Each new fiscal year should correspond with its own invoice number sequence. While it’s not necessarily due to legal reasons, it can help you immensely with your invoice organisation and make sorting your invoices easier when the next tax season arrives.
In Debitoor, we care about both law and order, and in this case, we know that a good invoice number system can help you stay on top of your invoices and accounts.
In Debitoor invoicing software, it’s easy to update your numbering sequence to be in accordance with the new year. And it’s a small change that will help you in the year ahead. You can always change your invoice numbers, and we recommend doing so at the start of the new year or fiscal year, if yours differs from the calendar year.
How to change your numbering sequence of your invoices
Once you change the numbers of an invoice, the new sequence is automatically assigned to all of your future invoices. This means that all it takes is typing in a new number sequence into your first invoice template of 2017, and the new numbering will automatically be applied to each new invoice you create.
When creating a new invoice, simply click on the box labeled ‘Invoice no.’ and type your new numbers in. There’s no need to delete the numbers that are currently there, the new numbers will replace the current numbers automatically.
How to decide on a new number series
When making change to your invoice number sequence in Debitoor, there are a few things you should take into account:
- It isn’t possible to repeat an existing invoice number. For example, if you already have an invoice with the invoice number ‘1’, you cannot use ‘1’ again, even if it is in a new fiscal year.
- You can’t include letters in the invoice number sequence.
- Slashes and dashes (‘/’ and ‘-’) as well as other non-numeric symbols cannot be used.
In other words, it’s important to come up with an invoice number sequence that is numbers only, without spaces or other symbols.
And although the authorities do not specifically state what kind of number series should be used on invoices, they do specify that your invoice numbers should be sequential and without any gaps. In Debitoor, we recommend starting a new number sequence at the beginning of each calendar or fiscal year.
For example, to change your invoice number for 2017, you could start with ‘20170001’ or ‘170001’. In these numbers, the year comes first, then you can give yourself as many zeros as necessary to ensure you will have room for plenty of invoices.
In Debitoor, the next invoice you create would automatically be assigned the number ‘170002’, then ‘170003’ and so on.
Invoice numbers like ‘20170001’ or ‘170001’ are useful because they include the year of the invoice, as well as allow you to start from ‘1’. And that’s all. Your invoice templates will be all ready for a whole new year of invoicing.
