Number Series Management

Every transaction, invoice, vendor, customer, and employee in your system needs a unique, sequential identifier. The numbering system generates these identifiers automatically, ensuring consistency, preventing duplicates, and maintaining the sequential ordering that auditors and regulators expect.

How Numbering Works#

Number generation is fully automatic. When you create a transaction, the system reads the number series configuration for that transaction type and entity, generates the next number in sequence (prefix plus zero-padded counter), increments the counter atomically, and assigns the number to the new record. You never need to specify a number manually -- the system handles it.

For example, when you post an AR invoice for entity 9, the system might generate "AR-000013" by combining the "AR-" prefix with the next counter value, zero-padded to six digits. The next invoice will be "AR-000014", and so on. Each legal entity has its own independent counters, so entity 9 and entity 10 each have their own invoice number sequences.

Entity-Specific Configuration#

Each legal entity can customize its number series independently. You might want your US entity to use "INV-" as the invoice prefix while your EU entity uses "RECH-" (from the German "Rechnung"). Prefixes, padding width, and starting values are all configurable per entity and per series type.

This entity-level independence means you can consolidate financial data across entities while maintaining distinct numbering schemes that comply with local regulatory requirements or internal conventions.

Concurrency Safety#

In a multi-user environment, two people might create invoices at the same time. The numbering system uses database-level row locking to prevent duplicate numbers. When a number is being generated, the counter row is locked until the increment is committed, ensuring that no two records ever receive the same number. This happens transparently -- users never see contention or delays.

Supported Series Types#

The system supports numbering for 28 transaction types (AP invoices, AR invoices, journal entries, payments, bank transfers, expense reports, and more) and 11 master data types (customers, vendors, employees, fixed assets, projects, and others). Each type has its own counter and prefix, giving you a complete and organized numbering scheme across your entire accounting system.

Practical Benefits#

Sequential numbering is not just organizational convenience -- it has real audit value. Gaps in a number sequence indicate deleted or voided transactions, which auditors watch for. Consistent prefixes make it easy to identify transaction types at a glance. Entity-specific numbering prevents cross-entity confusion in multi-subsidiary operations.