Notification limit journal numbers
It can happen that when you are adding invoices or in the inbox, you see a notification that many invoices have been added and that, if invoices continue to be added at this rate, you will reach the limit of journal numbers before the end of the year. In this article, we explain why you see this notification, how it is generated, and what actions may be needed to prevent processing more invoices than there are journal numbers available within your range.
Why do you see this notification?
Spend Cloud checks daily how many invoices have been processed and how many journal numbers are available within the set range in your environment. When the ratio between the number of added invoices and available journal numbers is not good, this notification appears:
"This month you have processed many invoices. If you continue processing the same amount, you will reach the journal number limit before the end of the year.
Administration 001 - Spend Cloud administration has used 61.86% of the journal numbers."
How is this notification generated?
To explain this as clearly as possible, we use the following example journal number: AA.YY.XXXX, which stands for administration number, year, and four sequence numbers, for example: 01.24.1234. Within administration 01, you can add 9999 invoices for the year 2024 before the limit is reached. Suppose it is the end of June, and you have processed about 4000 invoices in Spend Cloud; then you have about 6000 journal numbers available, more than half of the numbers, relatively more than how long the year has left. Then it is July, many invoices are processed because the summer holidays are approaching, and a new quarter has started, and you suddenly have 5500 added invoices. The system then calculates that you have processed more invoices over the past period and shows this notification that if you continue adding invoices at the same pace, the limit of journal numbers will be reached.
This notification remains for at least a week until the ratio is reversed, and fewer invoices are added on average than there are journal numbers available.
What should I do if I see this notification?
Chances are that in the coming period, you will not continue to add as many invoices for the same reason the notification appeared. Many creditors send their invoices at the end or beginning of a new month or quarter, so the number of added invoices decreases as time progresses. Holidays also often play a role in this. Therefore, it is often not necessary to take immediate action. We often see this notification at a lower percentage, for example, around 30% or 50%. In such cases, the cause is usually a peak in added invoices that eventually decreases. Therefore, it is not necessary to contact us.
When should I take action?
We almost always recommend contacting us as soon as you see this notification with a percentage between 85% and 90%. At that point, we can often assess whether action is needed because there is a reasonable chance that the limit of available journal numbers will be reached before the year is over. If you see this notification on December 29, it is unlikely that action is needed because most invoices will be processed in the 2025 fiscal year. If you see the notification in October, it could be different. When you suspect that you will process more invoices than there are available sequence numbers, you can contact support, and we can look for a solution, such as adding a sequence number in the current journal number range.
Keep in mind that if you work with multiple administrations, there is a range per administration because each administration has a different starting point for the journal number. If you have also included cost centers in the journal number range, you need to take this into account.
Different start number for journal number range
Previously, the barcode functionality could be used, reserving journal numbers within the range. As a result, there might have been an adjusted start number set as a reservation for invoices with barcodes. This reservation was removed in many Spend Cloud environments in 2024, and from 2025, all these numbers are available for the journal number range. The system currently sees this range as unavailable journal numbers, which could mean fewer invoices are in the archive than the highest used journal number. For example:
The adjusted start number was 5000, so digital invoices start at 5001 through 9999. If you have processed 2000 invoices, your journal number might be 24.01.7000. The system sees this as having only 3000 journal numbers available and 70% of the journal numbers used. This is not entirely correct because you have actually used only 40% of the 5000 available numbers. Therefore, the percentage shown in the notification may be higher than you have actually used.
If you want to calculate how many journal numbers you actually have left, you can do so as follows:
Go to Invoice Processing / Archive, select the desired administration (not all administrations), all statuses, and invoice date from January 1st this year. Then click Select, scroll down and click 'calculate all' at the bottom right. You will now see the number of processed invoices in 2024. At the top, you see the highest used journal number. Subtract the sequence numbers from the number of positions. If you have four sequence numbers, for example, do 9999 - highest used sequence number = number of available journal numbers. Based on the number of processed invoices, you can calculate how many invoices you process on average per month and estimate if you will continue to process this number of invoices until the end of the fiscal year.
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