Warehouse Shipping Advice
What is EDI 945?
The EDI 945 is the ANSI X12 Warehouse Shipping Advice transaction set. A 3PL or remote warehouse sends it to the inventory owner to confirm a shipment ordered by an EDI 940 has left the facility, reporting what actually shipped, when, and with which carrier.
The 945 is ground truth from the warehouse floor. The 940 said "ship 48 cases"; the 945 reports what really happened: 48 shipped, or 40 shipped and 8 short, on this date, on this carrier, under this shipment ID. The owner’s system relieves inventory off the 945, bills its customer off the 945, and often generates the customer-facing EDI 856 ASN from the 945’s data. Discrepancies between the two documents are how shorts and mis-picks surface the same day instead of at cycle count. On the freight side, the carrier references in the 945 tie the warehouse’s confirmation to the EDI 214 tracking stream for the same load.
Key segments
What's inside an EDI 945.
Example
A sample EDI 945 message.
ST*945*0001~W06*N*SO-77120*20260812*SH100482~N1*ST*Northgate Distribution Center*92*DC014~N1*CA*Cascade Freight Lines*2*CSCD~G62*11*20260812~W27*M*CSCD*PP~LX*1~W12*CC*48*48*CA**VN*PS-4416~W03*48~SE*10*0001~
Illustrative values in X12 format (segment terminator ~, element separator *) showing the common segments of a 945. Each trading partner's spec defines its own required segments and qualifiers.
Frequently asked
EDI 945 questions, answered.
What is an EDI 945?
The EDI 945 is the X12 Warehouse Shipping Advice. A third-party warehouse sends it to the inventory owner to confirm an outbound order shipped, reporting the actual quantities, ship date, carrier, and shipment references against the original 940 instruction.
What is the difference between an EDI 945 and an EDI 856?
Different audiences. The 945 goes from the warehouse to the inventory owner: an internal confirmation of execution. The 856 goes from the shipper to the buying customer: an advance notice of arrival. In 3PL setups the owner commonly builds the customer’s 856 from the data in the warehouse’s 945.
What is the difference between an EDI 945 and an EDI 214?
The 945 says "it left the warehouse" once; the EDI 214 is the carrier’s ongoing status stream: picked up, in transit, delivered. They cover the same physical load from two vantage points and share carrier references like the SCAC and PRO number.
Why does the 945 matter for inventory accuracy?
The owner’s system relieves stock based on the 945’s shipped quantities, not the 940’s requested ones. Comparing the two documents surfaces shorts, substitutions, and mis-picks the day they happen, which is what keeps the 846 inventory feed and the books honest.
What triggers a 945?
Shipment confirmation in the warehouse’s WMS. When the order is loaded and the trailer departs, the WMS emits the 945 to the depositor, typically within the hour. Delayed 945s cascade: late inventory relief, late customer ASNs, and late invoicing.
Melrose maintains full segment-level specs for the core freight set (204, 990, 214, 210) and stands up new transaction sets like the 945 on request. See the partner network or book a demo.
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