EDI 855 — Purchase Order Acknowledgement

Purpose

Confirm receipt of a Purchase Order (850) and communicate your intent to fulfill it — line by line. Originates with the Supplier, sent to Flxpoint.

In Plain English

The 855 is the supplier's commitment back to the retailer: "I got your PO and here is exactly what I plan to ship." Unlike the 997 — which only confirms the file envelope arrived — the 855 confirms business intent, line by line. For each item on the original 850 the supplier responds with an acknowledgement code: accept as-is, accept with a changed quantity, backorder, or reject. Flxpoint uses the 855 to update the order status in the channel before the shipment actually moves, so the end customer sees accurate expectations. A missing or partial 855 is a common source of support tickets because the retailer cannot tell what will ship until the ASN arrives hours or days later.

Frequency

Send within 24 hours of receiving the 850. Required for every PO received.

Business Rules

• The 855 must reference the original 850 PO number
• You must respond to every line item from the 850
• Accepted quantity must be ≤ the original PO quantity
• Unit of measure must be EA (Each)
• Send one 855 per 850 — do not combine multiple POs in one 855

Status Codes

BAK02 — Transaction Purpose

ACK01 — Line Item Status

Flxpoint resolves each line to acknowledged or canceled from the ACK01 code. The Standard EDI parser does not reject a file for an unrecognized ACK01 — a code in neither list is simply a no-op (the line ends up neither acknowledged nor canceled), so use a code from one of these lists.

Accepted (line acknowledged):

Rejected (line canceled):

Segment Hierarchy

ISA  Interchange Header
 GS  Group Header (GS01 = "PR")
  ST   Transaction Set Header (ST01 = "855")
  BAK  Beginning Acknowledgement for PO
  ┌─ PO1 Loop (repeats per line item)
  │  PO1  Line Item Detail
  │  ACK  Line Item Acknowledgement
  └─
  CTT  Transaction Totals (optional)
  SE   Transaction Set Trailer
 GE  Group Trailer
IEA  Interchange Trailer

Segment Overview

Segment Specifications

ST — Transaction Set Header

BAK — Beginning Acknowledgement

N1 Loop — Ship-To Address (Situational)

When included, the N1 loop mirrors the Ship-To address from the original 850.

N3 and N4 follow (address line, city/state/zip) — same structure as 850.

PO1 — Line Item Detail

PO1 in the 855 echoes back the line items from the original 850. Include the same product identifiers that were in the 850 PO1. Multiple ID pairs (positions 6–17) are supported.

ACK — Line Item Acknowledgement

The generic Standard EDI parser reads only ACK01 (status) and ACK02 (quantity) from the ACK segment. Product identifiers come from the PO1 segment, not the ACK.

Pharma vendor variant — ACK identifiers & substitution

This applies only to Kinray / AmerisourceBergen (custom parsers), not to the generic 855. When ACK01 = IS (Accepted with Substitution), the substitute item's identifiers ride in later ACK positions — Kinray scans ACK07/08 through ACK13/14 for qualifiers ND/N4 (NDC), VC/VN (vendor catalog), UP (UPC). For those integrations, include the identifier the PO line carries so Flxpoint can match the line; otherwise the SKU resolves null and the ack fails to save (root cause of the Kinray cross-dock 855 issue, mid-2026).

Cross-Dock PO acknowledgements

For a Cross-Dock PO, saving the 855 is idempotent — once the acknowledged quantity is recorded it cannot be re-applied. Re-sending the same 855 returns Acknowledged quantity can't be greater than total quantity for sku …, which is expected. The Cross-Dock PO stays in Processed status (there is no separate "Acknowledged" status badge for cross-dock).

SE — Transaction Set Trailer

Example File

ISA*00*          *00*          *ZZ*SUPPLIER       *ZZ*FLXPOINT       *240115*1200*U*00401*000000010*0*P*>~
GS*PR*SUPPLIER*FLXPOINT*20240115*1200*10*X*004010VICS~
ST*855*0010~
BAK*00*AD*PO-12345678*20240115~
PO1*1*2*EA*29.99**SK*SKU-ABC123~
ACK*IA*2*EA~
PO1*2*1*EA*49.99**SK*SKU-DEF456~
ACK*IA*1*EA~
PO1*3*4*EA*15.00**SK*SKU-GHI789~
ACK*IQ*2*EA~
SE*9*0010~
GE*1*10~
IEA*1*000000010~

Scenario: 3-line PO response

• Line 1 (SKU-ABC123): 2 units — Fully accepted (IA)
• Line 2 (SKU-DEF456): 1 unit — Fully accepted (IA)
• Line 3 (SKU-GHI789): Only 2 of 4 units available — Partial acceptance (IQ, qty=2)

Common Mistakes