What an EDI 840 is, in plain English
The 840 is a request for quotation, sent electronically from a buyer to a supplier. It asks one question: what would you charge us for this, delivered like this, by this date?
It lists the items the buyer wants, the quantities, where the goods would ship, and when they are needed. Large buyers often send the same request to several suppliers at once and compare the answers side by side. New to EDI altogether? Start with what EDI is and come back.
The key point is the timing. The 840 arrives before any purchase order exists. The buyer is still deciding who to buy from, so this is the moment you either earn the order or miss it.
What an 843 is
The 843 is the electronic response to an 840: your price, back to the buyer, in a format their system reads without anyone retyping it. For each item the buyer asked about, the 843 carries your price, the unit it applies to, and whether you can meet the requested quantity and delivery date. It also quotes back the request reference number, so the buyer knows exactly which request you are answering.
If you cannot supply an item, the 843 lets you say so clearly with a no bid instead of leaving it blank. Think of the 840 as the question and the 843 as your answer. Both are needed for a quote to count.
Where the 840 fits
The 840 is not part of the everyday order cycle. Day to day, business runs on the 850 purchase order, the 855 acknowledgment, the 856 ship notice and the 810 invoice. The 840 shows up earlier and more rarely: when a buyer is re-bidding a contract, sourcing something new, or testing whether the current supplier still has the best number.
That rarity is exactly why it is worth getting right. An 840 only appears when business is up for grabs.
Where quoting goes wrong
Most suppliers who struggle with requests for quotation hit the same four problems.
- Late quotes: the response deadline is somewhere in the request, but nothing alerts anyone. The quote goes out late and loses on timing, not price
- Part numbers that do not match: the buyer uses their own item numbers. If your system cannot translate them to your catalog, lines get quoted against the wrong product or skipped altogether
- Answers the buyer has to retype: replying by email or spreadsheet forces the buyer to re-key your prices. That is exactly the manual work the 840 and 843 pair exists to remove, and buyers notice which suppliers make their job easier
- Unanswered lines: quote three of five items and say nothing about the rest, and it reads as an incomplete quote rather than a decision. A clear no bid is far better than silence
What you get when it is set up right
- Faster responses: requests arrive in your system ready to work on, so you can be one of the first quotes in front of the buyer
- Fewer mistakes: matched part numbers and validated documents mean fewer wrong quotes and fewer corrections later
- Less manual work: no copying request details into spreadsheets and back out again
- A smoother path to the order: when your quote wins, the purchase order and confirmation run through the same connection
- A stronger relationship with EDI-driven buyers: buyers who run on EDI tend to favor suppliers who keep up with them
The matched pair
The 840 and the 843 only pay off when you handle both halves completely. That means three things. Part numbers are cross-referenced, so every requested item is priced against the right product. Dates are carried through, so deadlines and requested delivery dates reach the people who need them. And every line is answered, even when the answer is no bid.
Miss any one of these and the quote starts to break down. Get all three right and you look like the easy, reliable supplier a buyer wants to hear back from.
Why set it up with Effective Data
Many providers hand you a connection and leave the hard part to you. We build the whole quoting loop with you:
- We build and maintain your part-number cross-reference with you, so mismatches are solved up front rather than discovered mid-quote
- We surface deadlines so your team knows what is due and when
- We build complete 843 responses, with every requested line answered
- We test against each buyer specification before go-live, instead of learning on live requests
- We stay with you after launch, with support from the people who built your setup
Buyers send requests to several suppliers and tend to choose the one that is quick, accurate and complete. A proper setup makes you that supplier: on time every time, the right product at the right price, easy to evaluate, and ready for the order the moment your quote wins.
For the technical team
If you are the one doing the mapping, these are the segments that matter most in practice. The partner implementation guide governs the exact requirements.
| Set | Document | Direction | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| BQT | Beginning Segment for RFQ | Header | Purpose code, the RFQ reference number and the request date. BQT02 is the number the 843 response must quote back |
| PER | Administrative Contact | Header | Who at the buyer answers questions about the request |
| N1 | Name / Party | Header | Buyer, ship-to and other parties, each in its own loop |
| PO1 | Baseline Item Data | Detail | One requested line: quantity, unit of measure and product identifiers. Priced by the supplier in the 843 |
| PID | Product Description | Detail | Free-form or structured description of the line item |
| SCH | Line Item Schedule | Detail | Requested delivery quantity and date for the line |
| CTT | Transaction Totals | Summary | Line count for validation. Mismatch here rejects the document |
Common 840 segments. Which are mandatory varies by trading partner. Their specification governs.
Frequently asked
+ Is an EDI 840 a purchase order?
No. The 840 asks for pricing and commits to nothing. The purchase order is the 850, which typically follows when a quote is accepted.
+ What document answers an EDI 840?
The EDI 843, Response to Request for Quotation. It returns pricing, terms and availability for the requested lines in a structured format the buyer can compare across suppliers, line by line.
+ Is the 840 part of the order-to-cash cycle?
Not usually. Day to day, business runs on the 850 order, the 855 acknowledgment, the 856 ship notice and the 810 invoice. The 840 appears earlier and more rarely, while a buyer is still deciding who to buy from, and is most common in competitive sourcing and government procurement.
+ Do we have to respond to every 840?
Check what the partner expects, but the safe default is yes, even when the answer is no bid. A structured no-bid in the 843 keeps you on the bid list. Silence reads as unreliability, and some buyers score it.
+ Which trading partners use the 840?
Buyers that source competitively or re-bid contracts on a cycle, commonly in manufacturing, industrial distribution and government procurement. The partner implementation guide governs the exact requirements.
Pick up the phone and talk to an EDI specialist
Tell us which buyers send you requests for quotation. We will look at what they ask for, map out your setup, and tell you exactly what it takes to start answering faster and more accurately.
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