Define Number Sequences

To obtain approval for tax filings or statutory reporting, some countries require that businesses adhere to local numbering standards and conventions when assigning numbers to documents, including shipping documents.

Example: Document numbering in Italy is related to the print date of the document, and it is a common business practice to have multiple number ranges for shipment and invoice documents. In Brazil, however, document numbering is strictly related to a specific physical site, requiring multiple number ranges with a prefix that identifies a site code.

With Number Range Maintenance (36.2.21.1), you can assign specific number range sequences to pre-shippers, shippers, and master bills of lading so that you can comply with these varied document numbering requirements.

When you define a number range sequence for shippers, the system checks if shipment certification is enabled. If shipment certification is enabled, set both the Allow Discarding option and the Allow Voiding option to No in the number range sequence definition. Otherwise, you get the warning message “Shipper sequence must NOT allow discarding, voiding.” For information on how to enable shipment certification, see Enabling Shipment Certification.

Defining number sequences is a prerequisite to setting up shipping. For instructions on how to define document numbering sequences, see the chapter on Number Range Management in QAD System Administration User Guide.

This section includes information about how NRM sequences affect shippers.

NRM assigns or validates unique ID numbers to each sales order shipper, using predefined sequences. This same method is used for Advanced Repetitive subcontract shippers and inventory issue transactions. However, incoming supplier schedule shippers are assigned numbers in another way.

Shipper Types lists shipper types and indicates how the system assigns a number.


Shipper Type	Shipper Number Assignment
Sales Order	NRM generated/validated
Issue Transaction Shipper	NRM generated/validated
Subcontract (Advanced Repetitive)	NRM generated/validated
Supplier Schedule	Manually entered

The system stores all shippers in the same table, using the combination of shipper number and Ship-From site.

While NRM always dispenses unique numbers to sales order shippers, it does not validate against supplier schedule shipper numbers assigned using other methods. Therefore, NRM may dispense or accept an ID number that already belongs to a different shipper type with the same Ship-From site. In this case, an error occurs.

To ensure that all shipper numbers are unique, do one of the following:

• Set up Ship-From sites to be used only for sales order shippers, thus ensuring that a sales order shipper never uses the same Ship-From site as a subcontract or supplier schedule shipper.

• Define NRM sequences with unique fixed prefixes or another fixed segment to be used only for sales order shippers. If you choose this method, ensure that users entering manual shipper numbers are aware of shipper number requirements.

Each NRM sequence is specific to the database in which it resides and is not aware of sequences in other databases. Thus, in a multi-database environment, sequences in one database may intersect with sequences in another.

Example: A sequence in database A generates shipper numbers ranging from 000001—200000. A different sequence in database B generates shipper numbers in the range 100000—399999. As a result, shippers in the overlapping range have identical numbers.

Additionally, a shipper created in a multi-database environment is created and processed completely in the central database with no mirroring in any remote database, even if the material is being shipped from a site in the remote database. Thus, the shipper number is generated from a sequence in the central database and the shipment is recorded in the central database, even though the shipment originates in the remote.

Users with stringent locale-based numbering requirements should, therefore, ensure that all shipment processing occurs only within the central database and no independent shipments are created in a remote database.

Default NRM sequences are set in Container/Shipper Control (7.9.24) for shippers, pre-shippers, and master bills of lading. They can also be defined and associated with each shipping group.

For companies with international shipping requirements, sequence numbers are typically assigned relative to shipping groups. The defaults in the control program are only used for pre-shippers, shippers, and master bills of lading that do not use inventory movement codes or shipping groups.

NRM sequences are associated with target datasets, which determine where the sequence number is used. The three predefined target datasets for shipping are: