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Spotlight PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0 The EU e-invoicing mandate is here — France Sept 2026, Belgium Jan 2026, Germany 2025.

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Foundations

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Standards

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Flagship messages

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Tools

X12 846 — Inventory Inquiry/Advice

The 846 publishes (or requests) a stock snapshot per item and per location. A central tool for drop-ship, VMI, and retail sell-through flows.

Purpose

The 846 communicates inventory state at a given point in time — quantity on hand, in process, in transit, reserved — for one or many items, generally broken down by warehouse. Depending on the function code carried by BIA, the message can be a spontaneous advice (e.g. code SI) or a response to an inquiry.

In mass retail, the 846 is also the vehicle for sell-through: the retailer publishes daily store-level POS sales per SKU back to its suppliers, enabling VMI (Vendor Managed Inventory). It is a functional prerequisite of Walmart Retail Link, P&G Connect+, or Costco's Inventory Management portal.

Envelope structure

The 846 travels in an IB functional group (Inventory Inquiry/Advice). A didactic advice for two items, one with 25 units in transit:

x12 example-846.x12 
ISA*00*          *00*          *ZZ*ACMEVENDOR    *ZZ*ACMERETAIL    *260513*0600*U*00401*000000601*0*P*>~
GS*IB*ACMEVENDOR*ACMERETAIL*20260513*0600*1*X*004010~
ST*846*0001~
BIA*00*SI*INV-RPT-552*20260513*0600~
DTM*007*20260513~
N1*SU*ACME VENDOR INC*92*VEND001~
N1*WH*WAREHOUSE EAST*92*WH-EAST~
LIN*1*UP*012345678905~
PID*F****Acoustic guitar, mahogany finish~
QTY*33*120*EA~
QTY*38*25*EA~
LIN*2*UP*012345678912~
PID*F****Capo, spring loaded~
QTY*33*4500*EA~
SE*11*0001~
GE*1*1~
IEA*1*000000601~

The BIA opens the advice: function code (00 = Original), report type code (SI = Sales Information, RP = Report), reference, date, time. N1*WH introduces the warehouse. Each LIN is an item; QTY segments carry the quantities per qualifier (33 = Quantity On Hand, 38 = Quantity In Transit, among other TR3-defined codes).

Common segments

  • Header — ST, BIA (Beginning Segment for Inventory Inquiry/Advice), DTM, REF.
  • Parties — N1 loop for Supplier (SU), Buyer (BY), Warehouse (WH), Ship From, Ship To.
  • Lines — LIN loop with PID (description), QTY (quantities per qualifier), MEA (measurements), DTM (availability dates), SCH (re-receipt schedule), REF.
  • Summary — SE (the 846 usually has a minimal summary).

When you'll see it

  • Drop-ship retail — Macy's, Target, Bed Bath & Beyond ingest a daily 846 from their drop-ship suppliers to block selling a stocked-out SKU.
  • VMI — the supplier reads the 846 published by its customer to decide when to replenish.
  • Marketplaces — Amazon Vendor Central, Wayfair, Home Depot consume the 846 to adjust product visibility in near-real-time.
  • 3PL / WMS — a 3PL publishes its inventory to its principal via 846 (sometimes multiple times per day).

Documentation

The code 846 and the name Inventory Inquiry/Advice are public and listed on x12.org/products/transaction-sets. The exhaustive list of quantity qualifiers (element QTY01), report-type codes and loop structures lives in the proprietary Implementation Guides (TR3); ediverse.io does not redistribute them.