--- title: "Costco EDI requirements for suppliers: what you send, by channel" description: "Costco's supplier contract makes EDI mandatory: POs arrive by EDI, and you send an EDI invoice on ship day. Transaction sets by channel, testing, the ASN." canonical: https://fsma204hub.com/blog/costco-edi-requirements published: 2026-10-20 --- # Costco EDI requirements for suppliers: what you send, by channel > Costco's supplier contract makes EDI mandatory: POs arrive by EDI, and you send an EDI invoice on ship day. Transaction sets by channel, testing, the ASN. **Costco's supplier contract makes EDI mandatory.** Purchase orders arrive by EDI, you confirm each one, and you send an EDI invoice on the day the product ships. That much is in writing. The rest of what an EDI provider will try to sell you (the 856 advance ship notice layout, SSCC pallet labels, the exact transaction sets) lives in a mapping specification Costco gives suppliers on request, not on the public web. Which documents you actually exchange depends on the channel: Costco warehouses and depots, costco.com drop-ship, and Costco Canada each run on their own EDI profile. That distinction matters because a small producer who has just been told to "get on EDI" usually gets a quote for a generic Costco package. Buy the wrong one and you pay for mappings you never use. Miss the invoice-on-ship-day rule and the payment clock never starts. Sources, so you can check every line below. The first four are Costco's own documents: - [Costco Wholesale Supplier Standard Terms, US, effective November 1, 2022](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1852973/000121390023098345/fs42023a3ex10-23_oxus.htm), public because Palmetto Gourmet Foods' copy was filed as an SEC exhibit - [Costco Wholesale Standard Terms, US (2019), with the Basic Supplier Agreement](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1940372/000149315222028154/ex10-6.htm), filed by Sondors Inc. in its S-1 - [E-Commerce Addendum to Costco Wholesale Supplier Agreement](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1852973/000121390023098345/fs42023a3ex10-24_oxus.htm), dated January 28, 2021, the costco.com drop-ship terms - [Costco Structural Packaging Specifications](https://origin.secure.website/wscfus/9735014/uploads/Costco_Packaging_Specs___Addendums.pdf), a 2010 edition in a copy hosted by a third party, used here only for how depots work and one packaging chargeback - [21 CFR 1.1340 and 1.1310](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-I/subchapter-A/part-1/subpart-S), the FSMA 204 shipping records and definitions - [GS1 US on the SSCC](https://www.gs1us.org/upcs-barcodes-prefixes/serialized-shipping-container-codes) and [X12's supply chain transaction flow](https://x12.org/flow/supply-chain) for the standards - TrueCommerce's onboarding guides for [Costco](https://help.truecommerce.com/en/articles/13214665-trading-partner-onboarding-costco), [Costco Canada](https://help.truecommerce.com/en/articles/13909551-trading-partner-onboarding-costco-canada) and [Costco E-Commerce (CommerceHub)](https://help.truecommerce.com/en/articles/15850657-trading-partner-onboarding-costco-e-commerce-commercehub), an EDI provider's account of the process, cited as such - [Stacksync's Costco EDI channel directory](https://www.stacksync.com/edi/costco) and the Costco pages of [Orderful](https://www.orderful.com/blog/costco-edi) and [Celigo](https://www.celigo.com/blog/costco-edi/), used only to show what providers list, never as Costco's word ## What Costco's contract says about EDI Section 3 of the 2022 Standard Terms is the core of the public rulebook. Read it before you talk to any provider. **3.1, Purchase Order.** You may ship only against a written Costco PO, and "Purchase Orders will ordinarily be delivered by Electronic Data Interchange." Each PO is its own contract. You "shall, as soon as reasonably possible, confirm to Costco its receipt of each Purchase Order," and if you cannot fulfill a PO you "must provide notice to Costco within two business days of receipt." **3.2, EDI.** "Supplier is required to send and receive data used in connection with the purchase and sale of Product via Electronic Data Interchange." The mapping standards "for all documents are available by contacting" a contact that is redacted in the 2022 filing. The 2019 edition prints it: **EDI@costco.com**. **3.4, Invoices.** "On the date any Product is shipped, Supplier shall submit an EDI invoice to Costco in compliance with Costco's EDI standards." Actual scale weights go on every bill of lading. **3.5, Marking.