Warehouse-order fundamentals
What Is an EDI 940 Warehouse Shipping Order?
A source-grounded guide to the X12 directive used to request warehouse shipping activity.
EDI 940 is the X12 Warehouse Shipping Order transaction set. A depositor or other ordering party can use it to communicate a warehouse shipping directive or request. It may contain order identity, item and LX context, qualified product identifiers, parties, references, dates, packing instructions, routing evidence, marks, and source quantities. Content varies by trading relationship and release.
940, 945, 856, and 850 are different documents
An 850 Purchase Order communicates a commercial order from a buyer. A 940 Warehouse Shipping Order directs or requests warehouse activity. A 945 Warehouse Shipping Advice can report warehouse shipping activity back to the depositor. An 856 Ship Notice / Manifest describes shipment and packaging hierarchy for a receiving workflow. They may participate in one business process, but none is a substitute for another and no universal sequence is assumed.
What appears in a 940?
W05 identifies the shipping order and purpose. Detail may be arranged under LX, with physical W01 occurrences carrying item quantity, unit, the positional W0103 UPC case code, and qualified product-ID pairs. Other structures can communicate parties, references, dates, descriptions, notes, destination quantities, qualified quantities, packing, transportation instructions, equipment, routing, rail details, marks, and a source-reported W76 transaction summary.
Smart Mapping is tested for generic releases 004010, 004030, and 005010. Partner guides can impose additional rules that this generic mapping does not certify.
A 940 does not prove execution
The existence of a 940 does not prove that goods were picked, shipped, delivered, that a warehouse accepted the request, or that an order was fulfilled. Likewise, mapped W66 routing is not proof of the route used, TD3 is not proof of equipment used, W20 weight is not an actual-shipment finding, and W76 is not an independently verified total. The converter preserves source evidence without creating an operational status.
Common EDI 940 questions
What is the difference between an EDI 940 and 945?
A 940 communicates a warehouse shipping directive or request. A 945 reports source-reported warehouse shipping-advice evidence. They can be related in a warehouse workflow, but generic mapping does not assume a one-to-one match or successful execution.
Does a 940 mean an order shipped?
No. It describes an instruction or request and does not prove picking, dispatch, delivery, acceptance, or fulfillment.
Open or map an EDI 940
Use the 940 reading guide to trace ownership, consult the EDI 940 canonical data map, review generic validation scope, or open the source in the browser-local EDI Viewer. For output workflows, see the conversion guide.