The EDI 943 tells your warehouse or 3PL what is about to arrive from a vendor PO or a customer return, so it can receive against it and answer with a 944. AIMS360 sends it as XML over FTP with no EDI trading partner setup.
The 943 warehouse stock transfer shipment advice is the notice you send a warehouse or 3PL before goods land: which purchase order or return is coming, what is on it, and roughly when. It is the inbound cousin of the 856. The warehouse receives against it and answers with a 944. AIMS360 generates the 943 from the vendor purchase order or the return authorization, as XML over FTP or in the warehouse's own layout, so the 3PL never has to be an EDI trading partner to be told what to expect.
The EDI 943 is the transaction set a brand sends to a warehouse to announce an inbound shipment. It says a shipment is on its way from a factory, a vendor, another of your locations or a returning customer, references the purchase order or return authorization behind it, lists every item and quantity by UPC or SKU, and names the carrier. The warehouse uses it to plan dock space and labor, then receives the goods against it and reports what it counted on a 944 receipt advice.
Without a 943 a warehouse receives blind. Cartons arrive with a packing list, someone keys the contents into the warehouse system, and any mismatch between what the factory said it shipped and what turned up is discovered late and argued over by email. With a 943 the warehouse already holds the expected quantities, the receiving screen shows expected against counted, and the 944 that comes back carries the difference as data rather than as a phone call.
For a consumer brands ERP the 943 is where production and fulfillment meet. The purchase order to the factory lives in AIMS360; the 3PL that will receive the goods is a separate company with its own system. The 943 is how the first tells the second what is coming without anyone retyping a PO.
A simplified inbound advice for one vendor purchase order with two lines.
ST*943*0001 / W06*N*PO88012*20260904*ASN88012 / N1*WH*Bergen Logistics NJ / N1*SF*Factory Ltd*92*FAC01 / N1*DE*Your Brand*92*BRAND1 / N9*PO*PO88012 / G62*17*20260912 / W27*O*MAEU / LX*1 / W04*240*EA**UP*012345678905 / G69*Cropped tee, black, M / LX*2 / W04*180*EA**UP*012345678912 / G69*Cropped tee, black, L / W03*420*380*LB / SE*15*0001| ST | Opens the transaction set and names it as a 943. |
| W06 | Warehouse shipment identification. The reporting code (N original, R replace), your purchase order or return number, the date and a shipment identifier the warehouse can quote back on the 944. |
| N1 | Party loops. WH is the receiving warehouse, SF is the ship from (the factory or vendor, or the customer on a return), DE is the depositor, meaning you. |
| N9 | References. The PO number, the return authorization number, a container or booking number, a bill of lading. |
| G62 | Dates. Qualifier 17 is the estimated delivery date; 11 is the ship date. |
| W27 | Carrier detail. Transportation method (O ocean, M motor, A air) and the SCAC, so the warehouse knows which truck or container to expect. |
| LX / W04 | One LX per line. W04 carries the quantity expected, the unit of measure and the item identifier, usually the UPC with a UP qualifier. |
| G69 | Item description for the receiving clerk. |
| W03 | Totals. Units, weight and volume across the shipment. |
| SE | Closes the transaction set with a segment count. |
In the example a factory is sending 420 units of one style in two sizes by ocean, expected on 12 September. The warehouse now has a receiving ticket to count against before the container has cleared port. When AIMS360 sends the same message as XML the fields carry different names, and the published 943 schema and mapping key show the warehouse exactly where each one sits.
All three get called an ASN, and they point in different directions. The 856 is the advance ship notice you send a retailer about goods leaving your warehouse. The 943 is the advance notice you send your own warehouse about goods arriving. The 944 is the warehouse's reply to the 943, saying what it received.
| Document | From | To | Says |
|---|---|---|---|
| 943 | You | Your warehouse or 3PL | This PO or return is coming, here is what is on it |
| 944 | Your warehouse or 3PL | You | Here is what we counted in, and what was damaged or short |
| 856 | You | The retailer | This order has shipped, carton by carton, with SSCC labels |
| 940 / 945 | You / your warehouse | Your warehouse / you | Ship this, and it shipped. The outbound pair on the 940 and 945 pages |
Purchase Orders, Export P/O to Warehouse: pick the warehouse, tag the purchase orders, choose XML, and send to the warehouse's FTP, to OneDrive or to Dropbox. Every line and unit on the PO goes on the advice.
Customer returns work the same way. A return authorization in AIMS360 exports as a 943 so the warehouse expects the customer's carton, receives it against the RMA, and the 944 posts the units back against the return line.
Since April 2025 the 943 can be built from units issued to an in transit production step rather than the whole PO. When a factory ships 300 of 500, the advice says 300, and the 944 reconciles against that rather than against a quantity that has not left yet.
The warehouse's receipt comes back on the AIMS360 receipt template and is imported through Import and Scan Receipts, straight from the FTP. Received units post against the open PO or RMA line, and the difference between expected and counted is visible on the PO.
