reset starting receipt number

JoAnn Strommen

Somehow, in Mail > Receipts the starting receipt # was changed from a 5 digit # to a 7 digit #. Just putting in the correct 5 digit # in sequence and saving receipt does not change it on any of the other receipt letters. Support had no other solution. 

Anyone run into this before or have any suggestions.  I'm working my way through the list of Receipt documents opening each and pasting in the correct 5 digit # but would love any easier option.


(US based org-no Canada receipt concerns)

Aaron Rothberg

Hi JoAnn-


I don't use Mail, but I just finished running a couple of tests and that receipt number option is definitely buggy.


When I open receipts, you can see the receipt number it defaults to in my system, 27256.




My first attemp to change the number to a different 5-digit number didn't work:




My next test was to change my 5-digit receipt number to a random 7-digit receipt number. That worked.




So I tried again going back to a 5-digit receipt number. It didn't work.




Then I tried a 9-digit receipt number. That worked.





Then I tried a 6-digit number. That also worked.




Lastly, I tried another random 5-digit number. It didn't work again.





The Receipt Number feature in Mail is definitely not stable.

Aaron Rothberg

I just tried 3 and 4-digit receipt numbers which also did not work, but if I chose a 5-digit number that's higher than my default number (27256), it works. This is the key piece of data I needed to discover what was happening.





What this tells me is that something in your database caused Mail to believe the next available receipt number was a 7-digit number. Setting that number to anything less than what the database thinks is the next available number causes receipt numbers to break.


So, the question for support is not, "why can I not user a lower number than what it defaults to" because by bug or by design, this is how Mail Receipts seems to work. The question to support is, "what made that default receipt number jump from 5-digits to 7-digits?" If you can't identify that, it may happen again.  ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

Aaron Rothberg

One last observation. When I query our database for all gift receipt numbers, I find the highest number is 27255, one number below my default receipt number in Mail Receipts. I bet you dollars to doughnuts that if you query your database for all gift receipt numbers, you're going to find one gift that someone entered a 7-digit receipt number on and it's that one gift that caused your default receipt number to change. If you find that one gift and change the receipt number back to a 5-digit number that is still higher than all other receipt numbers, I bet you your Mail Receipts will start working again just as you would expect them to.

JoAnn Strommen

Thanks for the replies Aaron. Yes, immediatly I ran a query showing all receipt numbers this month to check the numbers. It started that day. Corrected all those run that am. Still having problems so queried all gifts. I found a gift marked 'not receipted' that had the 7 digit # in the receipt field. Not sure how it got there as we have not issued receipts for that fund gifts yet. Removed it. Unfortunately, the number sticks in RE > Receipts.


Yeah, any # higher will stay. Anything lower resets even though no receipts using that #. While I'm glad receipt # can not be reset willy-nilly, it should be easier to correct.


Did hear back from support and they said I would need to install plug in to update receipt #. IT tried yesterday, got plug in files, downloaded, but was unable to get it to run. Said they'll try to get back to it later today.