What is an EDI 940?

What is an EDI 940? An EDI 940, or Warehouse Shipping Order, is used to inform a remote warehouse when to ship an order/orders. The 940 is commonly used by suppliers to authorize their warehouse to make a shipment to the buyer/retailer. The 940 is used to confirm a shipment as well as modify or cancel a shipment.  It usually includes the following:

• Supplier/manufacturer information
• Delivery Date
• Item numbers, descriptions, and quantities
• Ship-to information
• Bill-to information
• Shipper Stipulations

How do I send/receive an EDI 940?

It is quite simple for a system to send/receive EDI 940s. For the most part, the transmitting is done through the Internet or Value Added Network (VAN). To keep EDI costs affordable, today most EDI transmission is done through the internet using AS2 or secure FTP, eliminating the need for an expensive VAN. The file is kept secure using encryption to keep the data safe.

Translating an EDI 940

Once an EDI 940 document has been received, it must be translated into a functional format for your system. The majority of organizations have their own standard set of definitions for EDI 940s, so companies use a platform like logicbroker to configure and translate these different documents. Once the EDI 940 is translated, the information can be synced to your internal system of record such as an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) or shopping cart – eliminating the need for manual data entry. Now that you have the shipping information you can quickly track the shipment, which suppliers find useful because their retailers can easily anticipate incoming orders.  Also, suppliers and retailers find EDI 940s useful because they eliminates the need to send/receive warehouse shipment notices in several different formats such as email, fax or CSV. Typically, an EDI 940 is sent with similar documents such as an EDI 856 (Advance Shipment Notice).