Grainger EDI requirements for suppliers
Selling to Grainger by EDI means purchase orders in, and acknowledgments, ship notices and invoices back in Grainger’s format. Here is what our Grainger map handles, how onboarding runs, and what our engineers do for you.
- Grainger already in our map library
- 4–8 week go-live, paced by Grainger
- Same-day map changes
Grainger
- Received: 850 purchase orders
- Sent: 855 · 856 · 810
Comparatio
Translates, checks and monitors your documents
Your ERP
- Sales orders
- Shipments
- Invoices
- 1,000+
- pre-built trading-partner maps
- Nearly 8,000
- partner connections
- 4–8 weeks
- typical new trading-partner go-live, paced by the partner
- 103 min
- median map change (90 days to 28 Oct 2026)
Documents
The EDI documents Grainger trades with suppliers
Grainger sends purchase orders; you send back an acknowledgment, a ship notice and an invoice for each one. Each outbound document is built from your ERP’s own order, shipment and invoice.
| Document | Direction | What it carries |
|---|---|---|
| 850 Purchase order | From Grainger | Stocking and drop-ship orders, entered as sales orders in your ERP |
| 855 PO acknowledgment | To Grainger | A status for every line: accepted, backordered, quantity or price changed, rescheduled or rejected |
| 856 Advance ship notice | To Grainger | Carrier, bill of lading and tracking or PRO number, and the quantity shipped on each line |
| 810 Invoice | To Grainger | Built from your invoice, with the remit-to address and freight charges |
Our Grainger map sends these in X12 version 4010. Inbound X12 documents are acknowledged with a 997 as your partners require. Buying from Grainger too? Our supplier-side Grainger map sends your purchase orders (850) to Grainger.
Grainger specifics
What our Grainger map takes care of
Line-level acknowledgments
Every line on the 855 carries its own status, so Grainger sees which items ship as ordered, which are backordered or changed, and which are rejected.
Ship notices that match the freight
The 856 carries the carrier, the bill of lading and the tracking or PRO number, with the quantity shipped on each line, read from your shipment.
Drop-ship orders
Orders that ship straight to Grainger’s customer are covered. On Prophet 21, packing slips in Grainger’s layout are generated from each pick ticket.
Grainger part labels
On Prophet 21, our companion label printer has a Grainger part-label layout, printed from your P21 pick tickets and packages.
Onboarding
Getting live with Grainger
A new Grainger connection typically goes live in 4–8 weeks, paced by Grainger’s testing.
Check your partner list
Run your partner list through the trading partner lookup, or send it to us. Grainger is already in our map library, so setup starts from a proven map.
Exchange IDs and connect
You and Grainger exchange EDI IDs and connection details. We set up the connection, whether AS2, SFTP or a VAN, including certificates.
Connect the map to your ERP
We tie the map to your ERP: items and the partner’s part numbers, ship-from locations, ship-tos and terms. You confirm the business rules.
Test with Grainger
Test documents go to Grainger until its testing signs off. This step sets the pace of the project.
Go live
Production orders start flowing, and our monitoring watches every document from the first day.
Managed EDI
How Comparatio runs Grainger EDI for you
Our engineers build and change the maps, run the partner testing, maintain the connection and act on monitoring alerts. Your team keeps the ERP records current and makes the business calls.
Monitored by engineers
Daily checks, set up per partner, flag a document Grainger never acknowledged or an invoice with no matching ship notice, and our team opens the ticket. In the 90 days to 28 Oct 2026, 61% of our tickets were opened by our own monitoring.
Same-day map changes
When Grainger changes a requirement, we change the map the same day, with no project queue: map changes took a median of 103 minutes in the 90 days to 28 October 2026.
Checked before it goes
Every outbound X12 document is checked against Grainger’s rules and reported, and can be held per partner.
Acknowledged as required
Inbound X12 documents are acknowledged with a 997 as your partners require. The 997s Grainger sends back are matched to the documents they answer.
Connections and certificates
We set up and maintain the AS2, SFTP or VAN connection to Grainger, including certificates and renewals.
Named engineers on every ticket
Questions go to engineers who know your setup, with a median first response of 79 minutes (Oct 2025–Oct 2026).
Your other partners
Check the rest of your partner list
Grainger is one of the partners in our library of 1,000+ pre-built maps. The trading partner lookup tells you which of your other partners already have a map.
FAQ
Grainger EDI questions, answered
Which EDI documents does Grainger require from suppliers?
The order cycle: Grainger sends 850 purchase orders, and suppliers send back 855 acknowledgments, 856 ship notices and 810 invoices. Our Grainger map sends them in X12 version 4010. Inbound X12 documents are acknowledged with a 997 as your partners require.
How long does Grainger EDI onboarding take?
Typically 4–8 weeks from start to go-live, paced by Grainger’s testing. Grainger is already in our map library, so setup starts from a proven map.
Do you support Grainger drop-ship orders?
Yes. Our Grainger map covers stocking orders and supplier drop-ship, where the order ships straight to Grainger’s customer. On Prophet 21, packing slips in Grainger’s layout are generated automatically from each pick ticket.
What happens when Grainger changes its EDI requirements?
We change the map the same day, with no project queue: map changes took a median of 103 minutes in the 90 days to 28 October 2026.
We also buy from Grainger. Can you send our purchase orders by EDI?
Yes. Our map library has a supplier-side Grainger map that sends your purchase orders (850) to Grainger.
Talk through your Grainger EDI
Bring a sample Grainger purchase order and your partner list, and we’ll walk through each document and what your onboarding looks like.