The EDI 870 order status report is how a supplier tells a buyer where every open order stands, without waiting to be asked. It replaces the status email and the phone call.
Between acknowledging an order and shipping it there can be weeks of silence, and in that gap sits the status email, the spreadsheet and the call from a planner. The 870 order status report is the structured version: where every open order and line stands, sent on a schedule, straight into the buyer's system.
The EDI 870 reports the current status of open purchase orders from a supplier to a buyer, normally line by line: what is in production, what is allocated, what has shipped, what is backordered and when the rest is expected.
It pairs with the EDI 869 order status inquiry, which is the buyer asking. The 870 can answer an 869, or it can be sent on a schedule without being asked, which is where it earns its keep.
It is worth being honest about where it fits. In apparel and consumer goods retail this is not a common document. Most retailers get their visibility from the 855 acknowledgment at the start and the 856 ASN at the end, and accept a gap in between. The 870 belongs to relationships where that gap is too long to accept: long lead time production, made to order programs, distribution and industrial supply.
| Order reference | The buyer's purchase order number, so status attaches to something they recognise rather than to your internal order. |
| Line identification | Item identifier and line number. Status is only useful at line level, because an order is rarely uniformly late. |
| Quantities by state | Ordered, shipped, remaining, backordered. The split is what tells a planner whether to wait or resource. |
| Status codes and dates | What state each line is in and the date associated with it, typically the current expected ship or delivery date. |
| Shipment references | Where part of a line has already shipped, the reference tying it to the ASN and the carrier. |
If an order is acknowledged in March and ships in August, the buyer needs something in between. This is the strongest case for the document, and it is common in made to order and long production cycle programs.
If a planner emails weekly for a status file, that is an 870 being produced by hand. Structuring it costs less than the emails do, and it removes the transcription errors that come with them.
If a buyer is sending order status inquiries, they have already built for the pair. Answering with an 870 rather than a reply email is straightforwardly better for both sides.
On short cycle apparel replenishment where the acknowledgment and the ASN are only days apart, an 870 adds traffic and tells the retailer nothing new. Do not build it because the standard exists. Build it because a partner needs the visibility.
AIMS360 already holds the state of every order line: acknowledged quantity, allocated stock, production progress, what has shipped and what is outstanding. The 870 is generated from that, which means the status a buyer receives is the same status your own team sees rather than a snapshot exported the previous Friday.
Status reflects each line's own position, because an order is rarely uniformly late.
Expected dates come from allocation and production, so they move when reality does.
Send on a cadence a partner agrees, or in response to an 869 inquiry.
AIMS360 charges no per document or per kilocharacter fees of its own, so frequent status reporting costs nothing extra.
It reports the current status of open purchase orders from a supplier to a buyer, line by line: what is in production, allocated, shipped or backordered, with the dates the remainder is expected. It can answer an EDI 869 order status inquiry or be sent on a schedule without being asked.
The 869 is the order status inquiry, sent by the buyer asking where things stand. The 870 is the order status report, sent by the supplier answering. They are a matched pair, but the 870 does not require an 869: many implementations send it on a schedule instead, which is usually more useful than waiting to be asked.
Not particularly. Most apparel and consumer goods retailers take their visibility from the 855 at the start of an order and the 856 at the end. The 870 is more common in distribution, industrial supply and long lead time or made to order relationships, where the gap between those two documents is too long for a buyer to sit through.
Timing and repetition. The 855 is sent once, shortly after the order arrives, and states what you commit to. The 870 is sent repeatedly through the life of the order and states where it currently stands. One is a promise, the other is progress against it.
Probably not. Building a document nobody consumes adds traffic and maintenance for no return. The signal worth acting on is a partner who emails for a status file regularly, or who is already sending 869 inquiries. That is a manual 870 you are producing by hand, and structuring it is straightforwardly cheaper.
Last reviewed 7 August 2026 by the AIMS360 EDI team. The 870 is described here by the information it reports rather than by a fixed segment layout, because implementations vary widely by industry and partner. Adoption in apparel retail is limited, and this page says so deliberately.
See AIMS360 report order status straight from the live order, in a 30 minute demo.
