EDI 857 Shipment and Billing Notice: 856 + 810

The EDI 857 is an ASN and an invoice in one envelope. Most trading partners want an 856 ship notice when the goods leave and an 810 invoice to bill them, even though the two documents repeat most of the same data. A few buyers, notably in the book trade and in US defense procurement, accept a single 857 instead. When they do, your one document has to satisfy both the receiving dock and accounts payable.

This guide covers what the 857 carries, who uses it, the hierarchy it shares with the 856, every segment you will map, a live example, a side-by-side comparison with the 856 and 810, and the errors that block both receipt and payment.

What Is an EDI 857?

An EDI 857 is the Shipment and Billing Notice transaction set defined by ASC X12, which gives the recipient of a shipment the data it needs both to plan the receipt and to generate payment. The X12 standard positions it as a consolidation of the Ship Notice/Manifest (856) and the Invoice (810). It travels in functional group BS (the GS01 value).

The standard attaches three conditions that shape every 857 implementation:

• It replaces the 856 and the 810 together. The X12 notes say it is not to replace either one individually. Do not send an 857 and then also send a paper or EDI invoice for the same shipment.
• It fits when prices are not fully agreed in advance. The 857 suits environments where the item prices and terms on the shipment are used to generate payment.
• It does not fit Evaluated Receipts Settlement (ERS). Under ERS the buyer pays from its own receipt and agreed prices, so no invoice data is needed.

Authoritative references for 857 work:

• The X12 857 structure (release 004010) on Stedi lists the segments, the BS1 to BS5 loops and the hierarchy notes
• The PUBNET 857 implementation guideline, a subset of the BISAC 857 standard used in the book trade, shows a working retail implementation
• The Defense Logistics Agency's DLMS 857 implementation convention covers the federal use of the 857 for WAWF "COMBO" documents (invoice and receiving report together)

Who sends it? The supplier or its 3PL, from the shipping and billing systems together.

Who receives it? The buyer. Its receiving system uses the shipment, pack and item levels; its payables system uses the prices, terms and totals.

When is it sent? At shipment, in place of the 856. Because it is also the invoice, it has to be right at the moment it leaves, not corrected a day later.

Why does it matter? A bad 856 causes a receiving problem. A bad 810 causes a payment problem. A bad 857 causes both, from the same mistake.

Who Uses the EDI 857

The 857 is uncommon. Most retailers, including the large general merchandise chains, ask for a separate 856 and 810. Confirmed users include:

Some EDI providers also list individual retailers that accept the 857. Treat those lists as leads and confirm with the buyer's own implementation guide. If a partner has not published an 857 guide, assume it wants an 856 and an 810.

How an 857 Shipment Works

1. Order. The buyer sends an 850 purchase order, and the supplier may confirm it with an 855.
2. Pick, pack and label. The warehouse packs cartons and prints SSCC-18 labels, exactly as for an 856.
3. Price and bill. The billing system prices each shipped line and applies terms, allowances and charges, exactly as for an 810.
4. Build the 857. The shipment level carries the carrier, weight and bill of lading. The order level carries the PO, invoice number, terms and invoice total. Pack levels carry carton labels, and item levels carry each priced line.
5. Transmit. The supplier sends the 857 when the truck leaves, and the buyer returns a 997.
6. Receive. The buyer's dock scans cartons against the pack and item levels.
7. Pay. The buyer's AP matches the shipped and received quantities to the prices on the same document and pays, often with an 820.

Because there is no separate invoice to fix later, a short-pick or price correction found after the 857 leaves needs whatever correction process the buyer's guide defines, such as a credit adjustment.

The 857 Hierarchy and BS Loops

Like the 856, the 857 uses HL loops. Unlike the 856, each level has its own named segment group (BS1 to BS5) with a mandatory first segment, which is how the standard fits invoice data into the hierarchy.

BHT01 fixes the order of the levels. The X12 notes allow three values:

• 0001: Shipment, Order, Tare, Pack, Subpack, Item
• 0002: Shipment, Order, Item, Tare, Pack, Subpack
• 0003: Shipment, Tare, Pack, Subpack, Order, Item

Levels must appear in that order, though some can be left out. The structure is always one shipment of one or more orders. Each order needs at least one item level, and the shipment level appears exactly once.

Interactive Example: Publisher Shipment to a Bookseller DC

A small press ships one order of three titles to a bookseller's distribution center in three cartons. BHT01 is 0001, so the levels run shipment, order, pack, item. The shipment level gives 3 cartons and 96 lb in G05, the carrier SCAC and the bill of lading. The order level carries the PO in PRF, the invoice number in N9*IV, net 60 terms in ITD, and the $988.44 invoice total in TDS. Each carton has its SSCC-18 in MAN and one priced IT1 line. All names, numbers and the carrier code are fictional.

Use the Plain English tab for a readable summary, or click any segment to see its elements.

857 Structure at a Glance

The 857 has no summary area of its own: the invoice totals live in TDS at each order level.

