Convert an X12 850 purchase order to Excel
The 850 is the order your American customer sends you, and it is the one that has to be right before anything ships. Drop it here and read it as a table.
| # | Description | Qty | Unit | Unit price | VAT % | Net amount |
|---|
| Category | Rate | Taxable base | VAT amount |
|---|
| # | Qualifier | Reference | Amount | Paid |
|---|
| Segment | Element | Value |
|---|
The document you receive, not the one you issue
European suppliers issue their own invoices, so the painful inbound American documents are the order, the shipment notice and the remittance rather than the 810. The 850 opens that sequence: line items, quantities, requested dates and ship-to addresses, all in a syntax nobody outside the trade reads comfortably. Getting it into a spreadsheet is usually enough to check it against what you can actually deliver.
What you get out
Every field below is read from the file itself. Nothing is inferred, and a field the invoice does not carry is left empty rather than filled in with a plausible guess.
- BEG purchase order number, type and date
- N1 loop parties, including ship-to and bill-to with their codes
- PO1 line items with quantity, unit price and product identifiers
- DTM requested and delivery dates, plus PER contacts
- All remaining segments element by element, unaltered
Questions
Is a purchase order an invoice?
No, and it is not treated as one. The totals check does not apply, and the export keeps the order fields rather than pretending there is a VAT breakdown.
Can I compare it with the invoice I sent?
Not automatically yet. Export both to Excel and the comparison is a formula away. Matching documents against each other is on the paid roadmap.
Are 856 and 820 handled too?
Yes, both, each with its own page.