EDI 940 Warehouse Shipping Order Guide

The EDI 940 is how you tell your 3PL to ship an order. Your customer's order arrives as an EDI 850, a marketplace order, an email or a PDF. Your ERP turns it into a 940, and the warehouse picks, packs and ships from it. Everything the warehouse knows about that order (where it goes, by when, by which carrier, which items in which units) comes from the 940, so its mistakes become the warehouse's mistakes.

This guide covers what the 940 carries, where it sits in the 3PL document set, every segment you will map, three live examples (a parcel order, a refrigerated shipment to a foodservice DC and a single-item drop-ship), and the errors that make warehouses reject or misship orders.

What Is an EDI 940?

An EDI 940 is the Warehouse Shipping Order transaction set defined by the ASC X12 standards body. The depositor (the company that owns the goods) sends it to a warehouse (the custodian) to authorize a shipment from stock the warehouse holds for it. It travels in functional group OW (the GS01 value).

The goods do not change hands between depositor and warehouse. Ownership stays with you; the warehouse only holds and ships. That is why the 940 is a list of what to ship and where, with no unit prices on its item lines.

Authoritative references for 940 work:

• The X12 transaction set catalog defines the 940 and the rest of the warehouse series (940, 943, 944, 945, 947)
• The Stedi X12 004010 reference for the 940 shows the segment order, loops and usage, and links to each segment's elements
• GS1 US governs the UPC case codes and GTINs that identify items on 940 lines
• Your warehouse's own 940 implementation guide governs. It sets the required segments, the item identifiers it matches on, and the carrier and date rules

Who sends it? The depositor: a brand, manufacturer, importer or distributor, usually from its ERP or order management system.

Who receives it? The warehouse: a 3PL, a public or cold-storage warehouse, or your own warehouse if it runs a separate warehouse management system.

When is it sent? As soon as an order is released for shipment. Each warehouse has its own cut-off for same-day shipping, set in your service agreement.

Why does it matter? The 940 is the only instruction the warehouse works from. A wrong unit, item number or address on the 940 ships wrong, and the 945 will confirm the wrong shipment accurately.

The 3PL Document Set

The 940 is one of five warehouse transaction sets. Each travels in its own functional group.

The 940 and 945 close the outbound loop; the 943 and 944 close the inbound one; the 947 covers everything else. Many warehouses also send an 846 inventory report so you can check balances.

How the 940 to 945 Loop Works

1. Order arrives. A customer order reaches you as an EDI 850, a marketplace order, an email or a PDF, and is entered in your ERP.
2. 940 goes out. Your system sends the warehouse your order number in W0502, the ship-to, the ship date, the carrier and one W01 per line.
3. Warehouse acknowledges. Its translator returns a 997 for the OW group. Some warehouses also report orders they cannot accept, by EDI or by email; the guide says how.
4. Warehouse ships. It picks, packs, labels, books the carrier and gets tracking numbers or a bill of lading.
5. 945 comes back. The W06 header echoes your order number in W0602, and each W12 line reports ordered, shipped and the difference.
6. You reconcile. Match the 945 to the 940 line by line, then build the customer's 856 ship notice and 810 invoice from what shipped, not from what you ordered.

Step 6 only works if the 940 and 945 identify items the same way, which is why item identification on W01 matters so much.

Interactive Example: Parcel Order to a 3PL

The brand sends order ORD-78901234 to its 3PL: twelve black tees in eaches and four cases of white tees, to Acme Customer in Austin. W05*N marks it as an original order. Three N1 segments name the ship-to (ST), the depositor (DE) and the warehouse (WH). G62*10 is the requested ship date and W66 asks for UPS parcel service, freight prepaid. Line 1 identifies the tees by vendor item and consumer UPC. Line 2 identifies the case by its 12-digit UPC case code in W0103, plus the vendor item. W76 gives a hash total of 16 units and an estimated 77 pounds.

This is the order our 945 guide answers: the warehouse ships all twelve tees and three of the four cases.

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

940 Structure at a Glance

The 940 in release 004010 has a header, a detail loop per line, and a short summary.

Two segments people expect are not there. The 940 in 004010 has no TD5: carrier detail goes in W66. And it has no PO1 or price: items are on W01, which carries quantities and identifiers only.

Key Segments Explained

W05: Shipping Order Identification

W05*N*ORD-78901234~

W0502 is the matching key for the whole loop. Keep it unique, keep its format stable (prefixes, leading zeros), and never reuse it for a different order. Which W0501 codes a warehouse accepts, and whether it handles changes and cancellations at all once an order is released for picking, is set by its guide. Many warehouses want a cancellation (F) followed by a new original rather than a change.

N1 Loop: Parties

N1*ST*ACME CUSTOMER INC~
N3*123 MAIN STREET~
N4*AUSTIN*TX*78701*US~
N1*DE*BRAND COMPANY LLC*ZZ*BRAND123~
N1*WH*NORTHGATE FULFILLMENT DALLAS*ZZ*WHSE-001~

For retail orders, the ship-to usually needs the retailer's DC or store number in N103/N104, because the warehouse prints it on labels and you will need it again on the 856.

G62: Dates

G62*10*20260512~

Use the codes your warehouse's guide lists. A retailer's ship window from the 850 usually maps to 37 and 38; a consumer order usually only needs 10.

