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Product Ideas

Forms: Remove leading zeros from Invoice No, Purchase No.. fields

Experienced User

14Posts

65Kudos

0Solutions

14 Posts
Experienced User
Australia

I want to supress the leading zeros so my invoice numbers are significantly shorter - but another thread on this site revealed that they cannot be deleted - why not???

 

My suppliers and customers punch the entire number into their systems and they do not fit their field and create confusing references on their documentation....help!

Regards

Joe Trimboli

 

"Leading Zeros in Invoice and Purchase Order and any other form generating application"

Current Status: Open
Last Changed: January 2014

Thank you for your suggestions, we're always looking to improve workflow in AccountRight and would be happy to consider changing the way the automatic numbering system displays its information. Those who would like to see this added, please remember to add your votes to those already made.

25 Comments
Kelly81
Experienced Cover User
260 Posts
Experienced Cover User

Hello @David_Cree

 

The issue is how UGLY and out of place the leading zeros is on all printed documentation including invoices that go to customers...

 

You've probably just got used to it.

 

Kind Regards,

 

Carlisa.

David_Cree
Ultimate Partner
1,158 Posts
Ultimate Partner

Hello Carlisa,

Thanks for the reply.

 

The issue of ugly invoices is easily solved by customising the form so that the width of the invoice # field does not show the leading zeros.

 

Cheers

David

Kelly81
Experienced Cover User
260 Posts
Experienced Cover User

Hello @David_Cree,

 

That may be an workaround however not a very practicle one, business document numbers don't stay static and therefore someone would have to "watch" to see when they were going to roll into the next thousand or hundred.

 

I am just trying to be constructive here

 

Thanks

DougfromBGN
Experienced Cover User
27 Posts
Experienced Cover User

 The issue is not just getting rid of leading zeros. By doing so, additional characters can be used, as required by some large customers.

 

For example, one well-known national retailer insists on all Invoices starting with a particular letter. Their other divisions use different letters. If not, payments run late, and extra time is used chasing up these matters with the customer.

 

The system we moved from offerred this feature when we first started with it in 1984. 

 

Doug

Tallie_M
4,461 Posts
Former Staff

Hi there @Kelly81 and @DougfromBGN,

 

We do understand that the leading zeros would be an annoyance to a business as it may be seen as unaesthetically pleasing. We do agree that having the option to get rid of these would benefit a lot of our clients.

 

Furthermore, we also do agree that the option to add additional characters (e.g. a leading letter) would be beneficial to introduce into the software as well. I have shared your feedback with the rest of the team.

 

@David_Cree, thank you for the workaround - as this would be a viable option for some clients, we do appreciate you taking the time to share it.

 

Anyone else who would like to see this idea implemented, please do vote by clicking on the '+ VOTE' option next to the subject heading.

 

Cheers,

 

Tallie

NolaS
4 Posts
Cover User

What is the point of "Voting" when something so simple still has not been implemented!

You can get rid of the leading zeros by changing the number to say 16-xxxx however MYOB will not remember the sequence. May business's use the current year/fin year as the first 2 digits -  MYOB really has gone from strength to mediocrity.

Tallie_M
4,461 Posts
Former Staff

Hi there @NolaS,

 

Voting allows us to provide the product development team with a better and clearer picture as to the demand of different features and ideas. This helps them to assess which suggestions should be given priority, however, it is most definitely not the only factor involved as they also need to take into account the complexity of the change, the back-end work it would require, as well as resources they would need to delegate towards it. Something that seems so simple on the user interface end may well require a significant amount of time and effort.

 

That's definitely not to say that there is no point in voting - on the contrary, the more votes an idea has, the more we're able to justify channeling resources into getting the idea implemented.

 

We do apologize for the inconvenience and delay in having this implemented, however, really do appreciate you taking the time to vote and comment as it does ultimately benefit both us and our clients.

 

Cheers,

 

Tallie

Peter-Melbourne
5 Posts
Cover User

Hi Everyone,

 

This issue with too many leading zero's in front of Invoice Numbers has been with MYOB since the company started coding the program!!  I doubt MYOB see this as an issue.  Take it as one of those ideosyncracies of MYOB.  

 

Cheers,

Peter

Brian-Dunedin
1 Post
Cover User

Its not only the aesthetics of the leading zeros. It is causing us grief when interfacing with the API and pushing invoices into accountright, giving 'duplicates' with the one created in accountright having leading zeros and the other without.

Its about time this is changed as has been suggested many times.

Brian

Clio
Contributing Cover User
18 Posts
Contributing Cover User

If they cant be removed make them pale so they look like place holder and not part of the invoice number.

I always drop the zeros as some are suppliers have an extreme number, 5+ leading zeros  crazy. 

I prefix my Inv Numbers with INVXXXX but i dont need lots of numbers.

Whatever you choose to do you need to be consistent to avoid problems.

Maybe invoice Numbers could be shortened, if you could use prefix letters in the Inv Number, Then for sorting the leading zeros would not be required.