On file based connections AIMS360 converts the advice to the warehouse's format on a cycle, and a conversion that fails leaves the original file in place to be corrected and rerun rather than dropping it. Receipts are checked for on the same kind of cycle and, if the warehouse's file fails validation, the file is kept and the failure is reported rather than silently skipped. That recoverability is the practical difference between a file integration and a manual process, and it is the reason a 943 that goes out as a plain file is not a lesser 943.
No. AIMS360 delivers the 943 as an XML file in its published schema, or in a layout the warehouse specifies, over an FTP the warehouse hosts or one AIMS360 hosts. The warehouse is not set up as an EDI trading partner, there is no VAN in the path, no 997 acknowledgement, and no per document charge. The full explanation, including the formats and transports and what a conventional EDI setup at the warehouse would have cost, is on the EDI 940 page, and it applies to the 943 identically.
For the 943 specifically, the inbound side of a warehouse relationship is where files suit the work best. A container is planned days ahead, one advice covers hundreds of units, and a correction before arrival is a replaced file rather than a race. An API buys you nothing here that a file over FTP does not already give you, which is why even AIMS360's API connected warehouses take the 943 as a file.
It does not move inventory. The 943 tells the warehouse what to expect. Stock in AIMS360 changes when the 944 receipt posts, not when the advice is sent.
It covers vendor purchase orders and return authorizations, not cut tickets or garment dye jobs. Goods coming out of your own production tracking reach the warehouse through the purchase order path, or through the in transit option above.
It sends the whole purchase order, unless you use the in transit option. The standard export includes every line and unit on the PO with no line level selection. Partial shipments from the factory are handled by issuing the shipped units to the in transit step first.
Cancelling or replacing a sent 943 depends on the warehouse. Some connections accept a replacement file. Others, including Bergen Logistics, have no method to void an advice through the connection, so the process is to contact the warehouse, have it voided in their system, and resend. Raise the 943 when the shipment is firm.
It tells a warehouse or 3PL that a shipment is on its way and what is on it, so the warehouse can plan receiving and count against expected quantities. It references the purchase order or return behind the shipment, lists each item and quantity, and names the carrier. The warehouse answers with a 944 receipt advice. In AIMS360 it is generated from the vendor purchase order or the return authorization, and the receipt posts back against the same record. The outbound equivalent is the 940.
Direction. The 856 goes from you to a retailer about goods leaving your warehouse and has to meet that retailer's routing guide, carton by carton, with SSCC labels. The 943 goes from you to your own warehouse about goods arriving, and only has to be readable by that warehouse. Both are called advance ship notices, which is why they get mixed up. A brand can run one without the other.
The 943 is the expectation, sent before the goods arrive. The 944 is the result, sent after the warehouse has counted them in, including shortages and damages. In AIMS360 the 944 comes back on a standard receipt template, is imported straight from the FTP through Import and Scan Receipts, and posts the received units against the open purchase order or return line, so the difference between what the factory said and what arrived is visible on the PO rather than in an email thread. The Bergen Logistics page shows a live 943 and 944 pair.
No. AIMS360 sends the 943 as an XML file in its published schema, or in the warehouse's own layout, over an FTP the warehouse hosts or one AIMS360 hosts, or through OneDrive or Dropbox. The warehouse is never made an EDI trading partner, so there is no VAN, no 997 and no per document fee. AIMS360 charges no per document or per kilocharacter fees of its own. The formats and the cost comparison are laid out on the EDI 940 page.
Yes. A return authorization in AIMS360 exports as a 943 in the same way a purchase order does, so the warehouse expects the returning carton, receives it against the RMA, and the 944 posts the units back to the return line. Whether a given warehouse processes returns through the connection varies, and each partner page states it. Some partners take returns as a warehouse portal step instead.
Yes, through the in transit option added in April 2025. Units are issued to a production tracking step as they leave the factory, and the 943 is built from those issued units rather than from the whole PO, so a factory that ships 300 of 500 produces an advice for 300. Without that option the export includes every line and unit on the PO. Cut tickets and garment dye jobs are not covered by the 943; they reach the warehouse through the purchase order path. Production tracking itself is covered under Multi Warehouse and the production features.
It depends on the warehouse. Some connections accept a replacement advice with the same shipment identifier. Others have no method to void an advice through the connection; on those, the process is to contact the warehouse, have them void it in their warehouse system, and resend. The practical rule is to raise the 943 when the shipment is firm rather than speculatively. The Bergen Logistics page is an example of a partner where cancellation is a call, not a message.
Last reviewed 4 September 2026 by the AIMS360 integrations team. Segment detail reflects the ANSI ASC X12 943 transaction set and is simplified for reading. AIMS360 mechanics are taken from the AIMS360 support documentation for the standard 3PL integration, the 943 export and the 944 receipt import. Warehouse capabilities vary by partner and are stated on each partner page.
Bring an open purchase order. We will export it as a 943 to your warehouse's format and show how the receipt comes back against it.