NTE: Instructions

NTE*WHI*FIFO BY LOT. NO MIXED LOTS ON A PALLET~

NTE01 says what kind of note it is (WHI warehouse instruction, SPH special handling, GEN general) and NTE02 carries the text. Free text is read by people, not systems, so put anything the warehouse must act on automatically, such as dates, carrier and lots, in coded segments.

W09: Equipment and Temperature

W09*RT*33*FA*38*FA~

Cold-storage warehouses use W09 to book the right equipment. If your products need a temperature range, send it on every order; do not rely on item master settings alone.

W66: Warehouse Carrier Information

W66*PP*U***UPS GROUND*****UPSN~

For retail orders, the carrier and service usually come from the retailer's routing guide or a 754 routing instruction, and the warehouse must use exactly what you send. For consumer orders, many warehouses pick the service from rate tables; agree which side decides. Our SCAC code glossary entry explains carrier codes.

LX and W01: Line Item Detail

LX*2~
W01*4*CA*012345678912*VN*BRAND-SKU-002~

The standard requires either W0103 or the W0104/W0105 pair. W0103 holds the UPC case code value itself, with no qualifier: there is no "UPC" qualifier element in front of it. A line written W01*12*EA*UPC*012345678905 puts the text UPC into the case code element and the number into the qualifier element, and a validator or the warehouse will reject it. For an each identified by its consumer UPC, use a qualifier pair instead: W01*12*EA**VN*BRAND-SKU-001*UP*012345678905.

Whatever you send, it has to match the warehouse's item master and come back on the 945. On the 945, W1205 to W1208 mirror W0102 to W0105 (unit, UPC case code, then a qualifier and ID pair), so the identifiers line up.

G69: Description

G69*PERFORMANCE TEE WHITE LARGE CASE OF 12~

A free-text description for pickers and packing lists. Useful, but never a substitute for an item identifier.

N9 at Line Level: Lots and Other References

N9*LT*L2610281~

N9*LT asks for a specific lot. Line-level N9 also carries customer line numbers, serial numbers and similar references when a guide wants them. If one item must ship from two lots, send two lines.

W76: Total Shipping Order

W76*16*77*LB~

The standard calls W7601 a hash total: it adds quantities regardless of unit, so 12 eaches plus 4 cases is 16. It is a completeness check, not a unit count.

Interactive Example: Refrigerated Order to a Foodservice DC

A food manufacturer stores product at a cold-storage warehouse and sells to a foodservice distributor. It sends the warehouse a 940 to ship three lot-controlled lines to the distributor's DC. W0503 carries the distributor's PO. G62*10 and G62*02 give the ship date and the delivery date the customer asked for. NTE*WHI asks for first-in, first-out by lot, W09 sets a reefer at 33 to 38 degrees Fahrenheit, and W66 names an LTL reefer carrier, freight prepaid. Each line has a UPC case code in W0103, a vendor item and a required lot in N9*LT. W76 totals 74 cases and 872 pounds. All names, codes and the SCAC are fictional.

If you sell into foodservice through a 3PL, our page on EDI for food distributors covers the customer side.

Interactive Example: Drop-Ship to a Consumer

A direct-to-consumer brand sends its fulfillment center one 940 per web order. The ship-to is a residential address, there is a single line, W66 asks for UPS Ground, and two NTE segments carry gift-wrap and a gift note. The candle is identified by vendor item and consumer UPC in the qualifier pairs, with W0103 left empty.

Gift messages and other text the customer wrote are fine in NTE, but keep them short and free of special characters that clash with your delimiters. A * or ~ inside a gift note breaks the file.

EDI 940 vs 945, 850 and 856

The 850 and 856 face your customer; the 940 and 945 face your warehouse. Most problems in 3PL EDI come from mixing the two: building the 856 from the 940 instead of the 945, or sending the customer's item numbers to a warehouse that knows only yours.

Common 940 Errors and How to Prevent Them

940 Implementation Checklist

• Get the warehouse's 940 guide and confirm release (usually 004010) and GS01 = OW
• Agree your depositor code and how the warehouse identifies each building (N1*DE, N1*WH)
• Agree the item identifier per item (W0103 case code, VN, UP) and the unit the warehouse stores it in
• Map G62 dates, W66 carrier rules and any W09 temperature requirements
• Agree which W0501 codes the warehouse accepts and its cut-offs for changes and cancellations
• Send lots, serials and hazmat detail where your products need them
• Confirm the warehouse echoes W0502 on the 945, and build the 940 to 945 reconciliation
• Return and monitor 997s in both directions
• Test a parcel order, an LTL or retail order, a multi-line order, a cancellation and a short shipment end to end

If you are setting up a 3PL connection from scratch, our post on 3PL EDI integration and the page on EDI for third-party logistics show which documents each side usually owns.

Where OrderSync Fits

A 940 can only be as good as the order behind it. If the customer's order was keyed with the wrong item, unit or ship-to, the warehouse ships exactly that.

OrderSync works on the order side. It reads customer orders in any format, from EDI 850s and 875s to PDFs, emails and spreadsheets, matches customers, items and units to your catalog, and outputs valid X12 or ERP data, so the order your system releases to the warehouse starts out right. Paste any 940 into the free EDI inspector to see it parsed segment by segment with a plain-English summary, or book a 15-minute walkthrough to see your own orders processed.

Frequently Asked Questions