Customize invoice numbers

Your invoice numbers do not simply count up from 1. meetergo issues them as RE-2026-0001 by default, and you can set the format, prefix and start number yourself.

Every document type has its own number range. The defaults are:

Document type	Format	First number
Invoice	`RE-{YYYY}-{####}`	RE-2026-0001
Offer	`AN-{YYYY}-{####}`	AN-2026-0001
Order confirmation	`AB-{YYYY}-{####}`	AB-2026-0001
Credit note	`GS-{YYYY}-{####}`	GS-2026-0001
Cancellation	`ST-{YYYY}-{####}`	ST-2026-0001

Set up a number range

Open Invoicing.
Create a new document or open an existing draft.
In the editor, click Number range next to the Number field.
Fill in Format and Next number. The preview shows you what the next number will look like.
Save.

The number range applies to your whole company, not just to you. Everyone on the team issues documents from the same range, so a number can never be handed out twice.

The Number range link only appears on new documents and drafts. A document that has already been issued has its number and cannot be renumbered.

The format

The format is free text combined with tokens:

Token	Meaning
`{YYYY}`	Four-digit year (2026)
`{YY}`	Two-digit year (26)
`{####}`	Sequential counter

The number of # characters sets how many digits the counter is padded to. {####} gives 0001, {##} gives 01. If the counter grows past the padding, it is still written in full and never truncated.

Examples:

Format	Result
`RE-{YYYY}-{####}`	RE-2026-0001
`{YYYY}{####}`	20260001
`ACME{####}`	ACME0001
`R-{YY}/{###}`	R-26/001

Two rules apply:

Exactly one counter token per format. Without a counter the number would not be unique.
The format can be at most 64 characters long.

Write the year as {YYYY} rather than typing it out. A hard-coded 2026 will still be sitting in your numbers next January.

Set your start number

Next number is where you decide which number to continue from. This matters most when you move to meetergo from another tool: set the next number above the last one you issued there, so the two ranges cannot overlap.

Set your start number before you issue your first invoice.

The number can only move forward. You can raise it at any time, but you cannot reset it to a number that has already been used. Invoice numbers must be unique under German VAT law (§ 14 UStG), and a duplicate number would be a problem in an audit.

What happens at year end

The counter restarts at 1 in every calendar year. Your format carries over. If you switched to ACME{####} during 2026, your first invoice of 2027 is ACME0001 again, not the default format.

What counts is the invoice date, not the day you created the document. An invoice you issue in January with a December date still gets a number from the old year.

When the number is assigned

The number is assigned when the document is issued, not when it is created. While a document is a draft it has no number and does not consume one. You can create, discard and duplicate as many drafts as you like without creating gaps.

Gaps in the numbering

A number can occasionally be missing, for example if issuing a document failed part way through. That is allowed: § 14 (4) of the German VAT Act requires invoice numbers to be unique, not gapless. What matters is that no number is ever used twice, and that is what meetergo guarantees.