Advance Ship Notice, Despatch Advice (856/DESADV)

The 856/DESADV transaction set lists the contents of a shipment of goods and additional information relating to the shipment, such as order information, product description, physical characteristics, type of packaging, marking, carrier information, and configuration of goods within the transportation equipment. The transaction set enables the sender to describe the contents and configuration of a shipment in various levels of detail and provides an ordered flexibility to convey information. The sender of this transaction is the organization responsible for detailing and communicating the contents of a shipment, or shipments, to one or more receivers of the transaction set. The receiver of this transaction set is any organization having an interest in the contents of a shipment or information about the contents of a shipment.

It is important for customers to have accurate and timely advance ship notice (ASN) as this is an area that customers focus on when evaluating their vendors.

If there are problems with an ASN, the customer requires a speedy alert of the problem to begin troubleshooting the issue. When the system does not transmit an ASN, the system can issue communication errors through the 824/APERAK transaction set or the 997/CONTRL transaction set.