** Every invoice, bill of lading and packing list must legibly show your complete supplier number, the PO number and the Costco item numbers. Section 4 closes the money loop. Costco pays by electronic funds transfer, invoices must reach Costco within six months of delivery, and every payment dispute (invoices, returns, rebates, post-payment audit deductions) goes on a Costco Standard Supplier Claim Form from the Supplier Portal. The payment term itself is redacted. Two smaller clauses matter for EDI. Section 2.5 requires Costco's assigned item number and "an accurate scannable global trade identification number (GTIN)" on every product, and makes you pay Costco's related costs if you fail. And the 2019 edition also required product data through the GS1 Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN), via GDSN@costco.com. That clause does not appear in the 2022 text, so ask your buyer whether item setup for your category still runs through GDSN. One caution on all of this: the controlling version is whatever sits on the Supplier Portal. Costco can change the Standard Terms with at least 30 days' notice, and accepting a PO after the effective date counts as accepting the change. ## Which EDI transaction sets does Costco use? Here is the honest table. The middle column is what Costco's own published documents say. The right column is what EDI providers report. Where they disagree, the mapping standards you receive win. | Set | X12 name | Direction | Costco's public documents | What EDI providers list | |---|---|---|---|---| | **850** | Purchase Order | Costco to you | POs "ordinarily" by EDI (3.1) | Core on every channel | | **855** | PO Acknowledgment | You to Costco | You must confirm receipt and flag unfillable POs within 2 business days, format not named | Listed by some providers | | **860** | PO Change | Costco to you | Not mentioned | Listed for US wholesale and e-commerce profiles (Stacksync, TrueCommerce) | | **856** | Ship Notice/Manifest (ASN) | You to Costco | Not mentioned for warehouse/depot; e-commerce requires a same-day shipment notification | Core on every channel | | **810** | Invoice | You to Costco | EDI invoice on the ship date (3.4); e-commerce: no separate invoice | Core for warehouse; listed for e-commerce | | **820** | Payment Order/Remittance Advice | Costco to you | Payment by EFT; remittance detail on disputed invoices | Listed on several profiles (Stacksync) | | **824** | Application Advice | Costco to you | Not mentioned | Listed on several profiles (Stacksync) | | **846** | Inventory Inquiry/Advice | You to Costco | E-commerce: warn Costco before an out-of-stock | E-commerce profile | | **997** | Functional Acknowledgment | Both | Not mentioned | Listed by Orderful and Celigo | Three things fall out of that. **The contract only names two documents: the PO and the invoice.** If a provider tells you Costco "requires" a specific set beyond those, ask where it is written. Sometimes it is in Costco's mapping standards and the answer is yes. Sometimes it is a template the provider uses for every retailer. **The core is the same everywhere it is documented.** TrueCommerce's onboarding guides list the 810, 850 and 856 as the commonly used transactions for both Costco and Costco Canada. Providers that list fewer are not wrong about your first PO, and providers that list more are often describing a different channel. **Some acknowledgments are business checks, not receipts.** In X12, a 997 confirms a file arrived and parsed. An 824 Application Advice reports whether a document was accepted or rejected on content. If your profile includes an 824, a rejected invoice can sit unpaid while the 997 says everything arrived fine. X12 places these in a fixed order: 850 and 855 in the purchase process, 856 in delivery, 810 in invoicing, 820 in payment ([X12 supply chain flow](https://x12.org/flow/supply-chain)). The 856 is the set that, in X12's words, lets the sender "describe the contents and configuration of a shipment in various levels of detail" ([X12 856](https://x12.org/node/4398)). That flexibility is why every retailer's 856 map is different, and why Costco's is not something you can copy from Wegmans. ## Costco EDI by channel Costco is not one trading partner. TrueCommerce's US Costco guide lists more than two dozen Costco EDI IDs, the Canada guide lists 14 more, and the e-commerce guide another 7. Its warning is blunt: "Selecting the wrong EDI ID will result in EDI Transactions not being sent or received," and "you will need to work with Costco to determine the proper EDI ID to use." | Channel | Who it is for | Core documents | Where it comes from | |---|---|---|---| | **Costco US warehouses and depots** | Product shipped to Costco depots or direct to warehouses against a Costco PO | 850, 856, 810 (provider lists); PO and invoice (contract) | Standard Terms; TrueCommerce Costco guide | | **Costco Canada** | Product sold to Costco Wholesale Canada | 850, 856, 810 (provider lists) | TrueCommerce Costco Canada guide | | **costco.com Depot-Ship** | Online items Costco ships from its own inventory | Same as warehouse: you ship to