About Numbering Order Entry Documents

Each quote, order, shipment, invoice, credit note, and debit note in Order Entry must have a unique number.

You can specify numbers for quotes, orders, shipments, invoices, credit notes, and debit notes when you enter transactions, or you can use the numbers generated by Order Entry.
For each transaction type, you define length, prefix, and the next number to use on the Documents tab on the O/E Options screen. For more information, see O/E Options Screen.

Document Number Length

Document numbers can be from 1 to 22 characters long, including an alphanumeric prefix of up to 6 characters.

You might use any of the following formats to assign numbers to orders, invoices, and credit notes:

ORD1457 (3-character prefix, 4-digit number)
I-357 (2-character prefix, 3-digit number)
CREDIT0009392 (6-character prefix, 7-digit number)

After you specify the next number to use for each transaction type, Order Entry automatically assigns the next available number to each subsequent transaction of each type. You can also assign numbers manually, but if you use automatic numbering, your auditing procedures are simplified because you cannot accidentally skip numbers.

When Order Entry reaches the last available number for a document type (all 9s), it starts again at zero.

Note: On the O/E Options screen, if you want to change the next number to a lower number, you must change the prefix as well. This prevents you from creating two documents with the same document number and prefix.

Entering Document Numbers Manually

If you enter your own document numbers when you add transactions, Order Entry does not update the next number on the O/E Options screen, even if you use the number the program would have assigned.