EDI Resource Center
Common EDI Transactions & Messages List
If you use Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), you ultimately exchange specific business documents with your EDI trading partners. These are called EDI transactions, or EDI messages.
These are exactly formatted documents that strictly adhere to EDI standards, such as X12 EDI in the U.S. and EDIFACT internationally - though, there are more than a dozen standards in use today.
An EDI transaction could be anything from an invoice or a purchase order to a health insurance benefits request. In fact, there are more than 10,000 different EDI messages you can exchange. But the vast majority of organizations will only exchange the most common EDI transactions. In this resource guide, we introduce 30+ of the most common EDI transactions from the X12 and EDIFACT EDI standards.
X12 EDI 204 Motor Carrier Load Tender
The EDI 204 Motor Carrier Load Tender transaction set communicates a request to a full truckload carrier for the movement of a shipment. It includes all relevant information about the shipment requirements & costs to ensure the carrier is able to make an informed decision.
X12 EDI 210 Motor Carrier Load Freight Details & Invoice
The X12 EDI 210 Invoice transaction is used by freight carriers to invoice shippers for delivering goods; it replaces paper invoices.
X12 EDI 214 Transportation Carrier Shipment Status Message
The EDI 214 Transportation Carrier Shipment Status Message is an X12 EDI document used by transportation carriers, such as trucking companies, to provide shippers and consignees with detailed information about a shipment's status at any given time.
X12 EDI 270 Eligibility, Coverage or Benefit Inquiry
The EDI 270 Eligibility, Coverage, or Benefit Inquiry is a request for information from a healthcare provider to a health insurer, government agency, or other organization about a policy's coverages, typically related to a specific plan subscriber.
X12 EDI 271 Eligibility, Coverage or Benefit Information
The EDI 271 Eligibility, Coverage, or Benefit Information provides information from health insurers about healthcare policy coverages related to a specific subscriber or the subscriber's dependent seeking medical services. It is the response to a 270.
X12 EDI 753 Routing Instructions Request
The EDI 753 Request for Routing Instructions is used by suppliers to request routing instructions from their customers.
X12 EDI 754 Routing Instructions
The EDI 754 Routing Instructions document is sent by purchasers to their EDI supply partners and includes information on when and where to send shipments.
X12 EDI 810 Invoice
The EDI 810 is the electronic version of a paper-based invoice sent as a response to an EDI 850 (Purchase order), requesting a payment once products or services have been provided.
X12 EDI 812 Credit/Debit Adjustment
The EDI 812 Credit/Debit Adjustment is used to send a notification of a price adjustment or a billback between wholesalers, retailers, vendors, merchants, and suppliers. It is commonly used by organizations in industries with regular price fluctuations.
X12 EDI 820 Payment Order
The EDI 820 electronic document can be used to start payments and send remittance data. It allows suppliers to verify which invoices have been fully paid for any given payment. Such documents will be sent to a supplier after an 810 invoice is received.
X12 EDI 832 Price/Sales Catalog
The EDI 832 Price/Sales Catalog document is an X12 EDI documented designed for partners to electronically exchange detailed product and price information in the form of a catalog.
X12 EDI 834 Benefit Enrollment and Maintenance
The EDI 834 is predominantly used by employers, government agencies, and insurance providers to register members in a healthcare benefit plan.
X12 EDI 835 Healthcare Claim Payment/Advice
The EDI 835 healthcare Claim Payment and Remittance Advice is used by healthcare insurance plans to make payments to healthcare providers, give Explanations of Benefits (EOBs), or both.
X12 EDI 837 Healthcare Claim
The EDI 837 Healthcare Claim is used by healthcare providers (e.g. hospitals, physicians, etc.) to submit healthcare medical claims, encounter information, and billing information to payers. This can be done directly or via intermediary billers and claims clearinghouses.
X12 EDI 846 Inventory Advice
The X12 EDI 846 Inventory Advice is an EDI document that conveys information on the inventory levels of goods stocked by a supplier, both broadly and within specific warehouse locations.
X12 EDI 850 Purchase Order
The EDI 850 document is the standard EDI document used in the U.S. retail industry for purchase orders of general merchandise, goods, and services.
X12 EDI 852 Product Activity Report
The EDI 852 transaction document is the standard format that provides trading partners with information on current product & inventory levels as well as product sales rates at the point of sale (POS).
X12 EDI 855 Purchase Order Acknowledgement
The EDI 855 Purchase Order Acknowledgment is the EDI reply document sent from suppliers & vendors in response to EDI 850 Purchase Orders sent by customers, retailers and distributors.
X12 EDI 856 Advance Ship Notice (ASN)
An EDI 856 Advance Ship Notice is an electronic notification of an awaiting delivery, comparable to a packing list. The main goal of the EDI 856 ASN is to provide information about tracking and packing.
X12 EDI 860 Purchase Order Change Request
The EDI 860 transaction set serves as the electronic Purchase Order Change Request.This document gives detailed information about the original purchase order, along with changes to that purchase order.
X12 EDI 865 Purchase Order Acknowledgement/Request
The EDI 865 transaction set is a seller-initiated Purchase Order Change Request/Acknowledgement. The 865 involves a buyer and a seller and represents one in a sequence of transactions in a typical business process.
X12 EDI 867 Product Transfer & Resale Report
The EDI 867 Product Transfer & Resale Report provides information about a product that has been transferred to a new location, and report on product sales, returns, and demand levels from one or several distribution center & retail locations.
X12 EDI 870 Order Status Report
The EDI 870 Order Status Report helps vendors report the status of a customer's order. The supplier can communicate the status of a specific order while the order/shipping process is occurring. EDI 870 typically refers to one specific order, but it can include a client's order history.
X12 EDI 940 Warehouse Shipping Order
The EDI 940 transaction set instructs remote warehouses to send orders. Sellers use it to authorize a warehouse to make a shipment to a buyer (e.g. a retailer like The Home Depot).
X12 EDI 990 Load Tender Response
The EDI 990 Load Tender Response is simply a response from motor carriers when they receive the 204 Motor Carrier Load Tender from their shipper partners. The 990 can be used to provide general information about a specific shipment.
X12 EDI 997 Functional Acknowledgement
The EDI 997 Functional Acknowledgment, or FA, is essentially an electronic receipt sent in response to other EDI transactions. It lets the document sender know their document was received by the intended recipient. It is helpful for non-repudiation, or legal proof of EDI receipt.
X12 EDI 999 Implementation Acknowledgement
The EDI 999 Implementation Acknowledgement message is used in healthcare to provide confirmation that a file was received. It is similar to the broader X12 EDI 997, however, the 999 provides additional information about potential errors in the received transaction.
EDIFACT EDI CONTRL
The EDI CONTRL message is an EDIFACT EDI document that is sent in reply to all other incoming EDI messages. Similar to the X12 997, it acknowledges receipt of an EDI document.
EDIFACT EDI DESADV
The EDI DESADV is an EDIFACT EDI message that specifies details for goods dispatched or ready for dispatch under agreed-upon conditions. DESADV ensures goods sent by a supplier are aligned with the purchase order ( ORDERS) made by their distributor/retailer partners.
EDIFACT EDI INVOIC
The EDI INVOIC is a message that requests payment for goods/services supplied under conditions where the two parties (seller & buyer) agree with each other.
EDIFACT EDI ORDERS
EDI ORDERS is an EDIFACT EDI message used to place a purchase order. Retailers, purchasers, distributors, warehouses, and others use the ORDERS document to specify details for goods/services ordered.