Costco, Costco ships to the member | E-Commerce Addendum 6(a) | | **costco.com Drop-Ship or 3PL** | You (or an approved 3PL) ship to the member's door | 850, 860, 856, 846, 810 via CommerceHub (provider list); same-day shipment notice, no separate invoice (contract) | E-Commerce Addendum 6 and 7; TrueCommerce E-Commerce guide | | **Costco Business Centers** | Business Center locations | Not publicly documented | Ask your buyer | Two notes. The Business Center row is empty on purpose: no Costco document and no provider page we found describes a separate Business Center EDI profile. And some Costco profiles in Stacksync's directory carry freight documents (204 load tender, 214 shipment status) for Costco's transportation management. Those are for carriers, not for you, unless you also run your own trucks. ## How to get set up for EDI with Costco There is no public self-service EDI enrollment. The order that works: 1. **Get the channel and the EDI ID from your buyer.** Warehouse, Canada, e-commerce drop-ship, or more than one. Each has its own ID, and a provider cannot configure your connection without it. 2. **Request the mapping standards.** Section 3.2 says they are available on request. The 2019 terms name EDI@costco.com; confirm the current contact with your buyer, because the 2022 filing redacts it. 3. **Pick a provider, or a web EDI service, that will map exactly those documents.** Send them the standards, not a guess. A web EDI service (a browser form that turns your keystrokes into X12) is a legitimate start for a supplier with a few POs a month. 4. **Complete compliance testing.** According to TrueCommerce's guides, Costco and Costco Canada "use a third-party company, SPS Commerce, to conduct compliance testing on their behalf." You need a signed testing agreement with SPS, access to its Testing and Certification portal, and a reviewed and acknowledged copy of Costco's EDI specifications in that portal. TrueCommerce adds that "Costco requires you to complete compliance testing before Go-Live." That applies whichever provider you use, not only SPS customers. 5. **For costco.com drop-ship, start with CommerceHub instead.** TrueCommerce's e-commerce guide says to contact CommerceHub (now Rithum) directly, which "will require EDI forms to be completed to start the testing process." 6. **Set up EFT and know where the claim form lives.** Section 4.2 makes EFT mandatory, and disputes only travel on the Supplier Portal's claim form. Neither Costco nor the provider guides publish a testing timeline or what testing costs. Budget for it as a real step, not a formality. The right question to an EDI provider is not "do you support Costco." It is "which Costco EDI ID and channel will you configure, and will you map from the Costco mapping standards I send you." A provider that answers with a generic 850/856/810 bundle has not asked which channel you are on. ## The Costco 856 ASN and SSCC pallet labels This is the part most Costco EDI pages state with the most confidence and the least sourcing. **What Costco publishes:** every product must carry Costco's item number and an accurate, scannable GTIN, and you pay Costco's costs when it does not (Standard Terms 2.5). The 2019 edition spells those costs out as "Costco's internal costs and any associated fines, costs, expenses or attorneys' fees." Packing must follow both Costco's and the carrier's requirements, Costco's controlling when they conflict (2.3). **What Costco does not publish:** an SSCC pallet label rule, a GS1-128 label layout, a requirement that the ASN carry SSCCs, or an ASN transmission deadline. Those may well be in the mapping standards and the shipping instructions you receive. They are not in any public Costco document we could find, and every vendor page that states them cites nothing. Why the ASN matters to Costco anyway is visible in its packaging specification: "Costco's depots are managed as cross-dock facilities. We do not hold or store inventory at our depots. Products are received and shipped out to warehouse locations on the same day." A depot that turns freight around the same day needs to know what is on the truck before it arrives. That is what an 856 is for. If your mapping standards do call for SSCCs, the GS1 rules are fixed regardless of retailer ([GS1 US](https://www.gs1us.org/upcs-barcodes-prefixes/serialized-shipping-container-codes)): - The SSCC is "an 18-digit identifier assigned to a logistics unit," built from an extension digit, your GS1 Company Prefix, a serial reference and a check digit. - It is "typically encoded into a GS1-128 barcode and included on a GS1 Logistics Label." - You need your own GS1 Company Prefix. GS1 US is explicit that if you have only licensed single GTINs, you must license a Company Prefix to create SSCCs. That has lead time, so check before you commit to a ship date. FSMA 204 itself [does not require GS1](/blog/does-fsma-204-require-gs1). A retailer's labeling program can, and the number on the pallet must then match the number in the message exactly. ### Can you build the 856 from your packing list? Mostly, yes, and that is the cheapest way to do it right. An ASN is a structured packing list: the PO it ships against, the items and quantities, how they are packed, the carrier, and (if the map calls for it) the pallet and carton IDs. If your packing record already holds those fields per shipment, the ASN is a format conversion. Ask any provider whether it can build the 856 from the 850 plus your packing data, so you only key what actually changed. The hard part is not the conversion. It is having a packing record that knows which lots went on which pallet. ## Costco.com drop ship EDI: different clock, no invoice The E-Commerce Addendum is the most specific Costco EDI document in public, and almost no EDI page uses it. - **Three fulfillment modes.** Depot-Ship (Costco ships from its inventory), Drop-Ship (you ship to the member), and 3PL, which needs Costco's prior written consent and a signed 3PL Confidentiality Agreement. - **Orders come through an agent.** Costco issues E-Purchase Orders "via Costco's E-Purchase Order processing agent." TrueCommerce identifies that channel as CommerceHub. - **Check every two hours.** You "shall check for new E-Purchase Orders at least every two (2) hours during Supplier's normal business hours." - **2 p.m. cutoff.** Orders received before 2 p.m. local time ship the same day. Later orders ship by the next day. - **Same-day shipment notification.** On the day of shipment you send "a shipment notification, via Costco's E-Purchase Order processing agent, in the format specified by Costco," with a freight tracking number for every package. - **No separate invoice.** "Costco's receipt of shipment notification will initiate the payment terms... Supplier shall not submit a separate invoice." TrueCommerce's e-commerce guide still lists the 810 among commonly used transactions, so confirm with CommerceHub whether your profile uses one. - **Labels say Costco.** Shipping labels show only the name "Costco," not yours, unless agreed otherwise. For a food producer, the two-hour polling rule and the 2 p.m. cutoff are operational commitments, not IT settings. Somebody has to be watching the queue, and somebody has to be packing by mid-afternoon. ## What a Costco EDI mistake actually costs **Costco does not publish an EDI or ASN chargeback schedule.** No fee per late ASN, no fee per bad invoice, no fee per unscannable label. Figures you see on vendor pages are not sourced to Costco. The one Costco-authored chargeback percentage we found is in the 2010 packaging specification: non-compliant packaging risks item deletion or "a 2% charge back reimbursing Costco's operational and handling costs." That is packaging, not EDI, and it is a 2010 document. What the 2022 Standard Terms do give Costco is broader than a fee table: - **Rejection (10.1).** Costco may reject or return any shipment "packed or shipped contrary to Costco's instructions," including late or missing shipments and over or short quantities against the PO. - **Costs of rejection (10.2).** You pay unpacking, examining, repacking, storing, holding and reshipping, plus Costco's Net Landed Cost, and Costco may charge a further amount on top, measured against Net Landed Cost (the figure is redacted in the filing). - **Offsets (11).** Costco can recoup "any other amounts Supplier owes" against payments and hold back a reserve. - **Post-payment audits (8.1).** Normally within three years of a transaction, longer if the audit finds noncompliance. Your EDI records are the evidence. - **Late carriers (6.4).** If Costco's collect carrier arrives on the ship date and you are not ready to load, you pay Costco's actual costs, and Costco may cancel or reject any late shipment. The practical cost of an EDI mistake is rarely a line item. It is an invoice that never posts, a shipment that does not reconcile at a cross-dock, or a deduction you have to argue on a claim form months later. ## Does FSMA 204 require EDI? No. And it is worth being precise about why the two still meet. [21 CFR 1.1340(b)](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-I/subchapter-A/part-1/subpart-S) requires a shipper of a Food Traceability List food to send the immediate subsequent recipient seven Key Data Elements "in electronic, paper, or other written form." No EDI, no GS1, no format. Congress has directed FDA not to enforce the rule before July 20, 2028, and [FDA says it intends to comply](https://www.fda.gov/food/food-safety-modernization-act-fsma/fsma-final-rule-requirements-additional-traceability-records-certain-foods). Costco's EDI requirement is contractual and applies now to every product, on or off the list. Where