Packaged & Shelf-Stable Products
Packaged food, pantry staples, snacks, beverages, and household items. Natural Grocers requires clean ingredient lists and no artificial additives — product qualification precedes supplier onboarding.
Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage is one of North America's fastest-growing certified organic grocery chains — 170+ stores, strict product standards, and no compromises on supplier compliance. SBSA Technology handles full EDI integration for grocery, supplement, wellness, produce, bulk, and frozen suppliers across all fulfillment paths.
Select your order type to see requirements
Natural Grocers sends POs to your trading partner ID. All orders route through the distribution center for store replenishment.
Acknowledge acceptance, quantity changes, or substitutions within 1 business day of PO receipt. Late acknowledgments risk compliance chargebacks.
All cases and pallets must carry GS1-128 labels. Label data must match the ASN exactly — mismatches trigger receiving exceptions.
Transmit the ASN at time of ship — never after arrival. Missing or late ASNs can result in compliance chargebacks and receiving delays.
One invoice per purchase order. Invoice amounts must match PO-confirmed quantities and pricing to prevent payment holds.
Ship-to address on the 850 identifies a specific Natural Grocers store location rather than the distribution center.
All acknowledgment timing, ASN, and invoice rules are identical to DC replenishment orders.
Some store locations require pre-scheduled delivery windows. Confirm appointment requirements during onboarding with your Natural Grocers buyer.
Refrigerated and frozen shipments to store must meet Natural Grocers cold chain standards. Temperature compliance is tracked in the ASN.
A packing slip matching ASN data must accompany every store-direct shipment for receiving verification.
For drop ship orders, the EDI 850 includes the end customer's delivery address and contact information.
All drop ship orders must ship with Natural Grocers branded packaging materials. Your supplier branding must not be visible to the customer.
Carrier tracking number is required in the EDI 856 for all parcel drop ship orders. BOL or PRO number required for freight shipments.
Never combine multiple orders into a single ASN. One ASN per shipment, tied to one PO and one final destination.
Drop ship volumes require full automation — SBSA bridges Natural Grocers POs directly into your fulfillment system with zero manual steps.
Natural Grocers stocks a highly curated selection across grocery, supplements, wellness, produce, bulk, and frozen categories. Each category has specific labeling, temperature, and compliance requirements. SBSA handles all of them.
Packaged food, pantry staples, snacks, beverages, and household items. Natural Grocers requires clean ingredient lists and no artificial additives — product qualification precedes supplier onboarding.
Vitamins, minerals, herbs, and specialty supplements — the heritage of Natural Grocers' Vitamin Cottage roots. Supplement suppliers face the strictest product vetting and must comply with both EDI and quality documentation standards.
Natural and organic personal care, beauty, and wellness items. Natural Grocers prohibits parabens, synthetic fragrances, and hundreds of other ingredients — compliance extends from product formulation to EDI data.
All produce sold at Natural Grocers is USDA Certified Organic. Produce suppliers operate on tight replenishment cycles with temperature-controlled logistics — ASN accuracy and timing are especially critical for perishables.
Bulk dry goods, grains, nuts, seeds, and specialty diet products. Bulk suppliers work on a unique replenishment model — EDI transactions must accurately reflect catch-weight and variable-quantity SKUs.
Organic frozen meals, dairy, cheese, plant-based proteins, and refrigerated specialty products. Temperature compliance is tracked in the ASN, and cold chain documentation may be required by Natural Grocers' receiving team.
Natural Grocers supports AS2, SFTP, and VAN for EDI transmission. SBSA Technology manages complete setup, certificate configuration, and ongoing compliance monitoring for all three protocols.
Direct Protocol
Encrypted, point-to-point EDI transmission via AS2. The preferred connection method for Natural Grocers suppliers with regular replenishment orders — fast delivery receipts, low per-transaction cost, and direct compliance visibility.
Secure File Transfer
SFTP-based document exchange for suppliers with existing SFTP infrastructure or those transitioning to fully automated EDI. SBSA manages server configuration, file monitoring, and error recovery.
Managed Network
Value-Added Network transmission for suppliers who prefer a fully managed intermediary connection. SBSA acts as your complete EDI department — routing, translating, and monitoring all Natural Grocers documents through the VAN.
SBSA Technology supports core and supplemental Natural Grocers EDI Integration EDI documents. Critical transactions are highlighted because they carry the highest compliance risk when transmitted incorrectly or late.
Natural Grocers' PO initiates the fulfillment cycle. Specifies ship-to location (DC or store), items, quantities, requested ship dates, and pricing. SBSA maps each 850 field directly into your ERP or QuickBooks system.
InboundMust be sent within 1 business day of PO receipt. Confirms fulfillment capability, flags quantity changes, and updates ship dates at the line item level. Missing this window triggers compliance chargebacks.
Outbound 1 business day deadlineTransmitted as your shipment leaves the facility. Must include GS1-128 label data, carrier details, tracking number, and accurate item quantities. Late or missing ASNs generate compliance chargebacks.
Outbound Send at time of ship — chargeback riskOne invoice per purchase order. Invoice quantities and pricing must match the PO-confirmed values. Discrepancies trigger payment holds. SBSA auto-reconciles invoice data against the 855 before transmission.
Outbound One invoice per PO — must match 855 valuesConfirms syntactic validity of every transmitted EDI document. SBSA monitors all 997 responses in real time and surfaces rejections before they escalate into compliance issues.
OutboundPayment order and remittance advice from Natural Grocers. Auto-reconciles against open invoices in QuickBooks or your ERP — eliminating manual payment matching.
InboundBuyer-initiated PO modifications — quantity updates, pricing changes, or delivery date revisions. Applied at the line item level and automatically reflected in your ERP system.
