How to Set Invoice Number Prefixes

Invoice number prefixes help organize your billing system and can indicate the year, division, or other meaningful identifiers for your business operations.

Accessing Invoice Settings

1. Go to Settings
2. Scroll to the bottom and click Invoicing
3. Select Invoicing Details

Setting Up Your Prefix

On the invoicing details page:

Choose Your Prefix Type:

• Year (like "2024") to organize invoices by year
• Letters to indicate company divisions or departments
• Combination of letters and numbers as needed

Enter Your Prefix:

• Type your chosen prefix in the designated field
• Roof Chief automatically adds a dash after your prefix

How Invoice Numbers Are Structured

When you create invoices, Roof Chief builds the invoice number using multiple components:

Your Prefix - the custom identifier you set

Automatic Dash - added by the system for separation

Estimate Number - allows tracing any invoice back to its original project

Sequential Number - ensures uniqueness for each invoice

Example: 2024-105-001 (where 2024 is your prefix, 105 is the estimate number, and 001 is the first invoice for that project)

Benefits of This System

Meaningful Organization - prefixes provide context about timing or business division

Project Traceability - estimate numbers connect invoices to original projects

Unique Identification - sequential numbering prevents duplicate invoice numbers

Bookkeeping Clarity - eliminates confusion from duplicate numbering across your business

Multiple Invoices per Project

The sequential numbering system supports multiple invoices for the same project (001, 002, etc.) while maintaining the connection to the original estimate and your organizational prefix.