Key Segments Explained

BHT: Beginning of Hierarchical Transaction

BHT*0001*00*CHP-SHP-7731*20261102*1430~

The X12 notes make BHT03 and BHT04 mandatory for the 857, even though they are optional in the generic segment.

G05: Total Shipment Information

G05*3*CT*96*LB~

At least one of units, weight or volume must be present. The carton count here should equal the number of pack levels you send.

HL: Hierarchical Level

HL*1**S*1~
HL*2*1*O*1~
HL*3*2*P*1~
HL*4*3*I*0~

HL01 numbers each level from 1, HL02 points to the parent level, HL03 is the level code (S, O, T, P, Q or I) and HL04 says whether children follow. The X12 notes say HL02 is 0 at the shipment level, while many guides and translators send it blank, as the example does. Follow the buyer's guide.

TDS: Total Monetary Value Summary (Order Level)

TDS*98844~

TDS01 is the invoice total for the order, including charges and less allowances, before any terms discount. It has two implied decimals: 98844 is $988.44. TDS02 to TDS04 carry the amount subject to discount, the amount due if paid by the discount date, and the discount amount where terms include one.

In the example, 24 × $14.95 + 12 × $22.50 + 36 × $9.99 = $358.80 + $270.00 + $359.64 = $988.44. With more than one order on the shipment, each order level has its own TDS.

PRF and N9: Purchase Order and Invoice Number

PRF*RB-448120***20261020~
N9*IV*CHP-INV-90217~

PRF01 is the buyer's PO number and PRF04 its date. The 857 has no BIG segment, so the invoice number travels in an order-level N9 with qualifier IV (seller's invoice number), as in the PUBNET guide. The buyer's AP keys payment on it, so it must be unique across every 857 and 810 you send that buyer.

ITD: Terms of Sale

ITD*05*3*****60~

ITD01 is the terms type, ITD02 the date the terms count from (3 = invoice date), and ITD07 the net days. Here: no discount, net 60 from the invoice date. Payment terms belong at the order level because each order on the shipment can have different terms.

MAN: Marks and Numbers (Pack Level)

MAN*GM*006141410000041213~

MAN01 = GM identifies an SSCC-18 serial shipping container code, and MAN02 is the 18-digit number on the carton label. The buyer's dock scans the label and looks it up in the 857, so every label you print must appear once and only once. The example uses GS1's documentation company prefix 0614141 with valid check digits.

IT1: Baseline Item Data (Invoice)

IT1*1*24*EA*14.95**VN*CHP-10417~

The item level replaces both the 856 LIN/SN1 pair and the 810 IT1 line. One IT1 therefore states what is in the carton and what it costs. Book trade guides usually identify items by ISBN, with the qualifier set in the guide; general merchandise guides use UPC or GTIN.

EDI 857 vs 856 and 810

The trade-off is simple. The 857 halves the documents you send and removes any chance of the ASN and invoice disagreeing. In return, your billing has to be final at the moment you ship, and pricing data reaches the receiving system. The X12 notes suggest keeping prices away from the receiving area where that is current practice.

Where the 857 Sits in the Order Flow

1. 850 Purchase Order: buyer orders
2. 855 PO Acknowledgment: supplier confirms (if required)
3. 857 Shipment and Billing Notice: supplier ships and bills
4. 997 Functional Acknowledgment: buyer confirms receipt of the file
5. 861 Receiving Advice: buyer reports what it received (where used)
6. 820 Payment Order/Remittance: buyer pays

The freight itself may move on carrier documents such as a 204 load tender and 214 status messages, which are separate from the 857. For the full picture, see the EDI order lifecycle guide.

Common 857 Errors and How to Prevent Them

Paste a test 857 into the free EDI inspector to see its hierarchy, carton labels and line extensions side by side before your first live shipment. If you are new to the ASN half of the document, our 856 guide covers SSCC labels and packing hierarchies in more depth.

857 Implementation Checklist

• Get the buyer's 857 guide and confirm it replaces both the 856 and 810
• Confirm the BHT01 structure code and which levels are required
• Confirm HL02 handling at the shipment level (0 or blank)
• Confirm item identifiers (UPC, GTIN, ISBN, buyer item number)
• Confirm where the invoice number goes (N9 qualifier) and its format
• Map terms, allowances and charges to ITD and SAC at the order level
• Generate SSCC-18 labels and MAN segments from the same pack data
• Suppress the 810 and 856 for this partner
• Agree the correction process for short shipments and price errors after transmission
• Test a single-order shipment, a multi-order shipment and a shipment with a charge or allowance

Where OrderSync Fits

An 857 is only as good as the order behind it. If the PO was keyed with the wrong item, unit or price, the shipment and the invoice are wrong together.

OrderSync reads inbound orders in any format, including EDI 850s, PDFs, emails and spreadsheets, matches customers, items and units to your catalog, and outputs clean orders to your ERP or valid X12. Paste an 857 into the free EDI inspector to see it in plain English, read about automated order processing, or book a 15-minute walkthrough to see your own orders processed.

Frequently Asked Questions