The EDI 944 · Warehouse Stock Transfer Receipt Advice is the receiving warehouse's answer to a stock transfer. It reports what actually arrived at the receiving location — which products, in what quantities, in what condition — against what the sending location said it shipped in the 943 · Warehouse Stock Transfer Shipment Advice. Until the 944 comes back and matches, a transfer is a claim, not a fact.
Yesterday's document in this series, the 943, is the promise: stock has left one location and is headed to another. The 944 is the proof. It is the moment inventory stops being in transit on paper and becomes stock the receiving warehouse can put away, count, and sell against — or the moment a discrepancy gets named while the shipment is still identifiable.
What is the EDI 944 · Warehouse Stock Transfer Receipt Advice?
The 944 is an X12 transaction set used by a warehouse or receiving facility to advise a depositor or sending location that a stock transfer has been received. It confirms receipt of the transferred goods and reports the quantities and condition as received, not as shipped.
Think of the chain it completes:
- The 943 · Warehouse Stock Transfer Shipment Advice says stock has left the sending location and is on its way.
- The 944 · Warehouse Stock Transfer Receipt Advice says what the receiving warehouse actually received.
- The 940 · Warehouse Shipping Order tells a warehouse to ship goods out to a customer.
- The 945 · Warehouse Shipping Advice confirms what a warehouse shipped out on that instruction — the outbound mirror of the 944's inbound job.
- The 846 · Inventory Inquiry/Advice reports stock levels — and it is only trustworthy if pairs like the 943/944 are closed honestly on both ends.
The 944 is not a payment document and it is not a customer document. No buyer is waiting on it and no invoice should be created from it. Its job is internal truth: two locations that both hold the same company's stock should end a transfer agreeing about what moved.
What does a 944 actually contain?
At the header, the 944 identifies the receipt: the receipt advice number, the date the goods were received, the receiving location, and references that tie it back to the original transfer — most importantly the shipment advice number from the matching 943, so the two documents can be paired automatically rather than by someone's memory.
At the line level, each item reports the product identifier, the quantity received, and the unit of measure. Where the received quantity differs from the shipped quantity, implementations carry the discrepancy and, in mature flows, a reason: short shipment, damage in transit, or a mis-pick at the sending end.
Receipt condition matters too. Goods that arrive damaged are received, but they are not available stock. A 944 that books damaged cases as good inventory has not confirmed a transfer; it has created a future stock-out with extra steps.
Why is the 944 different from the 945 · Warehouse Shipping Advice?
The numbers sit next to each other and the names sound alike, which is exactly why they get confused. Their directions are opposite.
The 945 looks outward. It tells a depositor what a warehouse shipped to a customer on a 940 · Warehouse Shipping Order — proof that an outbound instruction was carried out.
The 944 looks inward and sideways. It tells a sender what a receiving warehouse took in from a transfer — proof that an internal move landed. No customer order exists anywhere in the 944's story. If the 945 answers "did we ship what we were told to ship?", the 944 answers "did we receive what we were told was coming?"
Where do 944 flows usually break?
The first break is the 944 that never gets sent. The goods are on the shelf, the receiving warehouse is picking from them, and the sending location still shows the stock as in transit because no receipt advice ever closed the transfer. Every report that reads the documents instead of the shelves now disagrees with reality, and the argument gets settled by a cycle count weeks later.
The second break is the rubber-stamp 944 — a receipt advice generated by copying the 943's quantities instead of counting what arrived. This is worse than no 944 at all, because it closes the loop with false confidence. The discrepancy the document exists to surface — 90 arrived, 100 were shipped — gets absorbed silently into inventory, where it will surface later as a stock-out on a product the system swears is available.
The third break is a unit-of-measure mismatch at receipt. The 943 shipped cases; receiving books eaches; the 944 reports a number that is technically accurate and practically meaningless against the shipped quantity. Pairing the documents line by line only works if both ends agree on what one unit means, in writing, before the first transfer.
What should you check in a 943/944 loop?
Three checks keep the receiving end honest:
First, pairing, from the other side: every 944 should reference a real 943, and every 943 older than its expected transit time should have a 944 chasing it. An unpaired document in either direction is an open exception, not paperwork in progress.
Second, counted-not-copied: quantities on the 944 must come from the receiving count, not from the 943. If your system pre-fills the receipt from the shipment advice and receiving never edits it, you do not have a receipt process — you have a photocopier, and your discrepancies are being filed where nobody will ever look for them.
Third, condition and availability: received stock should enter available inventory only to the extent it arrived usable. Damaged or quarantined quantities belong in the 944 too, recorded as received-but-not-available, so the sender sees the full picture and the receiver never sells stock it cannot pick.
A flow that runs those checks turns the 944 from a formality into the control that keeps multi-location inventory believable.
Frequently asked questions
Is the 944 · Warehouse Stock Transfer Receipt Advice the same as the 945 · Warehouse Shipping Advice?
No. The 945 confirms an outbound shipment to a customer against a 940 order. The 944 confirms an inbound stock transfer against a 943 advice. Opposite directions, different document pairs.
Who sends the 944 and who receives it?
The receiving warehouse or facility sends it; the depositor, manufacturer, or sending location that issued the 943 receives it.
What document does a 944 answer?
The 943 · Warehouse Stock Transfer Shipment Advice. The 944 should reference the 943's shipment advice number so the pair can be matched automatically.
What happens if the received quantity differs from the shipped quantity?
Report what was actually received, with the difference named — short shipment, damage, or mis-pick. Copying the shipped quantity into the 944 hides the discrepancy inside inventory, where it surfaces later as an unexplained stock-out.
Does a single-warehouse business need the 944?
Usually not. Like the 943, it earns its keep when inventory moves between locations — multiple warehouses, a manufacturer shipping into a 3PL, or a 3PL rebalancing stock between facilities.
A transfer is not finished when the truck is unloaded; it is finished when both ends agree, in writing, about what moved. At SignalEDI, we treat an unclosed 943/944 pair as an open exception rather than a delay — because inventory records that disagree with the shelf do not stay a warehouse problem for long. They become a promise made to a customer that nobody can keep.
— Chris, founder of SignalEDI
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