Inventory Inquiry / Advice

The EDI 846 communicates inventory levels, stock availability, and warehouse locations. Retailers use it to monitor supplier inventory and trigger automatic replenishment orders.

Industries

Retail Distribution Manufacturing

Direction

Supplier → Buyer (or Buyer → Supplier)

Common Use Cases

Supplier shares daily on-hand inventory by SKU
DC shares available-to-ship quantities with sales team
Drop-ship supplier shares real-time availability with e-commerce retailer

Key Segments

BIA Beginning Segment — query type, report type, date

LIN Item Identification — UPC, item number, buyer item number

QTY Quantity — on-hand, available, committed, in-transit

DTM Date/Time Reference — as-of date for inventory snapshot

W04 Item Detail — description and warehouse code

Transaction Flow

Typically sent on a daily scheduled basis. Downstream triggers: automatic PO generation, safety stock alerts, and drop-ship availability checks.

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Common Validation Errors

QTY01 qualifier determines the meaning of QTY02. Common qualifiers: QH = Quantity on Hand, AU = Available for Sale. Mixing qualifiers causes inventory sync errors.

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Other Transaction Sets

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