they meet is the shipment. FDA defines a reference document as a business document "that may contain some or all of the key data elements," and lists "advance shipping notices" next to bills of lading, purchase orders and invoices (21 CFR 1.1310). So the same event that triggers your Costco ASN and invoice is your FSMA 204 shipping CTE. | Shipping KDE, 21 CFR 1.1340(a) | Where it lives in a Costco shipment | |---|---| | (1) Traceability lot code | Only if Costco's 856 map has a lot field at item level; otherwise on the case label or a separate document | | (2) Quantity and unit of measure | ASN item quantities; invoice | | (3) Product description | ASN and invoice item lines (Costco item number, GTIN) | | (4) Location of immediate recipient | Ship-to on the PO and ASN (the Costco depot or warehouse) | | (5) Location you shipped from | Ship-from on the ASN and bill of lading | | (6) Date shipped | ASN ship date; the invoice date, since 3.4 ties it to ship day | | (7) TLC source or source reference | Not a standard ASN field; send separately if not mapped | | (8) Reference document type and number | Your record of which document it was: the ASN, BOL or invoice number | Two caveats keep this honest. Whether Costco's map carries a lot code is not public, so do not assume the ASN satisfies (1) and (7). And element (8) is a record you keep, not something you send. The [KDE checklist](/blog/fsma-204-kde-checklist) has the full list for every CTE, and [TLC vs KDE vs CTE](/blog/tlc-vs-kde-vs-cte) untangles the vocabulary. One more definition worth knowing for drop-ship: FDA's "shipping" excludes "the sale or shipment of a food directly to a consumer." How that applies to a costco.com order Costco sells and you ship to a member's door is a question for FDA or counsel. We have not seen FDA address it. Costco's own traceability clause applies either way. Standard Terms 23.2 requires you to "maintain the ability to trace all components or ingredients of the Product to their source" and to follow any Costco traceability policy for the product. The audit side of that is in [the Costco Addendum teardown](/blog/costco-addendum-traceability-requirements): a 2-hour trace, not 24. ## What Costco does not publish about EDI To save you a search: - A list of required transaction sets by channel. Only the PO and invoice are in the contract. - The X12 version, segment requirements, or the 856 hierarchy Costco expects. - Any ASN transmission deadline, or any rule that the ASN carry SSCCs. - An SSCC or GS1-128 pallet label specification for US depots. - Any EDI, ASN or label chargeback amount. - A separate EDI profile, or rules, for Costco Business Centers. - A testing timeline or fee, or which connection methods (AS2, VAN, other) are accepted. TrueCommerce's guides show VAN connections, which proves VAN works, not that it is the only option. - The current Standard Terms text, the payment term, or the EDI contact address (redacted in the 2022 filing). ## Where to start this week Ask your buyer three questions: which channel your items ship on, which Costco EDI ID applies, and who sends you the mapping standards. Then buy exactly what those standards list, complete testing, and make sure the person packing the truck can produce an invoice and, if mapped, an ASN on the same day. If you have read the [Wegmans EDI 856 guide](/blog/wegmans-edi-856-asn-requirements), the shape will look familiar, with one difference: Wegmans publishes its transaction sets per flow path, Costco does not. And if the EDI form arrived in the same packet as an audit notice, [the Costco supplier traceability map](/blog/costco-supplier-traceability-requirements) and [what happens during a Costco food safety audit](/blog/costco-food-safety-audit) cover the other layers. What no EDI provider fills in for you is the lot data behind each shipment. [FSMA204Hub](/) links supplier lots at receiving to the batches that used them and forward to what shipped, so the packing record your ASN is built from already knows which lot went to which Costco PO. The [free readiness score](/score) takes about two minutes, and the [lot code checker](/tools/tlc-check) tells you whether the code on your case label is [unique enough to trace](/blog/what-is-a-traceability-lot-code). --- *Written by [Anas Marwan](/authors/anas-n), Co-founder of Darza Technologies. Sources: Costco Wholesale Supplier Standard Terms (US, effective November 1, 2022) and Costco Wholesale Standard Terms (US, 2019), E-Commerce Addendum to Costco Wholesale Supplier Agreement (2021), all as filed with the SEC; Costco Structural Packaging Specifications (2010 edition); 21 CFR 1.1310 and 1.1340; GS1 US; X12; TrueCommerce trading partner onboarding guides (August and September 2026). Last reviewed 2026-10-20.* --- Source: https://fsma204hub.com/blog/costco-edi-requirements (https://fsma204hub.com)