Document Numbering to prevent overwriting of information

By | May 25, 2020

Importing bulk data in Intacct using the templates is very usual and effortless. If suppose we are importing Vendors and we randomly generate and assign Vendor IDs; and sometimes it may happen that the Vendor ID already exists in Intacct. In such case, the import will overwrite/ update the name/ contact info/ payment information, etc. for that Vendor, which you may not want to happen. To prevent this overwriting we can use sequencing. 

To set the document numbering, Go to Company > Under setup tab > Document Numbering > Add.

Document Numbering--Basic Settings
Document Numbering–Basic Settings

As seen in the above screenshot, On the Basic Settings tab you can set :

  • A sequencing Id to describe for which documents the sequence will be used.
  • Starting Number from where you want the numbering to start. This number cannot be edited once saved.
  • Print title is the title which will be printed on invoicing documents in Inventory Control/Purchasing/Order Entry applications.
  • Next Number is the one that will be used for numbering the immediate next document created using this sequence. It allows keeping track of the last record created.

As soon as you enter the starting number, you can see the Sample number showing how your sequence would look. And, On Advanced settings tab you can set the prefix, suffix for your sequence. Also, you can mention number of leading zeroes for your sequence number. Upon configuring these settings, you can again have a look on the final Sample number to see your sequence pattern.

Note: When importing data from excel, we must probably avoid using IDs that start with zeroes because excel removes the leading zeroes. So instead, we must use some character as prefix. E.g., VEN-0001

Document Numbering--Advanced Settings
Document Numbering–Advanced Settings

Now, we need to configure the Accounts Payable for selecting the above created ID numbering pattern. Go to Accounts Payable > Under setup tab > Configuration > Scroll down to Document Sequencing > Select the Sequence ID that we created for Vendor.

Configure AP
Configure AP

We are all set to import Vendors without any overwriting. Just note that while importing, we need to keep the Vendor Id column empty so as to allow Intacct to assign Ids based on the numbering pattern we just configured.

When importing it is not possible for us to keep on checking each entry with existing data in Intacct for avoiding overwriting information. But Intacct allows you to do this in a simple manner by just setting up the sequences.