Choosing your invoice number format and starting number

By default your invoices are numbered INV-000123, INV-000124 and so on. You can choose your own format and starting number on your account page, under Invoice numbers.

The format is the text of the number with a few placeholders in curly brackets:

• {######} is the counter. Each # is one digit, filled with leading zeros, so {####} gives 0007. Every format needs exactly one counter.
• {YYYY} is the four-digit year, {YY} the two-digit year, {MM} the month and {DD} the day, in your account time zone.
• Anything else must be a letter, a digit, a dash, an underscore or a full stop. No spaces or slashes.

For example INV-{######} gives INV-000123, and {YYYY}-{####} gives 2026-0123. A number can be at most 20 characters. The page shows a preview as you type.

The next number is where the count starts. After you save, each new invoice takes the next number automatically. You can raise it, for example to carry on from numbers you used in another system, but you cannot lower it, so a number is never used twice. If the number you choose is already taken by an invoice you issued earlier, that one is skipped.

Good to know. Changing the format never renames invoices you already issued. The counter does not restart on its own at the new year, so a format with the year in it keeps counting up. Choose Go back to the standard numbers to return to INV-000123 style numbers. QuickBooks Desktop only accepts reference numbers up to 11 characters, so if you sync to it, a longer number appears in the memo instead.