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Posting No. in the Purchase Header Populated

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Posted on by cheng02

Hi,

I've been experiencing this since in the old NAV, and even now to the latest version, that there are unposted Purch Invoices where the Posting No. in the Header is populated / pre-assigned. This results to a gap in the Posted Purchase Invoice if the related Purchase Invoice is not yet posted. Anyone here who has experienced the same? I've tried to reproduce this by trying to create intentional errors (missing posting groups, disallowed posting dates, blocked items etc) and was able to reproduce this when the system hits an error when items being invoiced are blocked. If there's any documentation related to this, appreciate if you can share with me.

Thank you!

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Dynamics 365 Business Central

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AndrewThomas81 627 on at

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Check your Purchases & Payables Setup, it sounds like you are using the same number series for purchase invoices and posted purchase invoices, I would recommend a different number series for each, so that posted invoices do not get assigned a number until they are posted, therefore no gaps!

Kind Regards

Andrew Thomas
https://www.usebusinesscentral.com/
https://www.youtube.com/@usebusinesscentral

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Rajvi Shah 246 on at

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Hello,

We had a mix of invoice numbers where someone had previously attempted to delete them by adding an A to the end of the invoice thinking it wouldn't recognise the original duplicated invoice number but the system still does so will not allow them to be deleted and the handful that were imported recently with duplicate invoice numbers.

The solution was using the Configuration Package export of the Purchase Header. This exported everything from this view and then on the lines that need to be removed you delete whatever is in the Posting No. Series columns so they are blank. Save this and import it back into BC and when you go back and check the Purchase Invoices page these duplicate entries can now be deleted from the list.

Thanks,

Rajvi Shah

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RockwithNav 9,081 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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I have experienced this -
This is normal behavior in Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.The system gives a posting number to the purchase invoice before it finishes posting. If the posting fails (for example due to blocked items, missing setup, or wrong posting date), the number is already used.Because of this, some numbers in the posted purchase invoice list may be skipped.

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YUN ZHU 99,978 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hi, This is standard behavior, so the following problems will occur.

Dynamics 365 Business Central: Empty Posted Sales Invoice with only one comment “Document created to avoid gap in No. Series”? Why?

https://yzhums.com/35909/

Hope this can give you some hints.

Thanks.

ZHU

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OussamaSabbouh 14,672 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hello,

Yes, this is expected behavior in Business Central (and NAV). The Posting No. is taken from the No. Series during the posting process, not after the posting finishes. So when the user starts posting a purchase invoice, BC already reserves the next number from the Posted Purchase Invoice No. Series. If the posting later fails (for example due to a blocked item, posting setup error, etc.), the posting is canceled but the number is not reused, which creates a gap in the posted document numbers. Microsoft’s guidance is that number series are not guaranteed to be continuous, especially when posting fails or transactions are rolled back.

Regards,
Oussama Sabbouh

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