Practice CS: How to set a beginning invoice number

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Practice CS defaults to numbering invoices automatically by adding one to the highest existing invoice number. For example: 

  • If you are new to Practice and start billing from scratch, your first invoice number will be 1. Once that invoice is saved, the next invoice number will be 2. 
  • If you converted and imported invoices from another software, your first invoice number will be one greater than the highest invoice number from the other software. If your last invoice number was 500, your first Practice invoice number will be 501. 
  • If you assign an abnormally high invoice number to a particular invoice, Practice CS will default to adding one to that highest number, even if you switch back to using lower numbers on future invoices. 

Because Practice CS always uses the next available invoice number, you may wish to change your beginning invoice number. Your beginning invoice number could be your first invoice number if you are new to Practice, or it could be a new beginning if you have been using Practice for billing already.

If your starting invoice number is greater than one billion and you want your invoice numbers to be smaller, contact Practice CS support at (800) 968-0600.

To change your beginning invoice number, follow the steps below.

  1. Choose Actions > Billing.
  2. Select a client, engagement, or project to bill.
  3. Click the Detail Bill Selected button.
  4. On the Summary tab, click the Number field to remove "(Next Available)" and enter the desired beginning invoice number.

    Note: The invoice number must be a numeric value with no alpha or special characters, no spaces, and cannot be greater than 999999999.

  5. Enter the remaining billing information for this invoice and click the Save and Print button or the Save button.

Once you change the beginning invoice number, subsequent invoices will be numbered automatically, incremented by one. For example if you entered 1001 as the first invoice number, the current invoice would be numbered 1001. The next invoices would be numbered 1002, 1003, etc.

Related topics

Practice CS: How to change an invoice number

Practice CS: Invoice number shows "Next Available"

Generating default invoice reference numbers

Detail billing overview

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