What is Advance Shipping Notice (ASN)?

An Advance Shipping Notice (ASN) is an electronic notification sent from a supplier, manufacturer, or distribution center to a receiving warehouse or retailer before a shipment arrives. The ASN details exactly what is being shipped—including product descriptions, SKUs, quantities, lot numbers, carton contents, pallet configurations, and expected delivery date—allowing the receiving party to prepare for the incoming goods before they physically arrive. ASNs are typically transmitted via EDI (Electronic Data Interchange), API, or supplier portals and are a cornerstone of efficient warehouse receiving and supply chain visibility.

Why It Matters

Without advance shipping notices, warehouse receiving is a blind process. Workers unload trucks without knowing what to expect, manually count and verify every item against purchase orders, and spend hours reconciling discrepancies. This blind receiving process is slow, labor-intensive, and error-prone—particularly for high-volume operations handling dozens of inbound shipments daily.

ASNs transform receiving from a reactive, manual process into a planned, efficient operation. When the warehouse knows exactly what’s arriving and when, it can pre-allocate dock doors, schedule labor, prepare storage locations, and pre-print receiving labels. Studies show that ASN-enabled receiving reduces dock-to-stock time by 30–50% and improves receiving accuracy by eliminating the need for piece-by-piece manual verification. For businesses with tight inventory replenishment cycles, this acceleration means products are available for sale hours or days sooner.

How It Works

The ASN process follows a standard workflow from shipment to receiving:

• ASN Generation: When the supplier ships goods against a purchase order, their system generates an ASN containing the PO reference number, ship date, expected delivery date, carrier and tracking information, and a detailed breakdown of contents—every SKU, quantity, lot number, and how items are packed (units per carton, cartons per pallet).
• Transmission: The ASN is transmitted electronically to the buyer’s system via EDI (commonly EDI 856 format), API integration, CSV upload, or supplier portal entry. The buyer’s warehouse management or order management system receives and processes the ASN, creating an expected receipt record.
• Receiving Preparation: The warehouse uses ASN data to plan for the inbound shipment: scheduling dock appointments, assigning staff, reserving putaway locations, and generating receiving documents or barcode labels in advance.
• Accelerated Check-In: When the shipment arrives, workers scan carton labels or pallet labels to confirm contents against the ASN rather than manually counting every item. Discrepancies (overages, shortages, wrong items) are flagged immediately for resolution rather than discovered days later during inventory reconciliation.
• Inventory Update: Once receiving is confirmed, inventory is updated in the system and products become available for order allocation and fulfillment. The speed of this process directly impacts how quickly replenished stock can satisfy customer orders.

How Nventory Helps

Nventory supports ASN processing through supplier integrations that receive advance shipment notifications and automatically create expected receipt records in the system. When shipments arrive, warehouse staff use barcode scanning to verify contents against the ASN, with discrepancies flagged in real time. This streamlined receiving process gets replenished inventory into the available-for-sale pool faster, reducing the gap between supplier shipment and customer availability across all sales channels.