What Is an EDI 947 (Warehouse Inventory Adjustment Advice)?

An EDI 947 is the X12 Warehouse Inventory Adjustment Advice, the message that tells the other side of a warehouse relationship that the inventory records have changed, in quantity or in status.

X12's purpose statement for the 947 covers three points:

• What changed: a quantity or status change to inventory records.
• Who is told: a warehouse/depositor or other business party.
• What it details: the internal adjustments which occur between a warehouse and a depositor or other business party.

X12 lists the 947 among the transaction sets of its Supply Chain subcommittee (X12M), next to the other warehouse sets.

Each X12 warehouse set has its own job:

• 940 Warehouse Shipping Order: enables the depositor or other business party to advise a warehouse to make a shipment, confirm a shipment, or modify or cancel a previously transmitted shipping order.
• 943 Warehouse Stock Transfer Shipment Advice: advises the recipient that a transfer shipment has been made.
• 944 Warehouse Stock Transfer Receipt Advice: a receiving location advises the depositor that a transfer shipment has been received.
• 945 Warehouse Shipping Advice: the warehouse advises the depositor or other business party that shipment was made, to reconcile order quantities with shipment quantities.
• 947 Warehouse Inventory Adjustment Advice: a quantity or status change to inventory records.

EDI 947 vs EDI 846: the 846 Inventory Inquiry/Advice can be used, among other ways, for one location to supply another location with inventory information. The 947 reports a change to inventory records and the internal adjustments behind it.

A warehouse holds 1,200 units of one item for a depositor. A count finds 1,188 units, and 6 of those are damaged. The warehouse sends a 947 with two adjustments:

• Quantity change: minus 12 units, so 1,200 minus 12 = 1,188 units on record.
• Status change: 6 units moved from sellable to damaged, so 1,188 minus 6 = 1,182 sellable units.

The depositor updates its own records to the same figures.

If the depositor sells on Shopify, the 947's two kinds of change map to two GraphQL Admin API mutations an integration can call:

• Quantity: inventoryAdjustQuantities increments or decrements the total amount of inventory in the available, damaged, quality_control, reserved, or safety_stock state at a location.
• Status: inventoryMoveQuantities moves inventory quantities between the available state and the reserved, damaged, safety_stock, and quality_control states, or between those unavailable states. Shopify's own example for moving available to damaged: a third-party logistics provider finds and reports damaged inventory.
• Audit trail: both mutations accept referenceDocumentUri, a freeform URI that indicates why and what caused an inventory change. Merchants see it in the inventory adjustment history.
• One limit: the GraphQL Admin API can't adjust or move inventory quantities in the committed state, which Shopify manages through actions such as creating and fulfilling orders.

Where an ERP runs inventory, Uncap's guide to why Shopify and ERP inventory sync fails sets the rule: "the ERP owns inventory truth, Shopify displays it, and every adjustment, counts, corrections, restocks, happens in the owner and flows down."

• EDI 944 (warehouse stock transfer receipt advice)
• EDI 945 (warehouse shipping advice)
• EDI 940 (warehouse shipping order)
• EDI 846 (inventory inquiry/advice)
• Cycle counting
• 3PL (third-party logistics)

• X12 Transaction Sets
• Shopify Dev Docs: Manage inventory quantities and states