EDI 856 Advance Ship Notice (ASN)
An EDI 856 is the X12 advance ship notice, or ASN. The supplier sends it when goods ship, telling the buyer what is on the shipment before it arrives. It has to agree with the purchase order and with what physically left the warehouse, which is why it is rejected more often than other documents.
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What the 856 does, and where it fits
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850Purchase order. The buyer orders. See EDI 850 purchase order. -
855Acknowledgment. The supplier confirms what it can ship. -
753/754Routing, on collect shipments. Where the buyer arranges the freight, a routing request and reply come before the ship notice. See EDI 753 and 754 routing. -
856Advance ship notice. Sent once the goods ship. It lists the shipment, the orders on it, the cartons or pallets and the items inside them. -
810Invoice. Bills for what shipped. See EDI 810 invoice.
The 856 is a hierarchy: shipment, order, pack, item
Unlike most transaction sets, the 856 is nested. Each level is an HL segment that points at its parent. The usual order is shipment, then order, then pack, then item, although some partners ask for a different arrangement. The structure has to reflect how the cartons were actually built.
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BSNBeginning segment. The shipment identifier and the date and time of the notice. -
HLHierarchy levels. One per shipment, order, pack and item, each linked to the level above it. -
TD1/TD5Packaging and carrier. Carton or pallet counts and weight, and the carrier and service the shipment moved with. -
REFReferences. Tracking or bill of lading numbers for the shipment. -
PRFPurchase order reference. Ties the order level back to the buyer's purchase order number. -
MANCarton marks. The carton label number, usually an SSCC, that matches the label on the box. -
LIN/SN1Item and quantity shipped. Which item, and how many actually shipped.
The 856 has to match the order and the physical shipment
An 850 states what the buyer asked for. The 856 states what you are sending. Between them sits a warehouse, and warehouses make reasonable decisions that never reach the order record: a substitution when an item is short, a different carton count, a carrier change.
Those become rejections only when the ship notice still describes the original plan. So the first question in any 856 investigation is what actually shipped, and whether anything changed after the order was confirmed. There is a longer walk-through in why an 856 ASN gets rejected.
How we build the 856 inside your ERP
Generated from the shipment record
The 856 is built from what the warehouse recorded as shipped: the cartons, the items in them, the carrier and the tracking numbers. It is not rebuilt from the order.
Pack structure taken from the actual pack
The cartons in the 856 are the cartons the warehouse recorded, so the notice and the pallet describe the same shipment.
Sent after routing on collect shipments
Where a 753 and 754 apply, the ship notice goes after the routing instructions arrive and describes the shipment that was routed.
Raw file kept with the shipment
Each 856 is generated inside your ERP using the EdiFabric .NET library and the raw file is stored next to the shipment. A rejection is traced to the exact value that caused it.
The 856 in a live multi-partner ERP
- 856 advance ship notices generated inside one ERP for retail trading partners, including Amazon Vendor Central and Costco Wholesale, using the EdiFabric .NET library.
- On one retailer connection, a ship notice was rejected because it carried the carrier from the purchase order while the warehouse had shipped with a different one. The cause was traced by comparing the notice with the shipment.
- On the Amazon Vendor Central connection, a routing request was rejected because its delivery appointment slot did not match what had been scheduled. The slot was corrected and the resend was accepted.
- Every outbound file stored beside the parsed result, with scheduled jobs tracked on a monitoring dashboard.
Why an 856 gets rejected
- Carrier on the notice does not match the shipment On one retailer connection we run, the purchase order specified one ground carrier, the warehouse shipped with another, and the ship notice carried the wrong one. The retailer rejected it. Correcting the shipment in the partner portal clears one rejection. Correcting the source record stops the next one.
- Pack structure does not match the pallet A common pattern. The file describes one carton configuration and the warehouse packed another. The discrepancy is found at the receiving dock. Building the 856 from the actual pack record avoids it.
- Quantities reflect the order, not what shipped A common pattern after a short pick or a substitution. The 856 has to carry shipped quantities, and the invoice has to follow it.
- The notice arrives late A common pattern when the 856 is keyed in after the truck leaves. Partners expect it before the goods arrive. Generating it when the shipment is confirmed removes the delay. Check your partner's guide for the timing it requires.
- No 997 comes back That is usually a connection or file naming problem, not a data problem: the file may never have reached the partner. With the raw file stored, checking what was sent and when is quick.
EDI 856 questions
What is an EDI 856?
The X12 advance ship notice, also called an ASN. The supplier sends it when a shipment leaves, listing the orders, cartons and items on it so the buyer can plan receiving.
Why does an 856 get rejected more than other documents?
It carries the most physical detail: carrier, pack structure, carton labels and quantities. Each has to match both the purchase order and what actually shipped.
Does a 997 mean my 856 was accepted?
No. A 997 confirms the file arrived and could be read. Acceptance of the content is separate, so an 856 can be acknowledged and still be rejected afterwards.
Should a rejected 856 be resent straight away?
Not until you know which value was wrong. A resend built from the same record repeats the same rejection. Correct the value at the source, then resend.
What is the difference between an 856 and an 810?
The 856 says what shipped. The 810 bills for it. The invoice should match the ship notice line for line.
Can the 856 be generated from an ERP we did not build?
Often yes. What matters is whether your shipment and pack data is reachable. We confirm that during scoping.
Is an 856 being rejected and nobody can say why?
Tell us the trading partner and what the rejection said. We will tell you which value to compare first and where it should come from in your own system.