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Pubnet Purchase Orders

Emersoft Books lets you create purchase orders (POs) directly in Shopify and submit them to publishers and distributors via the Pubnet EDI network — no separate portal, no spreadsheet, no email to a sales rep.

When a shipment arrives, you confirm the received quantities in the app and your Shopify inventory updates automatically.

Available on the Omnichannel Pro plan.

How purchase orders work end to end

Here is the full lifecycle of a purchase order in Emersoft Books:

  1. You create a PO — select a supplier and destination location, add titles from your Shopify catalog with quantities, and save as a draft. You can build the PO incrementally throughout the week.
  2. You submit the PO — the app sends the order to the publisher via Pubnet EDI (document type 850). The PO status moves to Submitted.
  3. The publisher responds — the publisher sends an EDI 855 back, confirming they have received and reviewed the PO. The status moves to Accepted. Open the PO to review the confirmed quantities and see which items were accepted, backordered, rejected, or cancelled.
  4. The publisher ships — when the order is dispatched, the publisher sends an advance ship notice (EDI 856). The PO moves to Shipped and you can see the expected delivery contents.
  5. The shipment arrives — open the PO in the app, find the shipment in the Shipments section, and click Receive Shipment. Confirm quantities in the overlay. Shopify inventory and product cost at the destination location update immediately.

What Pubnet EDI is

Pubnet is the standard EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) network used across the book industry. Publishers, distributors, and booksellers use it to exchange purchase orders and related documents electronically.

Without Pubnet integration, ordering from a publisher typically means logging into their portal, emailing a sales rep, or working from a spreadsheet — separately for each supplier. With Pubnet EDI, you submit one PO from Shopify and Pubnet routes it to the correct publisher automatically.

The app handles the EDI formatting and transmission. You work with a standard order form inside Shopify — the EDI exchange happens in the background.

For general Pubnet guidance and support, visit info.pubnet.org/support/for-booksellers.

EDI document types handled

Document Direction What it is
850 Sent to publisher Purchase order
855 Received from publisher PO response — accepted, backordered, rejected, or cancelled items
856 Received from publisher Advance ship notice (ASN) — confirms the order has shipped

What you need

Before you can create and submit purchase orders, you need:

  • An Omnichannel Pro plan
  • An active Pubnet account with FTP credentials, a Bill to SAN, and a Mailbox ID
  • A Ship to SAN for each physical store location you are ordering stock for (Pubnet treats each location as a separate account)
  • At least one supplier selected in Settings > Providers > Pubnet > Suppliers
  • An established trading relationship with each supplier under your SAN — this is arranged directly with the supplier and must be in place before orders can be accepted

If you have not connected your Pubnet credentials yet, start there: Pubnet Setup & Credentials.

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