InboundSales and inventory activity data shared with Natural Grocers for demand planning. Helps Natural Grocers optimize stocking decisions and replenishment frequency for your products.
OutboundSBSA Technology provides pre-built ERP integrations that simplify EDI implementation, automate document exchange, and reduce onboarding time.
Native Oracle NetSuite integration. Natural Grocers POs flow directly to NetSuite order management, with inventory and billing updated at every EDI milestone.
Full SAP B1, SAP S/4HANA, and SAP ECC integration. EDI 850s become SAP sales orders; ASNs and invoices post automatically to SAP materials management and FI modules.
Dynamics 365 Business Central and Dynamics GP integration. EDI transactions map to Dynamics sales, inventory, and accounts receivable workflows with no manual entry.
Integration with Oracle Fusion Order Management and Inventory. SBSA maps Natural Grocers 850s to Oracle sales orders and returns 856/810 from Oracle confirmations.
SBSA Technology holds Intuit Silver Partner status for QuickBooks Online. We build certified, direct integrations between Natural Grocers EDI transactions and your QuickBooks Online account — purchase orders become sales orders, ASNs trigger inventory updates, and 810 invoices create accounts receivable automatically.
For Natural Grocers suppliers managing higher transaction volumes, more complex inventory, or multi-location operations, SBSA's certified QuickBooks Enterprise integration delivers the same automated EDI workflow at enterprise scale. Advanced inventory, pricing rules, and multi-warehouse fulfillment are all supported.
For brands using Shopify as their OMS or third-party WMS platforms (ShipBob, 3PL Central, Logiwa, etc.), SBSA provides API-based integrations that route Natural Grocers orders into your fulfillment workflow.
If your ERP or WMS isn't listed, SBSA builds a custom integration. We've connected EDI to hundreds of systems — flat-file imports, AS/400 mainframes, proprietary ERPs, and everything in between.
Natural Grocers enforces compliance chargebacks for missed ASN deadlines, label errors, late acknowledgments, and invoice discrepancies. SBSA Technology automates every compliance step — so your Natural Grocers relationship stays profitable and penalty-free from day one.
855 PO Acknowledgment auto-fired within minutes of PO receipt — never miss the 1-business-day window
856 ASN generated and transmitted the moment shipment departs your facility — before physical arrival
GS1-128 carton and pallet labels auto-generated from ASN data — label content validated against PO before printing
All required ASN fields auto-populated: carrier code, tracking number, gross weight, ship date, ship-from address
Invoice auto-generated per PO with quantities matched to 855 confirmation — one invoice per PO enforced
Lot number and expiry date capture for supplement and perishable SKUs — tracked from receipt to ASN
Temperature compliance fields auto-populated in ASN for refrigerated and frozen shipments
Backordered items flagged in 855 with revised ship dates — never silently cancelled or zeroed
860 PO Change Requests auto-applied to open orders — no manual change order management
820 remittance auto-reconciled against open invoices in QuickBooks or your ERP
Common questions from organic and natural product suppliers beginning their Natural Grocers EDI compliance journey.
Natural Grocers requires four core EDI transactions: EDI 850 (Purchase Order, inbound to you), EDI 855 (Purchase Order Acknowledgment, outbound), EDI 856 (Advance Ship Notice, outbound), and EDI 810 (Invoice, outbound). The EDI 997 Functional Acknowledgment is also required for every transmission. Optional transactions include EDI 860 (PO Change Request) and EDI 820 (Payment Remittance). SBSA supports all required and optional transactions with full mapping and ERP integration included.
Natural Grocers requires the EDI 855 Purchase Order Acknowledgment to be sent within 1 business day of PO receipt. Missing this window can result in compliance chargebacks and affect your supplier scorecard. SBSA auto-fires the 855 within minutes of receiving each 850 — ensuring you never approach the deadline. Quantity changes, substitutions, and backorders are communicated at the line item level in the same 855 transmission.
Yes. Natural Grocers requires GS1-128 (UCC-128) shipping labels on all cases and pallets. These labels must be generated from ASN data and validated for accuracy before shipment. Products must also carry compliant GS1 UPC barcodes at the consumer unit level. SBSA automates GS1-128 case label generation directly from the 856 ASN data — label content is validated against the purchase order before printing to prevent receiving exceptions.
Yes — and SBSA holds Intuit Silver Partner certification for both QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Enterprise. Our integration maps Natural Grocers EDI 850 purchase orders directly to QuickBooks sales orders, triggers inventory updates when ASNs are transmitted, auto-generates QuickBooks invoices from EDI 810 data, and reconciles Natural Grocers 820 remittance payments against open receivables. The entire Natural Grocers transaction cycle runs through QuickBooks without manual entry.
A late or missing ASN is one of the most common compliance chargeback triggers with grocery retailers, including Natural Grocers. The 856 ASN must be transmitted at the time of shipment — before the goods arrive at the Natural Grocers DC. An ASN that arrives after the physical shipment, or that is missing required fields like tracking number, gross weight, or carrier code, can result in receiving delays and compliance chargebacks. SBSA transmits the ASN automatically at time of ship, with all required fields populated from your shipment data.
Supplement suppliers face additional traceability requirements at Natural Grocers. The EDI 856 ASN should include lot number and expiry date data for all supplement SKUs — this enables Natural Grocers to manage product recalls, rotation, and quality audits at the DC level. SBSA configures lot and expiry tracking in your EDI-to-ERP integration automatically for supplement product lines, pulling this data from your warehouse management or QuickBooks system and populating the correct ASN fields before transmission.
Tell us your product category and fulfillment path, and we'll build a complete integration plan — including QuickBooks connection if needed.