Multiple number series for your masters and documents in D365 Business Central

This text can help you learn how multiple number series for your masters and documents in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central can be an additional help with searching and analysis data by guiding you how to create and configure it.

Automatic number series for masters and documents is a common feature of any ERP system and identifying the document and list of master data just by looking at the first few alphabetic characters in the number is something that many users prefer. The setup and use of multiple number series in Business Central is easier than most ERP systems in the world.

All you have to do is, go to ‘No. series’ by writing that in the search bar and reach the no. series table.

You will reach the no. series list as below and there, click on ‘New’ to create a new series.

Let’s create number series for customers where we categories customers using different number series. You might not use this feature for this purpose, but we’re taking this as an example. You can have a reason to create multiple numbers for items, purchase orders, sales orders and so on.

We simply name it ‘CUSTOMER’ and under description ‘Customers’. Then we create all the multiple number series that we would attach it to.

Again, hit the ‘New’ button and create a number series as shown below,

We created A Category Customers number series, now let’s give it the first number to start the series. Click on Series > Lines

The starting number in our example is A-CUST-00001

Next, repeat the same thing for category B and C by giving starting numbers as B-CUST-00001 and C-CUST-00001 respectively.

Now, go back to the first number series you named ‘CUSTOMER’ and click on ‘Relationships’

Select all 3 in the relationship table and we’re done!

Of course, select the number series ‘CUSTOMER’ in ‘Sales & Receivable Setup’ to activate this number series.

Now, create a new customer to check (it is assumed that you already know customer creation in Business Central – basically just search ‘Customers’ in the search bar and when you reach the list click ‘New’ or shortcut Ctrl+N),

Click the 3 dots highlighted in above screenshot and you’ll have the 3 numbers to select from that we created earlier,

Let’s select B-CUST for this example and you will get that number series for this customer. You can choose others depending on which category of customer you’re creating.

The users are required to be very careful of which number series they select before proceeding. Although Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central does not depend on multiple number series to generate reports. There are always several filters and options to find that you need for reporting purpose. This can aide the user in making things a little further easier.

Go ahead and try multiple number series for your orders, invoice and other masters as well where it can be useful to you. I hope this has been helpful to you. Reach out to me if you have any questions.