Documentation/ Checking the document header/ The numbers
The numbers on a document
A document can carry three different numbers, its own, the order's and the delivery note's, and each one is good for something. The document's own is required, because it is what identifies it to the supplier.
On this page
The three numbers
| Number | Who sets it | What it is for | Required |
|---|---|---|---|
| Document | The issuer | Identifies the invoice or the delivery note. | Yes |
| Order | Whoever is buying | Ties the document to the order behind it. | No |
| Delivery note | The issuer | On invoices, the reference to the deliveries they gather up. | No |
The document number
The number the supplier gave their invoice or delivery note. It is required: without it the document is not identified and the application says so.
It is also the number you talk to the supplier about: any query is raised quoting that number, not Dijit.app's internal reference.
Do not confuse it with the ID in the list. The ID is the record's internal reference inside Dijit.app, and that is the one to give support so they can find it. The document number is the one on the paper.
The order number
The reference of the purchase order that led to the delivery. Whoever is buying sets it, and the supplier repeats it on their document when they have been given it.
It is useful for checking: it lets you verify that what arrived is what was ordered. On the integrations that handle it, it also ties the document to the order in your management system.
The delivery note number
On a delivery note, it is its own number. On an invoice, it is the reference to the delivery notes it gathers up, when the issuer quotes them.
It is one of the most reliable things consolidation has to go on: when the invoice quotes the delivery note number, the match is by exact reference and needs no further checking.
Which is why it is worth going over on invoices from suppliers you consolidate with: a number read wrongly turns a certain match into a rough one.
When they are read wrongly
Numbers are prone to being read wrongly because documents usually carry several of them together in similar formats: invoice number, customer number, order number, delivery note number and page number.
| What you see | Likely cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| The document number is the customer's or the order's | The document puts them together with no clear label. | Correct the field with the right number. |
| The document number is missing | The original does not carry it legibly. | Fill it in: it is required. |
| The number has extra text in it | The label came along with the value. | Leave just the number. |
| It happens on every document from one supplier | Their layout confuses the system every time. | One to raise with support, who can tune the extraction for that issuer. |
Their part in duplicates
The document number is what settles a duplicate warning. Two records with the same supplier, the same date and the same amount can be two different documents: the number is what decides.
So when something is flagged as a duplicate, the right check is to open both originals and compare their numbers, not to go on the amounts.