Small and medium business | Business Central, N...

External Document No. and Your Reference

(1) Share

Report

Posted on by CU22060733-0

What is the difference between External Document No. and Your Reference?

Categories:

Dynamics 365 Business Central

I have the same question (0)

All responses (5)

Answers (0)

Sort by

Suggested answer

Teagen Boll 3,260 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

Like
a
(1)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

External Document No. is typically a number provided to you by a Vendor or Customer that you can use as a reference when communicating externally. Usually this would be a Customers Purchase Order # that you can enter on your Sales Order. It makes it easier when communicating with external parties.

Your Reference is simply just an additional field you can use for internal purposes if you want to track information. I've seen it used for an internal note, name of individual who placed the order, alternative order number (in a case where it could have been generated outside the system).

In reality both of those fields can store whatever you want. You can assign a purpose to them and use them according to your processes.

Best,

Teagen Boll

Work: Catapult ERP

Social: LinkedIn

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Suggested answer

Kamal Khakhkhar 3,501 on at

Like
a
(3)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Hii there
Business Central Tip: “Your Reference” as an alternative to External Document No.

In Business Central, many users rely on External Document No. to store the customer’s reference number for an order, invoice, or credit memo.
That works well, especially when:

you want the reference to appear on posted documents
you want to search posted entries using that number
you have enabled Ext. Doc. No. Mandatory in Sales & Receivables Setup
But there’s also another option: Your Reference.

The Your Reference field can also be used to capture the customer’s reference number on sales documents.
Like External Document No., it is included in posted documents and can be used later for searching.
Key difference:

Your Reference is available on sales documents, but not on journal lines.
So the practical choice is:
Use External Document No. when you need a controlled and mandatory reference field, especially across documents and journals
Use Your Reference when you need an alternative place to store the customer reference on sales documents

A small distinction, but a useful one when designing document entry processes in Business Central.

If You found answer mark it verified.

Thank You

Kamal Khakhkhar.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Suggested answer

CU22060733-0 4 on at

Like
a
(1)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Thanks.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Suggested answer

Mansi Soni 10,184 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

Like
a
(1)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!
Hello @CU22060733-0,

In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, both fields are used for reference purposes, but they serve different audiences:

External Document No. - Used to store the document number received from an external party (such as a vendor invoice number, supplier challan number, or customer PO number). It is primarily used for tracking and reconciliation with external documents and appears in ledger entries and reports.

Your Reference - Used to record the name or reference of the contact person or individual associated with the transaction (for example, the customer representative who placed the order). It is mainly for communication and identification purposes rather than document tracking.

Example: If a customer sends Purchase Order PO-4587 and the order is placed by John Smith, then:

External Document No. = PO-4587

Your Reference = John Smith

In short, External Document No. identifies an external document, while Your Reference identifies a person or contact related to the transaction.

Hope this answer helps you!

If this answer helps kindly mark it as verified answer.

Regards,
Mansi Soni

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Suggested answer

Khushbu Rajvi. 23,058 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

Like
a
(2)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Both can be included in posted documents and used for searching. However, External Document No. can also be used on general journal lines, while Your Reference is not available on journal lines.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-ca/dynamics365/business-central/sales-how-sell-products#external-document-number

Was this reply helpful? Yes No