EDI 850 Purchase Order: What It Is and How It Works
The buyer’s order: what they want, how many, at what price, and where and when to ship it. It starts almost every EDI trading relationship.
- Document
- X12 850: Purchase Order
- Sent by
- Buyer (retailer or distributor)
- Sent to
- Supplier
- In NetSuite
- Sales order (inbound); purchase order (outbound, when you buy by EDI)
(01)What it is
The 850 is the electronic version of a purchase order. A retailer or distributor sends it to a supplier to order goods, and for most suppliers it is the first EDI document they receive and the one that triggers everything after it: the acknowledgment, the ship notice and the invoice.
Each 850 carries the buyer’s PO number, which the supplier must quote back on every later document. Large buyers often send several kinds of 850 (standalone orders, bulk orders to be split across stores, drop-ship orders to consumers), and the trading partner’s implementation guide says which fields each kind uses.
(02)What it carries
- 01The buyer’s PO number, order date and order type
- 02Ship-to and bill-to locations, often as the buyer’s store or warehouse codes
- 03Line items with quantities, units of measure and the price the buyer expects to pay
- 04Item identifiers: UPC or GTIN, the buyer’s item number, and sometimes your SKU
- 05Requested ship or delivery dates, cancel-after dates, and shipping instructions
- 06Terms such as payment terms, allowances and routing requirements
In plain language. Each trading partner’s implementation guide sets the exact fields it requires.
(03)Where it fits
Documents usually exchanged before and after the 850.
(04)In NetSuite
An inbound 850 becomes a NetSuite sales order. Store the buyer’s PO number as the order’s external ID so a resent 850 is rejected instead of duplicated, and resolve the buyer’s item numbers through a per-partner cross-reference rather than by item name. Ship-to store codes usually map to customer addresses or a custom record of locations.
(05)Common mistakes
- 01Creating a second sales order when the buyer resends the same 850; match on the PO number first.
- 02Accepting the buyer’s price silently when it differs from your price level, then invoicing at your price and getting short-paid.
- 03Ignoring the cancel-after date, so an order that ships late is refused or charged back.
(06)Questions
What is an EDI 850?
The EDI 850 is the X12 purchase order: the document a buyer sends a supplier to order goods, listing items, quantities, prices, ship-to locations and dates.
What document follows an 850?
Usually an 855 purchase order acknowledgment from the supplier, then an 856 advance ship notice when the order ships and an 810 invoice to bill it. Changes to the order arrive as an 860.
(07)More ordering documents
- EDI 855Purchase Order AcknowledgmentThe supplier’s reply to an 850: accepted, changed or rejected, line by line, so the buyer knows what will actually ship.
- EDI 860Purchase Order Change Request (Buyer Initiated)The buyer changing an order they already sent: quantities, dates, ship-to, added or cancelled lines, or the whole order.