Set next invoice number

Feature Request
21

Are you thinking something like a text box in the settings somewhere? What happens once that invoice number has been issued, surely it would be redundant then?

Also is it not possible for you to import all your old invoices, thus eliminating the problem going forward?

22

Yep a text box in settings (that always has the next invoice number in it), the system is obviously working to one, so if it could be in there and adjustable, it would then increment as normal.

Unfortunately the old system i have been using doesnā€™t give me an export of invoices (one of my reasons for moving away), hence getting into this problem.

As iā€™ve said I can get around it anyway so donā€™t worry, would be a helpful feature though, especially if you need to delete an invoice youā€™ve saved but not sent, etc. thereā€™s quite a few instances i can think of where it would be useful.

1 Like
23

I will add my support to this, hopefully there will be more support for this.
thanks

24

I have to say I really donā€™t see the purpose of having a box to store the next invoice number? Not only will it add a database dependencyā€¦ i.e. now this field has to be updated every time an invoice is created. But also I donā€™t really see what problem this solves?

Let me provide an example.

  • I set this next invoice number to 301, however I have an empty range from 100 to 300 I want to reserve for historic invoices.

  • My next recurring invoice is created automatically by referencing this field and assumes 302.

  • Now I want to go and add a bunch of historic invoices from 100 to 200. The first invoice I try to create assumes 303 as itā€™s referencing this dedicated field so I need to manually change to 100.

  • Every time I add one of these invoices the software needs to go and update that dedicate field, e.g. 101, 102 etc.

This updating creates an overhead on the database but it also means I need to remember to go and update the next invoice field back to 302 when Iā€™m done entering so any subsequent recurring invoices assume a 300+ number range.

The whole thing feels very clumsy and seems to solve a very niche problem.

25

Glenn. sorry just to be clear - my support would be to change the next invoice number to the next highest one.
and this should be implemented properly rather than doing any ā€˜patchā€™ work.
I can appreciate that this will be quite a big thing to change, thus agree that these changes should get a chance to go through only if there is enough support for it.

thanks

26

OK, There would need to be a setting for determining the logic to use.

  • Next highest, alpha-numerically
  • +1 from last created invoice

We canā€™t change the logic to assume next highest across the board as it may screw up some other peopleā€™s invoice numbering.

27

This is why i suggested having a box (in settings) with what the system thinks is the next number to generate in it, if its the one you want then fine you donā€™t need to do anything but if youā€™ve been adding lots of old invoices it wonā€™t be correct for the next auto invoice, so you can change it to the one you want it to start with next?

At the moment there is no way to get the correct next automated invoice number if youā€™ve entered old invoices and thereā€™s a gap.

So the only way you can get around this problem is to only work on old invoices if you have a new one to generate afterwards, that way the last invoice raised will be the highest number.

28

Iā€™m just wondering how common this is? If it were a common scenario we could possibly look at a solution but having a separate box to store the next invoice number would end up creating 10s of thousands more db calls a day across all accounts, checking and updating this field creates a big overhead for the database and would likely only benefit a tiny subset of users maybe <1%.

Iā€™ll leave it open as a feature request and if it proves to be more popular we can revisit this.

29

Surely youā€™d only have to access the database when you display that box in the settings area, I canā€™t see it being a huge overhead if its just in the settings area?
You must get the number for the next invoice from somewhere already as it populates the next invoice number box when you go to create a new invoice.
Thats the number we need to be able to set?

30

It would need to be retrieved for new invoices and updated whenever a new invoice is created. Itā€™s practically doubling the workload.

  • I put the next invoice in this settings box as 100.
  • Now I go to create a new invoice and it pulls 100 from the settings field and increments 1.
  • Now when I save the invoice it needs to update the next invoice number in the settings area to 101.

Although we need to query the db to set the next invoice number we donā€™t need to update another field in the settings table.

31

As iā€™ve said Glenn, now iā€™m aware of the problem I can work with it, so if its just 2 or 3 of us then its probably not an issue (unless people havenā€™t noticed whats happening).
It only becomes an issue when adding old invoices and probably 90% of people will only be creating new ones?
Many thanks for your responses on this one, donā€™t want to waste any more of your time on it though if its just a couple of us as we can work around it.

2 Likes
32

I agree with unclechuck on this as well.

33

I am having a problem where I am jumping fro old and new in vices. For instance I am adding first 100 invoices so use 1 and it increments it then when I issue a new one I put a 1000 and it increments it again even when I go back to the old ones which I need to set to say 3 and it then goes to 4 for the next new one e not 1001