EDI 832 Price/Sales Catalog Guide

The EDI 832 is the catalog behind every order a buyer sends you. Before a retailer or distributor can put your item on an 850, its item file needs the UPC, the pack, the cost and the description. The 832 is one of the main ways that data gets there, and the item numbers and costs in it are the ones the buyer will later check your invoices against.

This guide covers what the 832 carries, how full catalogs and changes work, three live examples (a new item catalog, a grocery item setup and a price change), every segment you will map, how the 832 compares with the 888, 879 and 845, and the catalog errors that come back as rejected orders and deductions.

What Is an EDI 832?

An EDI 832 is the Price/Sales Catalog transaction set defined by the ASC X12 standards body, used to furnish or request the prices of goods or services in the form of a catalog. In practice a supplier sends it to a buyer to publish item data: identifiers, descriptions, measurements, pack configuration and prices, for new items, changed items and discontinued items.

Authoritative references for 832 work:

• The X12 transaction set catalog lists the 832 with the 888, 879 and 845 that cover parts of the same job
• The Stedi X12 004010 reference for the 832 shows the segment order and loops, and its BCT segment page defines the header elements
• GS1 US governs the UPCs and GTINs most 832 lines carry, and the GS1 GTIN Management Standard decides when a product change needs a new GTIN
• Each buyer publishes its own 832 guide, which sets the identifiers, price types and attributes it requires

Who sends it? Usually the supplier or manufacturer. Some buyers also send 832s to their own customers, for example a distributor publishing its catalog to dealers.

When is it sent? Before the first order for a new item, whenever an item or price changes, and when an item is discontinued. Some buyers also ask for a periodic full catalog.

Why does it matter? The buyer's item file is what its POs, receiving and invoice matching run on. A wrong UPC fails the order line; a wrong pack makes every quantity off by the case size; a cost the buyer never loaded turns into a pricing deduction on an 812.

Full Catalogs, Changes and Item Actions

Two levels of the 832 say what the receiver should do with the data:

• The whole transaction. BCT10 is the transaction set purpose code: 00 original, 04 change, 05 replace. A 05 full catalog tells the receiver this file is the complete current list.
• Each item. The G53 segment, right after LIN, gives the maintenance type for that item: 003 add full item detail, 001 change, 002 delete, PRI price change only, CEP change excluding price. Where BCT10 and G53 disagree, the X12 note says G53 takes precedence.

Many buyers use only some of these. One may take adds and changes on 832s and handle discontinues in its vendor portal; another may want a full catalog every quarter. The buyer's guide decides.

Interactive Example: New Items on a Sales Catalog

A home goods supplier publishes two new items to a retailer. BCT01 SC marks a sales catalog, BCT02 is the catalog number and BCT09 its description, and DTM*007 says the data is effective December 1. Each item has a UPC and vendor item number in LIN, G53*003 (add), a description in PID, the item weight in MEA, the case pack, size, gross weight and dimensions in PO4, and wholesale and MSRP prices in CTP.

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

The cleanser's MSRP of $9.99 on a $5.50 wholesale cost is an 81.6% markup, which is a 44.9% margin for the retailer; the markup calculator shows that conversion for any pair of prices.

Interactive Example: Grocery New Item Setup

Grocery buyers order cases and sell consumer units, so they want both codes. Each LIN carries the case GTIN-14 (UK), the consumer UPC (UP) and the vendor item number. PO4 gives 12 per case of 18 oz, with the case gross weight and dimensions, CTP gives the wholesale cost, and G39 repeats the case dimensions in the grocery vendor selling unit segment.

Grocery retailers that use the UCS item documents may ask for this data on an 888 Item Maintenance instead, with costs on an 879 Price Information.

Interactive Example: Price Change Only

Most price changes do not need a full catalog. This 832 is a price catalog (BCT01 PC) sent as a change (BCT10 04), revision 2 of the same catalog number. DTM*007 sets the effective date, January 1, 2027, and each of the three items carries G53*PRI (price change only) with its new wholesale and MSRP prices and nothing else.

The receiver keeps every other attribute from the earlier catalog and applies the new prices on the effective date.

832 Structure at a Glance

Key Segments Explained

BCT: Beginning Segment for Price/Sales Catalog

BCT*SC*PHC-SPR27*1******SPRING 2027 CATALOG*00~

BCT01 has five codes in 004010:

There is no add, change or delete code in BCT01. Those actions live in BCT10 and G53.

