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Epiglossary

Auto-number customer and supplier IDs

Kinetic + Classic

Epicor gives every customer and supplier an internal number (CustNum, VendorNum) automatically, but the IDs people see and type (CustID, VendorID) are entered by hand. If you want those to be sequential numbers, a short pre-processing directive can hand them out. This is a well-known community pattern; the version here is written to be safe with several users saving at once.

What it does

Section titled “What it does”
  • Users create a customer and enter AUTO as the Customer ID (or you default it to AUTO; see below).
  • On save, the directive replaces AUTO with the next number from a counter and increments the counter.
  • Users can still type a real ID when they need a specific one; the directive leaves those alone.

Before you start

Section titled “Before you start”

Create the counter as a user code:

  1. Open User Codes Maintenance.
  2. Add a code type NEXTNUM.
  3. Under it, add a code CUSTOMER and put the first number to issue (for example 100001) in its description.

The directive

Section titled “The directive”

Pre-processing on Erp.BO.Customer.Update, Custom Code widget:

var newCustomers = ds.Customer
    .Where(c => c.RowMod == IceRow.ROWSTATE_ADDED && c.CustID == "AUTO")
    .ToList();


if (newCustomers.Count == 0) return;


using (var txScope = IceContext.CreateDefaultTransactionScope())
{
    var counter = Db.UDCodes.With(LockHint.UpdLock).FirstOrDefault(u =>
        u.Company == Session.CompanyID &&
        u.CodeTypeID == "NEXTNUM" &&
        u.CodeID == "CUSTOMER");


    int next;
    if (counter == null || !int.TryParse(counter.CodeDesc, out next))
        throw new Ice.BLException("Customer numbering isn't set up. Check user code NEXTNUM / CUSTOMER.");


    foreach (var cust in newCustomers)
    {
        // skip any number someone has already used by hand
        while (Db.Customer.Any(c => c.Company == Session.CompanyID && c.CustID == next.ToString()))
            next++;


        cust.CustID = next.ToString();
        next++;
    }


    counter.CodeDesc = next.ToString();
    Db.Validate();
    txScope.Complete();
}

How it works

Section titled “How it works”
  • Why Update and not GetNewCustomer. Numbers are only taken when a customer is actually saved. Assigning at New would use up a number every time someone started a customer and abandoned it.
  • Why UpdLock. Reading the counter with an update lock inside a transaction makes a second user wait until the first has written the new value back. Without it, two saves at the same moment can read the same number.
  • Why the Any check. If someone typed a numeric ID by hand earlier, the counter could otherwise collide with it.
  • The counter lives in data, not code, so an administrator can move it (for example to start a new range) without editing the directive.

Variations

Section titled “Variations”
  • Supplier IDs. Same pattern on Erp.BO.Vendor.Update, working on ds.Vendor and VendorID, with a separate counter code such as SUPPLIER. Use separate counters so customers and suppliers don’t share a sequence.
  • Fixed width. Use next.ToString("D6") to produce 000123-style IDs. Make sure the Any check uses the same format.
  • Default to AUTO. A post-processing directive on Erp.BO.Customer.GetNewCustomer with a Set Field of CustID on the added row to "AUTO" saves users typing it.