Larger retailers like Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot, and Tractor Supply, as well as many other retailers large and small, utilize Electronic Document Interchange (EDI) to send and receive data from suppliers.

When these large retailers want to purchase goods from suppliers, they will usually send an 850 Purchase order document to the supplier’s EDI provider like GrowerEDI. In turn, the EDI provider will transform the data into a format to integrate with the supplier’s back end system or needs.

EDI 850 Document – Purchase Order

An 850 EDI document is the paperless version of a Purchase Order. 

The 850 contains the information of the Purchase Order that is sent from retailer to suppliers/purchaser to a vendor. 

Important Data Included in an 850 Purchase Order

An EDI 850 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.

• Purchase Order Number
• Expected delivery location (could be a store or distribution center)
• Expected Receipt Date of ordered goods
• Product ID (SKU) being ordered
• Product Qty ordered
• Previously agreed price for product

Example 850 raw data examples
Copyright Advanced Grower Solutions

Important Uses for EDI 850 Purchase Order Document

The most important use of a typical EDI 850 is for a customer to create a purchase order with a supplier for defined goods and or services.

Additionally, many retailers require an EDI 850 PO 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.  

Alternate Use for 850 with Home Depot Pay By Scan

Home Depot uses 850 EDI documents for vendors on Pay by Scan programs to indicate sales in stores.

In the pay by scan scenario, the supplier is notified of sales of a particular SKU at particular stores under pay by scan. This also includes quantity and previously agreed to price. For suppliers under pay by scan, the 850 received can be used to build sales analysis and help track in-store inventory.

Summary

When communicating with larger retailers for EDI like Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot, Tractor Supply, or others an 850 document, in general, is used to indicate a request to purchase goods. Some suppliers use it to indicate sales that have occurred under a pay by scan program like Home Depot 850 EDI document.

GrowerEDI provides a knowledgeable, experienced data partner that can ease the EDI process, improve data flows, automate interactions, and provide the data transformations to give you actionable, usable data.

If you need EDI or currently use EDI to transmit data to and from your trading partners GrowerEDI is a concierge EDI service that can help you improve your EDI experience and automation. Contact us today to learn more.