LIN: Item Identification

LIN*1*UK*10012345678902*UP*012345678905*VN*VCF-OAT-18~

LIN01 is the line number, followed by qualifier and ID pairs. Common qualifiers: UP UPC consumer package code, UK GTIN-14 shipping container code, EN EAN-13, VN vendor item number, IN buyer item number. Send every identifier the buyer's guide lists, in the order it lists them, and validate the check digit on every UPC and GTIN with a check digit calculator before you send.

G53: Maintenance Type

G53*003~ marks a new item with full detail. 001 is a change, 002 a delete, PRI a price change only and CEP a change that excludes price. G53 is a single three-character element, and it overrides BCT10 for its item.

PID: Product/Item Description

PID*F*08***SPRING CLEANSER 8 OZ~

PID01 F means free-form text in PID05 (up to 80 characters). PID02 is a characteristic code: 08 product, GEN general description, TRN trade name. Buyers often want several PIDs per item: a short register description, a long description, a brand.

MEA and PO4: Measurements and Pack

MEA*PD*WT*0.6*LB~
PO4*12*8*OZ*CTN*G*7.8*LB***10*8*6*IN~

MEA gives one measurement per segment: MEA02 says what (WT weight, HT height, WD width, LN length), MEA03 the value and MEA04 the unit.

The X12 example for PO4 is a carton of 24 twelve-ounce packages: pack 24, size 12, unit OZ. The pack in PO401 is what every later order quantity is multiplied by, so it has to match what the buyer's system thinks a case is.

CTP: Pricing Information

CTP**WHL*5.50*1*EA~

Common CTP02 price identifiers:

Two codes are often mixed up. RES is resale price and RTL is retail price; PRO is producer's price, not promotional, which is PRP. Use the codes in the buyer's guide, because its item file loads each price type into a specific field.

G39: Item Characteristics, Vendor's Selling Unit

G39**UK*10012345678902*****8*IN*9.5*IN*12.5*IN~

G39 describes the unit the vendor sells, usually the case. G3902 and G3903 identify it (here by GTIN-14), G3905 to G3907 give a weight, and G3908 to G3913 give height, width and length with their units. Later elements carry volume, pallet tiers and blocks, pack and size. It comes from the grocery item documents and is used mostly by grocery and foodservice buyers.

CTT: Transaction Totals

CTT*2~ counts the LIN items. Some buyers check it against the lines received before they load anything.

EDI 832 vs 888, 879, 845 and 846

The short version: the 832 tells a buyer what it can order and what it will pay. The 888 and 879 split that job for grocery. The 845 tells a distributor what someone else will pay and promises to make up the difference.

Where the 832 Sits in the Order Lifecycle

1. 832 Price/Sales Catalog: you publish items and prices; the buyer loads them
2. 850 Purchase Order: the buyer orders by the item numbers and units it loaded
3. 855 Purchase Order Acknowledgment: you confirm, or reject lines for items not on file
4. 856 Ship Notice/ASN: you ship, with the same identifiers
5. 810 Invoice: you bill at the cost the buyer loaded from your catalog
6. 812 Credit/Debit Adjustment: if the invoice cost does not match the buyer's file, the difference often comes back here

Some buyers answer a catalog with an 824 Application Advice listing items they rejected, for example for an invalid GTIN or a missing attribute.

Common 832 Errors and How to Prevent Them

832 Implementation Checklist

• Get the buyer's 832 guide and confirm the X12 version
• Confirm which BCT01, BCT10 and G53 codes it accepts
• List the identifiers it requires in LIN, and in what order
• Confirm the price identifiers it loads and whether it wants quantity breaks
• Confirm pack, inner pack and dimension rules, and whether it wants PO4, G39 or both
• Agree how far ahead price changes must arrive, and how discontinues are sent
• Ask whether it replies with an 824 for rejected items
• Test an add, a change, a price-only change and a delete before going live

Keeping Catalogs and Orders in Step With OrderSync

The 832 sets what your buyers can order. Every order after it has to match: the right item numbers, units, packs and costs, whatever format it arrives in. OrderSync 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. It can also generate 832 catalogs from your item master, mapped to each partner's guide.

To check an 832 before you send it, paste it into the free EDI inspector to see every item parsed with its identifiers, pack and prices, and any structural errors explained. You can also book a 15-minute walkthrough to see your own orders processed.

Frequently Asked Questions