EDI 812 Credit/Debit Adjustment: Complete Guide

The EDI 812 is how money moves after the invoice. When a buyer counts fewer units than you billed, pays a lower cost than you invoiced, or charges for a missed compliance rule, it can send an 812 debit memo instead of paying the 810 in full. When you owe the buyer, you send an 812 credit memo. Either way, the 812 is the itemized record of why the payment will not match the invoice.

This guide covers what the 812 carries, how a deduction moves through it, two live examples (a retailer debit and a supplier credit), every segment you will map, the reason codes that decide whether a deduction is worth disputing, and the errors that make 812s hard to reconcile.

What Is an EDI 812?

An EDI 812 is the Credit/Debit Adjustment transaction set defined by the ASC X12 standards body, used to notify a trading partner of an adjustment or billback against goods or services already invoiced, or to request one. It is the EDI version of a debit memo or a credit memo, and the X12 definition describes it as multi-directional: either trading partner can send it.

Authoritative references for 812 work:

• The X12 transaction set catalog lists the 812 alongside the 810, 820 and 824 it works with
• The Stedi X12 004010 reference for the 812 shows the full segment order, loops and usage, and its element 426 page lists every adjustment reason code
• Each retailer or distributor publishes its own 812 implementation guide, which narrows the reason codes it uses, the references it sends, and how it expects disputes to be raised

Who sends it? Either side. Retailers and distributors send debit adjustments when they deduct from an invoice. Suppliers send credit adjustments when they owe the buyer money, for example for an authorized return.

When is it sent? After the 810 Invoice, when receiving, invoice matching or a compliance audit finds a difference. Some buyers send it before payment; others send it with or after the remittance.

Why does it matter? Every 812 debit is a short payment against an invoice in your receivables. If nobody reads it, cash application cannot match the payment to the invoice, valid deductions go unrecorded, and invalid ones go undisputed until the buyer's dispute window closes.

Debit, Credit and How the Money Moves

Three elements on the BCD header decide how an 812 should be booked:

Each CDD line has its own credit/debit flag too, so a single 812 can net a debit on one line against a credit on another. The partner's guide says which direction convention it uses and which handling codes it accepts. Read it before you post the first 812 to your ledger.

How a Deduction Moves Through an 812

A typical retail deduction runs like this:

1. You invoice. Your 810 bills the PO at the quantities and costs you shipped.
2. The buyer matches. The retailer's accounts payable system compares the 810 with its receipt and its cost file, and its compliance team checks the shipment against the vendor guide.
3. Differences become adjustment lines. Each difference gets a reason code, a quantity, a price and an amount: units not received, a cost above the agreed price, a missing ASN.
4. The buyer sends the 812. The BCD names the invoice and PO, and the CDD loops list each adjustment.
5. Payment arrives short. The buyer pays the invoice less the 812 total, usually with an 820 remittance advice that references the debit memo number.
6. You reconcile or dispute. Your team matches the 812 to the invoice, the PO and the proof of delivery, accepts the valid lines and disputes the rest through the buyer's process.

Step 6 is where suppliers lose money. A deduction that sits unmatched in a remittance is easy to write off, and hard to recover once the dispute window has passed.

Interactive Example: Retailer Debit Memo (812, BCD05 D)

A retailer deducts $1,071.52 from invoice INV-88421. Line 1 contests 48 bath towels as not received (reason 06). Line 2 is a pricing error (reason 01): 120 mugs invoiced $0.45 above the $12.80 contract price. Line 3 is a flat $250.00 deduction because no ASN arrived (reason 70), referenced to the bill of lading. BCD03 is O: the amount will come off the next payment.

Use the Plain English tab for a readable summary, or click any segment to break it down element by element.

Interactive Example: Supplier Credit Memo (812, BCD05 C)

The supplier sends the opposite direction. The retailer returned 12 desk lamps under a returned goods authorization, so the supplier issues a $215.40 credit (BCD05 C) to be applied on account (BCD03 L). The CDD line uses reason 72 (authorized return) and sets CDD05 to Y to mark it as returned goods.

812 Structure at a Glance

The 004010 812 has a header with a mandatory party loop, an optional detail loop per adjustment, and no summary segments beyond SE.

