Inbound to you
EDI 860: the purchase order change
The 860 is the buyer amending an order they already sent. Quantities move, dates move, lines get cancelled or added, and it arrives after you planned around the original.
It is the document that tests whether your order flow can change its mind as fast as your customer changes theirs.
What the document carries
The original purchase order number and the changes against it, line by line: a new quantity, a new date, a cancellation, occasionally a new line. The guideline says how the partner expects the change acknowledged back.
Everything in it is relative to a document you already hold, which is what separates it from an 850. Its whole meaning depends on finding the original.
How it lands in Odoo
The change has to land against the same sales order the 850 created. A second order created from an 860 is the classic fault: the demand doubles quietly, and it is found at month end when the numbers refuse to reconcile.
The design decision is what applies without a person. A date pushed out on an untouched order can apply itself; a quantity cut on an order the warehouse already picked cannot. That line between automatic and reviewed is drawn per partner, with the person who runs the order desk.
Where it goes wrong
Timing. The change that arrives after picking, after packing, or after the truck has the original quantities on it. The later it lands, the fewer options remain, and the document itself carries no awareness of where your warehouse is in the cycle.
The safe shape is a queue a person can see: changes that applied cleanly, and changes that collided with work in progress and need a decision. Silence around an 860 is how a cancelled line ships anyway.
The rest of the set
One document never travels alone. The mandate that asks for this one names its siblings, and the questions repeat: direction, mapping, and what happens when it is late or wrong.
Every code in plain language: the X12 catalog. What a late or wrong document costs: chargebacks and deductions. Who mandates and how it is enforced: the US programmes and the Canadian ones. How the documents fit into purchasing, fulfilment and accounting: EDI across the supply chain.
Start with the letter
The Requirement Check takes two answers: who mandated you and where you stand today. You get back a plain readout of which documents that customer asks for and what has to change inside your Odoo. It is free and it commits you to nothing.
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