Understanding Number Sequences in Dynamics 365 F&SCM (F&O) - Part 2

This is the second part of the blog on number sequences in Dynamics 365 F&O. You can read the first part of the blog here, where I discussed the basics of Number Sequences and a few of the setup options.

Let's continue with a few more setup options that are going to help in day-to-day operations.

Have you come across the requirement of having a number sequence based on the financial year, like having one seq from Jan 23 to Dec 23 and having another sequence from Jan 24 to Dec 24? And need not to say that both of them should work parallelly?

If so, this blog is for you. In D365 F&O, we can have number sequences that change according to the period set. This can be done by using the Chronological number sequence groups functionality.

Let us see this in detail...

Chronological number sequence groups

The Chronological number sequence groups run on 2 main setups:

1. Number Sequence
2. Number Sequence Group

Number Sequence

A normal number sequence will have to be created as we created it earlier. You can refer to part 1 of this blog to learn more about it. Considering the example of having different number sequences for different financial years, we will create 2 number sequences, and for the example, we will continue with Free Text Invoice. So we will create 2 Number Sequence as follows:

• FY 2023 - INV/23/INMF/#######
• FY 2024 - INV/24/INMF/#######

Note: 
The total character lenght of the number sequence should be maximum of 20. 
If it exceeds 20 then you will get an error as follow: 
"The number sequence format string exceeds the limit of 20 characters. The number sequence format has been truncated. You must modify the segments before saving the number sequence."        

Configure number sequence groups

A number sequence group allows you to create a set of distinct voucher sequences that override the standard number sequences configured on the number sequence page.

Currently, number sequences for the following documents form part of the Number Sequence Group:

To configure number sequence groups:

• Go to Accounts receivable > Setup > Accounts receivable parameters.
• On the Number Sequences tab, select Free Text Invoice or any other option from the list in the above image. Once you select a line, the Group button above the table gets enabled.

• On this page, you can define as many number sequence groups as required to cover the periods. For our case, we will create two different Groups, FY2023 and FY2024.

• For a new group created, once you save, a whole list of references will be added. Select one of the supported document references in the Reference section, and in the Number sequence code field, add the code that we just created.

Configure number sequence groups chronology

This setup is used to make the system understand the logic of when (from which period to which period) which number sequence group should be used. This is a Company-specific setup, so it would not have data for other Legal Entities.

• Go to Organization administration > Number sequences > Chronological number sequence groups.
• Click on New to add a new condition.

• Fill in the details as required. For our example, I have filled in dates in Effective and Expiration with the start and the end date.
• The number sequence group field needs to be updated with the correct group created with the logic of the selected period.
• Default Toggle, if turned on, the system will ignore the preliminary assigned document number sequence group and use only the period start and end dates for applicability analysis. If turned off, the system selects the full combination Effective + Expiration + Original number sequence group.
• The original number sequence group, this number sequence group code, is used for additional filtering in cases when documents already have a specific permanent number sequence group assigned. If you need to ignore a preliminary assigned group, use the Default option for this setup.

With this, we are all set to process our first Free Text Invoice with the new Number Sequence Group.

Process - Chronological number sequence groups

With all the setups done correctly, we will see that the correct number sequence group and correct sequence are picked based on the document's posting date when we post the free text invoice.

Just to test, I tried to post a post-dated entry for the year 2023 to see the result which number sequence system picks. If we had not configured the Chronological number sequence groups, then the next number should have been INv/24/INMV/000002, but with our steups done, the system should pick the sequence from the FTI_2023 setup.

Note: We can use Number Sequence Groups also to use it as default for a customer or vendor or a group of Customers or vendors. The Group needs to be taged on the customer master or the vendor master and system will pick the sequence from the master.        

Unique Number Sequences for Customers and Vendors

Did you know you can have unique number sequences for each Customer or Vendor Group?

Yes, this is doable, and this is generally done to identify the customers/vendors and their respective groups on the entry page or to have separate identification for each group so that the system can run the sequence when a new customer/vendor is added under the group or for the reporting.

• Go to Customers Group (Accounts Receivables > Setup > Customer Group)
• Add a new column, "Customer Account Number Sequence", and click on Update to get it added.

• Add a new number sequence to the customer Groups.

• The only condition here is that the number sequence needs to be "Shared."

• Now, if you create a new customer and select the Custome Group, the Customer Account field greys out and a new number gets assigned automatically.

• For a test, if you select any other customer Group while creating a new customer and the number sequence is not mapped, you still need to enter the customer account manually, or the default sequence gets selected, depending on the setup.

And this is the end of the blog. This was all that I wanted to cover under the Number Sequence blog.

I hope this was helpful...!!

Happy Learning..!!

Nandish Kothari 🇮🇳