Purchase Order EDI Schema

PO · PurchaseOrder

Buyer order request sent to a supplier.

A Purchase Order is the buyer's authoritative request for goods or services. It establishes the business order number, requested delivery timing, parties, ship-to and bill-to details, ordered lines, pricing, totals, and partner extension values that downstream acknowledgement, shipment, and invoice documents must preserve.

View releases · View model · View example · View guides · Versioning policy · Error catalogue

Lifecycle And CorrelationCopy Anchor Link

Lifecycle PositionCopy Anchor Link

Starts the order lifecycle and creates the references used by POA, ASN, and INV documents.

Correlation GuidanceCopy Anchor Link

Treat data.poNumber as the business reference and data.lineItems[].uniqueLineKey as the durable line reference. Downstream documents must carry the original uniqueLineKey when a line is acknowledged, shipped, packed, or invoiced; automatic line matching does not fall back to display line numbers, item identifiers, descriptions, quantities, or array position.

Validation NotesCopy Anchor Link

• Require buyer, supplier, billTo, shipTo, lineItems, and orderTotals before accepting the document.
• Validate operation against the supported new, update, and delete values.
• Use ISO 4217 currency values consistently across line and order totals.
• Keep date-time values timezone-aware so requested delivery timing is not shifted.

Mapping NotesCopy Anchor Link

• Map source order identifiers to data.poNumber and preserve the source revision in data.poVersion when present.
• Create or preserve uniqueLineKey for each line before sending downstream documents; do not rely on lineNumber, item id, description, quantity, or array index as an automatic match key.
• Map ship-to address details even when the order is direct ship or dropship.
• Place partner-only values in data.extrinsics instead of overloading canonical fields.

Operational NotesCopy Anchor Link

• Use correlationId and poNumber together in logs and support tickets.
• When a changed order arrives, compare poVersion and line uniqueLineKey values before deciding whether downstream documents need updates.

Implementation PitfallsCopy Anchor Link

• Do not use array position as a line identifier.
• Do not infer the supplier from a trading connection alone; keep the supplier party explicit.
• Do not collapse tax-inclusive and tax-exclusive amounts into a single value.

Key FieldsCopy Anchor Link

• data.poNumber: Buyer-assigned purchase order number.
• data.lineItems[].uniqueLineKey: Stable line correlation key.

Field GroupsCopy Anchor Link

EnvelopeCopy Anchor Link

Identifies the canonical document and provides cross-system traceability.

• docType: Always PO for purchase order payloads.
• correlationId: Stable UUID used to trace the order through downstream lifecycle events.
• timestamp: UTC timestamp for when the canonical document was created.

Order HeaderCopy Anchor Link

Captures the buyer's order identity, revision, intent, and requested delivery timing.

• data.poNumber: Buyer-issued order number used for business support.
• data.poVersion: Buyer-issued revision or version of the order.
• data.operation: Canonical document operation, such as new, update, or delete.
• data.requestedDeliveryDate: Buyer-requested delivery date for the order.

Parties And AddressesCopy Anchor Link

Names the buyer and supplier and separates billing from delivery destinations.

• data.buyer: Party placing the order.
• data.supplier: Party expected to fulfil the order.
• data.billTo: Billing destination supplied by the buyer.
• data.shipTo: Delivery destination for the ordered goods.

Lines And TotalsCopy Anchor Link

Defines ordered products, line correlation, pricing, tax, and order-level totals.

• data.lineItems[]: Ordered product lines with quantities and pricing.
• data.lineItems[].uniqueLineKey: DataShift stable line key for POA, ASN, and INV correlation.
• data.orderTotals: Order subtotal, tax, total amount, and currency.
• data.extrinsics: Partner-specific extension values outside the canonical core.

EndpointsCopy Anchor Link

The current JSON Schema is served at /edi/schemas/v1/purchase-order. Every published version, with its immutable download path, is on the releases page.

/edi/schemas/v1/purchase-order

ModelCopy Anchor Link

Generated from the published purchase-order.schema.json (version 1.0.11). Fields marked managed are populated by DataShift.