Document numbering

“My bills go INV/25-26/0348, and they must start again at 1 on 1 April.” Or “I’m moving from Tally in October and the next bill must carry on from 347.” BizOS lets you set the format of every numbered document, keeps each number unique for the financial year, and refuses formats that would break GST’s rules for invoice numbers before they reach a customer.

Where do I change my invoice number format?

Go to Settings → Selling → Numbering. It lists every series of one branch, the head office’s by default; a branch picker appears once the business has a branch besides the head office. Each row shows the next number as it will print and lets you edit the prefix, digits, suffix, next number and Allow typed numbers. Only the Owner and Admins can change numbering.

The series BizOS numbers:

The rules for a number

A number is the prefix, then the counter padded to the series’ digits, then the suffix. BizOS checks the whole format before saving and explains any refusal in plain words.

Two series of the same kind can never be set to formats that could print the same number in the same financial year. A different suffix keeps them apart.

There is no prefix lock. A new format applies from the next number; numbers already issued keep theirs.

How do I put the financial year in my invoice number?

Insert a token into the prefix or suffix. In the app you pick them from chips under Year, month and restart, labelled by what they print.

So prefix INV/{FY}/ with 4 digits prints INV/25-26/0348, and suffix /{FY} prints SI/0007/25-26. A prefix cannot start with {MM}, because months 01 to 09 would start the number with 0.

The document’s date decides the number. A bill back-dated to March takes March’s format and counter, even after an April change. Invoices and quotations are numbered by their date, credit notes by their date, receipts by the day paid, challans by the delivered date. Once a number carries a year or month, the document cannot be re-dated outside it: BizOS tells you to date it within that period, or delete it and make a new one.

Restarting the count

Under Start again from 1:

A yearly restart with no year in the number is allowed: plain 1, 2, 3 every April. Numbers are unique per financial year, which is what the GST rules ask.

How do I change my format from 1 April?

Changing a format in the middle of the year starts a second series in this year’s GST return. Most businesses change only from 1 April, and BizOS lets you set that up in advance.

Numbers already used are stepped over

BizOS keeps a register of every number in use for each financial year. If the next number is already taken, for example by an imported opening due, a bill pulled from Tally, or a counter set back by hand, BizOS uses the one after it. Nothing is left as a hole. After 100 used numbers in a row it stops and names the number, so you can set the counter forward. A number once used stays used, even if its document is deleted.

Branches and several invoice series

• Every branch numbers from its own series, for every kind of document. A new branch gets prefixes from its code, such as ANR/INV-0001. See Branches.
• A branch can have several invoice series, for example cash and credit bills, or a brand with its own Tally sales type. Use Add another invoice series on the Numbering page; each has a name and a format of its own, and one is the default. A series can be renamed, made the default or archived (no new numbers; issued numbers stay).
• The invoice editor shows a Series picker only when the branch has more than one. Bills made by converting a quote, sales order or job, bills made on mobile, and bills made by Ask BizOS use the default series.

Other kinds of document have one series per branch.

Typing a number by hand

Some businesses still write a few bills by hand. Switch on Allow typed numbers on an invoice series and whoever makes an invoice can type its number instead of taking the next one.

• Off by default, and for invoices only.
• Only when creating a bill. An edit never changes the number.
• The typed number is checked against the same GST rules (16 characters at most, not starting with 0, / or -) and refused if it is already used this financial year.
• The counter does not move. If the series later reaches the typed number, it steps over it.

How do I continue my numbering from Tally or other software?

On Settings → Selling → Numbering, open Moving from Tally or other software? for the branch shown. Invoices come first; credit notes, receipts and challans are optional.

1. Type the last number made elsewhere and its date. BizOS also suggests numbers: the highest opening due you imported this year, or the last number Tally reports for each voucher type.
2. Check how BizOS read it. BizOS works out the prefix, the year, the counter, the digits and the restart from the number, and offers up to three readings when a number is ambiguous.
3. Confirm. You see the reading in words, the next number, and the first number on the next 1 April.
4. Save. The series carries on from the next number, and the row shows “Continued from 347 (previous software, …)”.

A series can be continued only before BizOS has numbered anything in it; after that, set its next number instead. Either way the old software must stop issuing from that series.

Taking over a Tally voucher type. Continuing from a Tally suggestion makes BizOS the one that numbers that voucher type from then on, and its bills go into that type in Tally, so your CA keeps one register. It works only for a type numbered Manual or Automatic (Manual Override); BizOS tells you how to change the method in Tally otherwise. If someone still makes a bill in that type in Tally afterwards, it is brought in but held back from GSTR-1 until someone reviews it.

The wizard is on the web only.

Which Tally voucher type does a series go into?

Invoice, credit note, receipt and transfer-invoice series each have Goes to Tally as: the Tally voucher type their documents are pushed into. Leave it empty and BizOS uses Tally’s own Sales, Credit Note or Receipt type. The type must belong to the Tally company of the branch’s GSTIN. A type numbered Automatic renumbers what BizOS sends; the invoice then says Tally numbers it. Receipts go to Tally with their receipt number. The full rules are in Tally ledgers & vouchers.

Numbering and GSTR-1

GSTR-1’s documents-issued table (Table 13) is built from your number ranges per series. A series changed mid-year shows as two ranges. In the month a series was continued from other software, GSTR-1 adds a note: the earlier numbers were made elsewhere and should be reported from there. See GST billing & GSTR-1.

Who can change numbering?

On the mobile app, Settings → Taxes & numbering edits the head office’s prefix and next number and can schedule a yearly invoice restart from the next 1 April; a prefix that holds a year or month is changed on the web.