Document Number Range

The document number range in SAP is used to define the allowable range (number interval) in which an SAP document number must be positioned and cannot overlap. It is used in all SAP modules, for example in Material Management (MM), we must assign a number range to Purchase Requisition (PR), Request For Quotation (RFQ), Purchase Order (PO), Outline Agreement documents, etc; in Sales Distribution (SD) we must assign a number range to Quotation, Sales Order, Delivery Order, Billing documents, etc. In FI module we must also assign number range to several FI documents, such as Customer Invoice, Customer Credit Memo, Customer Payment, Vendor Invoice, Vendor Credit Memo, Vendor Payment, G/L Account Posting documents.

The number range can be:

• Internal numbering: SAP R/3 stores the last used document number from the number range in the field “current number” and takes the subsequent number for the next document.

• External numbering: The user enters the original document number. The numbers usually are not used in sequence and therefore the system cannot store a “current number”. The numbers may be alphanumeric.

In FI module, the document number range has to be defined for the year in which it is used. Document number ranges can be defined:

• until a fiscal year in the future: At the beginning of each fiscal year the system continues to take the next number after the “current number”. It does not restart at the lower limit.

• per fiscal year: At the beginning of each fiscal year the document numbering starts again at the lower limit. This helps to avoid reaching the upper limit of a range.

We can assign one or more document types to each number range. In Document Type configuration we must define number range to be used for that document type.