered.

Many retailers require an 850 EDI document as the mandatory way to receive shipments that come with it. The assigned purchase order number in the EDI 850 document is a key field for the receipt of the goods at the store or distribution center.

Learn more about 850 EDI documents, and why they are especially important in pay-by-scan programs, in this article from Advanced Grower Solutions.