The EDI 865 is the seller side of a purchase order change. Use it to accept or reject a retailer's 860, or to propose a change yourself before the order ships.
A retailer changes an order with an 860. The 865 is how you answer it, line by line, and how you raise a change of your own before shipping. It is the least consistently adopted document in the order cycle, and where it is used, silence on your side is treated as agreement.
The EDI 865 is the purchase order change acknowledgment and request, seller initiated. It does two things: it acknowledges a change the retailer sent on an 860, and it lets a supplier propose a change to an existing order.
It completes a pair. The 860 is the buyer initiated change. The 865 is the seller's response to it, or the seller's own proposal. The relationship mirrors the 850 and 855, one step later in the order's life.
The honest framing is that adoption is patchy. Plenty of retailers never send an 860 at all: Macy's, Inc. publishes neither an 860 nor an 865 in any of its mapping guide versions and handles changes by retransmitting the original 850. Others send 860s and do not want an 865 back. Before building for it, confirm your account actually uses it, because a document nobody reads is worse than no document.
They share a transaction set and behave nothing alike commercially.
An 860 arrives cutting a line, moving a date or changing a ship to. The 865 says whether you accept it. This matters more than it sounds: on accounts that use the pair, not responding is generally read as acceptance, so an 860 you cannot actually meet becomes a commitment you have silently made.
You need to move a date, cut a quantity or substitute an item after the order was already acknowledged. The 865 raises that formally, in the retailer's system, rather than in an email to a buyer. Where it is supported it is a much better audit trail than a phone call, because the change is timestamped and attached to the order.
A simplified acknowledgment accepting a change on one line and rejecting it on another.
ST*865*0001 / BCA*04*AC*4500098765**20260812**20260731 / REF*DP*0042 / POC*1*CQ*180*240*EA*12.50**UP*012345678905 / ACK*IA*180*EA / POC*2*DI*0*120*EA*18.00**UP*012345678912 / ACK*IR / CTT*2 / SE*10*0001| BCA | Beginning segment for purchase order change acknowledgment. Carries the transaction purpose, the acknowledgment type, the retailer's purchase order number, the change date and the original order date. |
| REF | Reference identifiers such as department or vendor number. |
| POC | Line item change. The line number, a change code such as CQ for a quantity change or DI for a delete, then the new and original quantities, unit of measure, price and item identifier. |
| ACK | Your verdict on that line, using the same status codes as the 855: IA accepted, IR rejected, IQ accepted with a quantity change, and so on. |
| CTT | Transaction totals, a control check on line count. |
| SE | Closes the transaction set with a segment count. |
In the example the retailer asked to cut line 1 from 240 to 180 and to delete line 2. You accepted the cut and rejected the deletion, presumably because that line has already shipped. Which change codes and which ACK statuses a retailer will accept comes from its own guideline, not from the standard.
This is the document where the gap between the standard and practice is widest, so it is worth being precise about what we can and cannot say.
| Uses 860 and 865 | Several mass, grocery and distribution partners run the full change cycle, which is where the 865 earns its place. |
| Uses 860, not 865 | Common. The retailer changes the order and expects you to comply rather than respond. Costco lists the 860 in its set. |
| Uses neither | Macy's, Inc. publishes no 860 and no 824 in any mapping guide version, at 3050 through 5010, and handles changes by retransmitting the 850. A system built to wait for an 860 misses their changes entirely. |
AIMS360 treats an inbound change as a change to the existing order rather than a new one, whether it arrives as an 860 or as a retransmitted 850. Where the account uses an 865, the response generates from the same order record, validated against your current available to sell position, so you are not accepting a revised date you cannot meet.
A resent purchase order updates the existing order instead of creating a duplicate, which is what Macy's and Bloomingdale's require.
Every version is kept against the order, so a dispute about what was agreed has an audit trail rather than an email thread.
An accepted change flows into the ASN and the invoice, so the three way match still reconciles after the change.
Pre built maps carry whether an account expects an 865, an 855, or nothing at all.
Two things. It acknowledges a purchase order change the retailer sent on an 860, line by line, and it lets a supplier propose a change to an existing order. It is the seller side of the change conversation, mirroring the way the 855 is the seller side of the original order.
Who initiates. The 860 is buyer initiated: the retailer changing an order they already placed. The 865 is seller initiated: you acknowledging their change, or proposing one of your own. In accounts that use both, an 860 usually expects an 865 back.
Timing. The 855 responds to the original purchase order, inside the acknowledgment window. The 865 handles changes after that point, either the retailer's or yours. If your acknowledgment window is still open, communicate the change on the 855 instead, because it is the document almost every retailer supports.
It depends on the account, and getting this wrong is expensive. Many retailers send 860s and expect compliance rather than a response. On accounts that do expect an 865, not responding is generally treated as acceptance, which means a change you cannot actually meet becomes a commitment you made by staying quiet. Confirm the expectation in your guideline before you decide to ignore the document.
No, and this is one of the least consistent areas in retail EDI. Macy's, Inc. publishes neither at any mapping guide version and handles changes by retransmitting the original 850 instead. Others send 860s without wanting an 865 back. The right approach is to build order change handling that recognises a change however it arrives, rather than listening for one specific document type.
Where the account supports it, yes. The POC line change segment carries change codes including deletion, and your ACK status says whether you accept or reject the retailer's proposed change. Raising a cancellation yourself is a commercial conversation as much as a technical one, so most brands still speak to the buyer, and use the 865 to make the outcome official and traceable.
Last reviewed 7 August 2026 by the AIMS360 EDI team. Segment and code detail reflects the ANSI ASC X12 865 transaction set. Adoption varies widely by retailer and the Macy's, Inc. position was verified against its published mapping guide indexes at versions 3050 through 5010. Confirm the expectation on your own account before building.
See AIMS360 apply changes to the live order, whether they come as an 860 or a retransmitted 850, in a 30 minute demo.
