Purchase Order
The EDI 850 Purchase Order is the electronic transaction a buyer sends a supplier to order goods. It carries the items, quantities, prices, ship-to locations, and requested dates that would otherwise live on a paper or emailed PO.
What is EDI 850?
The EDI 850 is the ANSI X12 Purchase Order transaction set. A buyer sends it to a supplier to order goods, specifying line items, quantities, prices, delivery locations, and requested ship or delivery dates.
The 850 is where most EDI-driven supply chains begin. A retailer or distributor generates the purchase order in its ERP or purchasing system and transmits it as an 850, and the supplier ingests it directly into order entry with no rekeying. Everything downstream hangs off the reference numbers it establishes: the supplier acknowledges the order with an EDI 855, ships against it with an EDI 856 Advance Ship Notice, and bills it with an EDI 810 Invoice. The 850 also sets freight in motion. Once the order is picked and packed, someone has to move it, which is where transportation transactions like the EDI 204 Motor Carrier Load Tender pick up the handoff.
Key segments
What's inside an EDI 850.
Example
A sample EDI 850 message.
ST*850*0001~BEG*00*SA*4501776**20260806~REF*DP*038~DTM*002*20260820~N1*ST*Northgate Distribution Center*92*DC014~N3*2401 E Pacific Coast Hwy~N4*Long Beach*CA*90806~PO1*1*48*CA*18.50**VN*PS-4416*UP*012345678905~PID*F****Corrugated shipping boxes, 24 in~PO1*2*120*EA*2.10**VN*PS-2210*UP*012345678912~CTT*2~SE*12*0001~
Illustrative values in X12 format (segment terminator ~, element separator *) showing the common segments of a 850. Each trading partner's spec defines its own required segments and qualifiers.
Frequently asked
EDI 850 questions, answered.
What is an EDI 850?
The EDI 850 is the X12 Purchase Order transaction set. Buyers use it to order goods from suppliers electronically, replacing paper, fax, or emailed purchase orders. It specifies what is being ordered, in what quantity, at what price, and where and when it should be delivered.
What information does an EDI 850 contain?
A typical 850 carries the PO number and date (BEG segment), buyer and ship-to parties (N1 loops), requested dates (DTM), line items with quantities, units, and prices (PO1 loops), item descriptions (PID), and a line count total (CTT). Retailers often add department numbers, promotion codes, and packing instructions.
What is the difference between an EDI 850 and an EDI 855?
The 850 is the order; the 855 is the supplier’s response. After receiving an 850, the supplier sends an EDI 855 Purchase Order Acknowledgment confirming what it will ship, flagging rejected or backordered lines, and noting price or date changes. Many trading partners require an 855 within 24 hours of the 850.
How does an EDI 850 get transmitted?
Most 850s move over AS2 connections, value-added networks (VANs), or SFTP, and increasingly through API-based EDI platforms. The transport does not change the document: the same X12 850 structure travels regardless of how the connection is made.
How does the EDI 850 relate to freight and shipping?
The 850 starts the clock on fulfillment. Once the supplier picks the order, it sends an EDI 856 Advance Ship Notice against the same PO number, and the physical move is tendered to a carrier, in truckload and LTL usually via an EDI 204 Load Tender. Shipment tracking then flows back as EDI 214 status messages.
Melrose maintains full segment-level specs for the core freight set (204, 990, 214, 210) and stands up new transaction sets like the 850 on request. See the partner network or book a demo.
Let Melrose establish your 850 flow.
Book a free discovery call and see how Melrose scales your operation.