Dear Readers,

Generating a number automatically within CRM is one of those requirement which is been asked , almost by all client/project. We all know that auto-numbering is available out of the box for entities like case, contracts, quote, order, invoice, articles & campaigns. But usually we have two situations:

1. Auto-numbering for entities like account, contact, opportunity etc. (not available in out of the box auto-numbering feature)
2. Condition wise auto-numbering (business unit wise, category wise)

I am going to demonstrate situation 2, which will give you an idea for situation 1 too.

What you would need ?

• A custom entity
• A Real-time workflow

I am taking an example where I want my accounts should populate ‘account number’ based on ‘account category’. I have also created a lookup field on my account called ‘auto-counter’ which you can see just below category.I have got three categories in my account:

• Direct (DC)
• Distributor (DB)
• Secondary (SC)

What I want ?

I want an account number to be generated having prefix of category and then sequential 6 digit number like if my account category is direct and i am creating the very first account in CRM then account number must be like DC100001.In your case it can even be like prefix should be Business Unit’s initial; method remains same.

How to go about it?

Create a custom entity with basic field Name and other fields to be created would be equal to no. of conditions you have for auto-numbering; in my case i have 3 conditions that are account category. You might have a situation wherein you want it based on Business unit so, you will have to create fields equivalent to the no. of business units you have.

Go to settings>>Customization>>Customize the system

Click on new to create a new entity

You will now have to create records equal to the no. of conditions you have; so i have 3 categories in account which means 3 conditions and 3 records:

I have kept the name as DC/DB/SC, based on the prefix i want for my account number and in the fields based on my condition i have filled DC, DB & SC as 100000 (since i wanted a 6 digit no.); Please note that, you will have to create separate records for each condition. In the first record I have created, I have filled name as DC and field ‘DC’ (whole number)  as 100000. Similarly, In the second record I have created, I have filled name as DB and field ‘DB’ (whole number)  as 100000 and so In the third record I have created, I have filled name as SC and field ‘SC’ (whole number)  as 100000

Now we can create a real time workflow on accounts:

Now we can add steps to this workflow along with if and updates:

First of all I am checking the category of my account; Secondly, I am updating auto-counter lookup field on account with relevant record of category:

Then I am updating my auto-counter record (increment by 1)

Then I am updating my account number of account with a combination of name-number of my auto-counter relevant record:

Now if i create an account, account number is generated as soon as i save my record; something like below:

Tips:

• Please do hide, auto-counter field on form once your workflow starts working.
• To remove the comma from the Auto-Number field (whole number), copy it to a calculated field of Single Line of Text

Hope you find it helpful !

Thanks for Reading !

Happy CRMing !!