Invoice numbering

[Maf. King]

On Monday 22 Sep 2008, Derek Atkins wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Incoming Bills and Outgoing Invoices have separate counters.
> Keep in mind that the Invoice ID is YOUR number.  The Billing
> Reference is the OTHER person's reference.
>
> -derek
>

Hi Derek,

Hmm, although I see your logic, that doesn't make sense to me - for vendor 
reporting in GC, at least.

I write an invoice, and sure, the InvoiceID is my number, and the billing ref 
is their PO number - I get that, use GC that way, and the auto-increment 
counter works well.

BUT, If I enter a bill, then (possibly my preference, I accept) I want to see 
their invoice No in the vendor report "reference" column.  I guess it goes 
back to the phone conversation of "why haven't you paid our bill no 123?" I 
alluded to earlier.  The bill _is_ identified by their number, not my number. 
( i think that this "principle of reference" is laid down by UK tax rules, 
YMMV etc.)

Also, at least in my business, Purchase Orders don't always map 1:1 to bills 
(or invoices either, for that matter!)   so to auto-increment a "PO number" 
doesn't seem sensible to me, as the "unique" ref. no. isn't always unique -  
a single invoice (or bill) may cover several POs or only a partial payment of 
a large PO.

Cheers,
Maf.