Two things often surprise people coming from the 810. The 004010 812 has no REF segment in its header (references go in N9 or in the BCD itself), and it has no TDS-style total segment: the total is BCD04. Partner guides built on other X12 releases can differ, so map from the version in your partner's guide.

Key Segments Explained

BCD: Beginning Credit/Debit Adjustment

BCD*20261102*DM-2026-0457*O*107152*D*20261020*INV-88421**20261005*4500229254~

At least one of BCD07, BCD10 or BCD14 must be present, so every 812 points back to an invoice, a PO or another document.

Common BCD03 handling codes:

The code list for element 305 has more values. Your partner's guide names the ones it sends.

CDD: Credit/Debit Adjustment Detail

Each CDD opens one adjustment line.

CDD*01*D**5400***120*EA*0.45*CON*12.80~

The syntax rules matter when you build or validate one. A CDD needs an amount (CDD04) or a quantity (CDD07). A quantity needs its unit (CDD08) and a unit price (CDD11), and a unit price needs its price identifier (CDD10).

Adjustment Reason Codes (CDD01)

Element 426 has several hundred codes, many of them for insurance or freight. These are the ones that show up most on retail and distribution 812s:

Partners use different codes for the same problem, and some send mutually defined codes. The reason code is a starting point for the dispute, not the whole story: the proof is in your bill of lading, proof of delivery, ASN and price agreement.

LIN, N9 and N1

LIN inside a CDD loop identifies the item, with the same qualifier pairs as the 810 (UP for UPC, VN for vendor item number, IN for buyer item number). N9 carries references: RV receiving number, BM bill of lading, RZ returned goods authorization, IV invoice. The N1 loop is mandatory in the 004010 812 and usually names the buyer and supplier, sometimes with a remit-to or bill-to.

EDI 812 vs 810, 820, 824 and 844

The short version: the 810 bills, the 812 adjusts, the 820 pays. Contract pricing claims between distributors and manufacturers run on the 844 and 849 instead, often against prices set on an 845 Price Authorization.

Where the 812 Sits in the Order Lifecycle

1. 850 Purchase Order: the buyer orders at an agreed cost
2. 855 Purchase Order Acknowledgment: you confirm quantities, prices and dates
3. 856 Ship Notice/ASN: you describe what shipped
4. 810 Invoice: you bill
5. 812 Credit/Debit Adjustment: the buyer debits, or you credit, against that invoice
6. 820 Remittance: the buyer pays the invoice net of the adjustment

Most debit reasons trace back to an earlier document: a cost on the 850 that never reached your price list, an 856 that went out late or not at all, a quantity on the 810 that did not match what shipped. Clean upstream documents are the cheapest way to get fewer 812s.

Common 812 Errors and How to Prevent Them

For the wider picture on retail deductions, see EDI chargebacks and our glossary entry on retail chargebacks.

812 Implementation Checklist

Before you take 812s from a new partner:

• Get its 812 guide, and confirm the X12 version it uses
• Confirm the BCD05 direction convention and the BCD03 handling codes it sends
• Get its list of CDD01 reason codes and what proof it accepts for each
• Confirm whether amounts use implied decimals (107152) as element 610 defines
• Confirm which references it sends: invoice, PO, receiving number, bill of lading
• Map the memo number so it can be matched to the 820 remittance
• Agree how disputes are raised and the window for raising them
• Test with a debit, a credit and a multi-line memo before going live

To check a file before you map it, paste it into the free EDI inspector, or use the EDI remittance reader for the 820 that follows it.

Handling 812s With OrderSync

Most deductions are the last link in a chain that starts with the order: a PO keyed with the wrong cost, a unit of measure mixed up, a ship-to that did not match. OrderSync works at the start of that chain. It reads incoming orders in any format, from EDI 850s and 875s to emails, PDFs and spreadsheets, matches customers, items and units to your catalog, and outputs valid X12 or clean data for your ERP.

For the 812 itself, paste any file into the free EDI inspector to see it parsed segment by segment with a plain-English summary of every adjustment line. If you are weighing how much of your EDI needs to touch the ERP, see EDI without ERP integration, or book a 15-minute walkthrough to see your own orders processed.

Frequently Asked Questions