ediverse

Type to search across standards, messages, tools and glossary.

ediverse Explore the platform

Spotlight PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0 The EU e-invoicing mandate is here — France Sept 2026, Belgium Jan 2026, Germany 2025.

— 01

Foundations

— 02

Standards

— 03

Flagship messages

— 04

Tools

X12 820 — Payment Order/Remittance Advice

The 820 carries either a payment order (an instruction to the bank), a remittance advice (a notification to the payee), or both. A cornerstone of the order-to-cash chain in North America.

Purpose

The 820 wears two hats at once, and implementations exploit them to varying degrees. The "order" hat is an instruction to the originating bank to pay the beneficiary (often embedded in field 06/05 of an ACH CCD+ or CTX). The "remittance" hat is the advice sent to the supplier listing the invoices being paid, amounts settled, deductions taken, and any penalties.

In an ACH chain, the 820 travels in the addenda of the payment, which lets the supplier's accounts receivable auto-reconcile the bank credit against the invoices settled. For payments by card network or check, the 820 travels in parallel (over AS2 or a VAN) and carries a payment reference in the TRN segment.

Envelope structure

The 820 travels in an RA functional group (Remittance Advice). A didactic 820 settling invoice INV-2026-552:

x12 example-820.x12 
ISA*00*          *00*          *ZZ*ACMERETAIL    *ZZ*ACMEVENDOR    *260615*0900*U*00401*000000401*0*P*>~
GS*RA*ACMERETAIL*ACMEVENDOR*20260615*0900*1*X*004010~
ST*820*0001~
BPR*C*11748*C*ACH*CTX*01*021000021*DA*123456789*1234567890**01*121000358*DA*987654321*20260615~
TRN*1*9876543210~
DTM*097*20260615~
N1*PR*ACME RETAIL CO*92*0001~
N1*PE*ACME VENDOR INC*92*VEND001~
ENT*1~
RMR*IV*INV-2026-552*PI*11748*11748~
REF*PO*PO78901~
SE*9*0001~
GE*1*1~
IEA*1*000000401~

The BPR (Beginning Segment for Payment Order/Remittance Advice) is dense: payment function code, amount, payment type (C = Credit), method (ACH), ACH format (CTX = Corporate Trade Exchange), originating and receiving bank coordinates, effective date. TRN carries the trace number used for bank reconciliation. The ENT/RMR loop details the settled invoices: here a single invoice (INV-2026-552) paid in full.

Common segments

  • Header — ST, BPR (Beginning Segment), TRN (Reassociation Trace Number), CUR (currency), REF, DTM.
  • Parties — N1 loop for Payer (PR), Payee (PE), originating and receiving banks.
  • Detail — ENT (Entity) loop with RMR (Remittance Advice Accounts Receivable Open Item Reference), ADX (Adjustments), REF, DTM, IT1 for line-level detail when relevant.
  • Summary — SE.

When you'll see it

  • B2B treasury — the primary instrument to automate cash application on the supplier side.
  • Mass retail — paired with the 810, surfaces short-pays line by line: the value is to know precisely why an invoice was not paid in full.
  • Health insurance — an 820 variant is used for insurance premium payments (HIPAA use case).
  • Public sector — US federal suppliers receive 820s via Treasury IPP.

Documentation

The code 820 and the name Payment Order/Remittance Advice are public and listed on x12.org/products/transaction-sets. Qualifier detail for BPR, the ADX adjustment codes, and CCD+/CTX conventions belong to the proprietary Implementation Guides (TR3); ediverse.io does not redistribute them. For ACH formats, see also NACHA's public documentation.