Organizational Relationships (816) is sent by organizations to report, establish, or modify relationships between entities within a corporate structure. Trading partners and business networks receive this transaction to understand and maintain records of organizational hierarchies and interconnections. The transaction responds to requests for organizational structure documentation or may be sent proactively to communicate structural changes. The BHT (Beginning of Hierarchical Transaction) segment provides context for the transmission, while the repeating HL (Hierarchical Level) segments define parent-child relationships between organizations, and the N1 (Name) segments supply identifying information for each entity involved in the relationship chain.

Consider a scenario where TechCorp, a parent holding company, needs to notify its supply chain partners of its organizational structure. TechCorp sends an 816 transaction to its EDI trading partner, Global Logistics Inc., documenting that it owns three subsidiaries: TechCorp Manufacturing Division, TechCorp Services Division, and TechCorp Distribution Division. Each subsidiary is represented as a hierarchical level within the transaction. The N1 segments for each entity include their legal names, and N3 and N4 segments provide their business addresses. The DTM segments indicate when each relationship became effective, and REF segments may include DUNS numbers or other identification codes. Global Logistics Inc. receives and processes this data to ensure it correctly routes communications and transactions to the appropriate TechCorp entity based on the documented organizational relationships.