Glossary
Document numbering
Document numbering is how sales orders, purchase orders, and pallets get their numbers. Leave the number blank and the server assigns it on save, distinct even when two documents are saved at the same time.
What it is
Document numbering is how sales orders, purchase orders, and pallets get their numbers. The number is the document’s identity: it is what the floor calls out, what the customer references, and what the audit trail points at. A numbering scheme that produces duplicates or gaps produces arguments.
The rule is simple: leave the number blank, and the server assigns it when you save. The number is assigned in the same step that saves the document, so two saves at the same time get two numbers, and no document is ever saved without one.
Why it matters
Numbers invented in the browser collide. Two operators saving at the same second, two tabs, two devices: each one guesses a next number, and both guesses can be the same. Server-assigned numbers remove the race. The server is the only one handing out numbers, so the sequence stays clean.
The date in the number matters too. A number stamped with the wrong day sorts wrong, reports wrong, and confuses the count at month end. The date token uses the company time zone, so the number carries the day the company was on when the document was saved.
A worked example
Two operators each save a new sales order at the same second. The first gets SO-2026-10-14-1041, the second SO-2026-10-14-1042. Neither saw the other’s number, neither typed one, and the sequence has no gap and no duplicate. A pallet saved the same way gets its own number from the pallet sequence.
How DockingWare does it
A blank sales order, purchase order, or pallet number is assigned on save by the server. The date token uses the company time zone, and concurrent creates get distinct numbers. Numbers already stored stay on the document.
Questions
- Who assigns a document number?
- The server does, on save. Leave the number blank and the server assigns it. Two saves at the same time get two numbers.
- What date does the number use?
- The company time zone. The date token in the number follows the company time zone, not the browser or the server clock.
- Can I change the number format?
- Not in Company Settings yet. The format is fixed for now; numbers already stored stay on the document.