| # Using number groups and series You identify orders, contracts, invoices, and other documents by their order number or document number. The document number includes the series code followed by a sequential number. For example, you can use series to identify: Business partners Addresses Purchase contracts Sales orders Production orders Service orders Warehousing orders Freight orders Note For financial documents, you must define the series and document numbers in the Transaction Type Series (tfgld0114m000) session in Financials. For more information, refer to Creating document numbers by transaction type. Number Groups You use number groups to assign series sets to different types of orders, documents, and other records. For each number group you define: One or more series codes The length (number of characters) of the series code The starting number (first free number) of each series Series code You can define alphanumeric series codes of up to 8 characters. The maximum length of the series code plus the number within the series is 9 characters. To use the series for a type of document or record, you must assign the number group to the document type or record type. You can assign a number group to only one type of document or record. As the series codes can be alphanumeric, the generated document numbers can be alphanumeric and they can consist of up to nine characters. Note You can use identical numbers for related records. For more information, refer to To use identical numbers for related records. Dedicated number groups You can use dedicated number groups to generate unique numbers for orders and documents for specific use. The series numbers that LN generates in number groups dedicated to the same type of use, are unique. To ensure that the numbers are unique, LN checks that the series codes that you define in the number groups cannot result in duplicate numbers. See also the Examples of dedicated number groups. You can dedicate number group to these purposes: Freight/Warehouse Invoicing Production Service Not Applicable You assign the number groups to various purposes in the corresponding sessions. For example, in the Sales Order Parameters (tdsls0100s400) session, you can select the number group for sales orders and sales schedules. In the Sales Offices (tdsls0512m000) session, you can then select a series of that number group for the sales orders generated by a specific sales office. First free number LN numbers the orders, documents, or other records sequentially by using the first free number in the series. You specify the starting number of each series in the First Free Numbers (tcmcs0150m000) session. Order numbers The resulting number consists of the series code followed by the first free number. The number must consist of 9 characters. LN adds leading zeroes to the first free number to make up the required number of digits. Example The series code is NR08. The first free number is 100. Documents in this series get the numbers: NR0800100 NR0800101 NR0800102 First free numbers cache To improve the performance of sessions in which new order numbers are assigned, you can define a cache size for a series. The cache size is the number of new series numbers that LN generates and puts in the user's cache. The users do not have to wait while LN generates and checks the next series numbers. If you use the first free numbers cache, the order numbers can be nonsequential; the numbers that are still in the user's cache are lost when you log off. If you do not want to use the first free numbers cache, you must set the cache size to zero. Example You set the cache size to four. The first time a user creates a new order, LN generates four new series numbers and puts them in the user's cache. The user must wait while this happens. The first number is used for the new order. LN retrieves the numbers for the next three orders that the user creates from the user's cache. If the user creates a fifth order, LN generates another four numbers, puts them in the user's cache, and so on. If the user creates six orders and then logs off, the last two series numbers that LN generated for the user are not used. To use identical numbers for related records Define a number group for each type of record, by using the Number Groups (tcmcs0151m000) session. Define identical series codes in the number groups, by using the First Free Numbers (tcmcs0150m000) session. Define the same first free numbers in the identical series, by using the First Free Numbers (tcmcs0150m000) session. Assign the number groups to the two types of records, by using the appropriate session. Select the identical series for the records. LN generates identical codes when you create the different types of records that you want to link. You can use this, for example, to use identical codes for related orders or contracts in different companies. Examples of dedicated number groups You define number groups with the following details:
Number Group | Series Length | Dedicated for
SF1 | 2 | Production
SF2 | 2 | Production
SF5 | 3 | Production
IN9 | 2 | Invoicing
If the SF1 number group contains a series `KJ`, you cannot insert the same series code ( `KJ`) into the SF2 number group. If the SF1 number group contains a series `AA`, you cannot insert the series codes `AA1`, `AA5`, or `AA9` into the SF5 number group, because this can result in the same numbers as those generated in the SF2 number group. If the SF5 number group contains a series `DF2`, you cannot insert a series `DF` into the SF1 or SF2 number groups, because they can result in the same numbers as those generated in the number group SF5, if very high numbers are generated (such as `DF2255734`, `DF2766438`, and so on). Regardless of the series defined in number groups SF1, SF2, and SF3, you can insert any series in the IN9 number group, because IN9 is dedicated to another type of use. Related topics To define order numbers To change the series To assign number groups Creating document numbers by transaction type |