Creating a Sequence Format

Sequence formats enable you to specify the information you want sequence numbers to contain. You can create a new sequence format from the Sequences subtab on the Foundations Setup page.

Tip:
Sequence format details are stored as custom metadata records. If you have already created sequence formats using custom metadata records (for example, in a previous version of Foundations), you can edit them from the Sequences tab.

To create a sequence format:

  1. From All Tabs, click Foundations Setup.
  2. Click Sequences.
  3. Click New.
  4. Enter a label for the sequence.
  5. Check or edit the unique name.
  6. Build the sequence format by adding parts. As you add parts, Foundations displays a preview of the sequence format. Click Add Part and select the part you want to add:

    Use the field placeholder part to include a value from a specific field. You specify the field that replaces the placeholder in the next step.

    To perform additional actions on a field placeholder, click next to the relevant part to display the menu:

    • To specify that each unique value in the related field resets the generated sequence number, select Reset Sequence Number.
    • To reset the generated sequence number without displaying the part that resets the number, select Hide.
    Tip:

    You can only hide a field placeholder part that resets the sequence number.

    For more information and examples, see Resetting Numbers and Hiding Parts in a Sequence Format.

    Use the text part to add static text to your number sequence. For example, you can use the text part to enter a separator between your field placeholder and number parts. The default value for the text part is a hyphen (-).

    Use the number sequence part to specify the number of digits in your sequence and the starting number. The default number length is 5 and starting number is 0.

    When you generate sequence numbers, the length of the number sequence part automatically increases, as required. For example, you specify that a number sequence part has a length of four. The number length remains at four until the sequence number reaches 9999. The next number Foundations generates is 10000.

  7. Specify where and when to save the sequence number:
    1. Specify the object for which you want to generate sequence numbers. Enter at least three characters to view matching results.
    2. Specify the target field that will contain the generated sequence number.
    3. [Optional] Specify a filter field to determine whether or not to generate a sequence for particular records. If you specify a filter field, Foundations only generates sequence numbers when the value for the specified checkbox is selected on the record.
      For example, if you have specified Sales Invoice as the object, you can specify Approved as a filter to ensure Foundations only generates sequence numbers for approved sales invoices.
    4. When you are ready to generate sequence numbers for the selected object, select Enabled. Foundations only generates sequence numbers when the row is enabled.
    5. Specify the fields that provide the values that replace the field placeholder parts in the sequence.
      For example, if you have a sequence structure of Placeholder-Placeholder-Placeholder-00000 and you select Company Name, Country Code and Account Name, your sequence structure is Company Name-Country Code-Account Name-00000, such as Merlin-US-Enterprise-00000.
  8. [Optional] Click Add and repeat the previous step to add another row. This enables you to create a generic sequence format and apply it to several objects in your apps.
    For example, you can apply the same sequence format to several objects in Billing Central, PSA, or both. For more information, see Applying One Sequence Format to Several Objects.
  9. Click Save.

When you have created and enabled one or more sequence formats, you can generate sequence numbers for one or more objects.