Expand Serial Numbers

Select this field to allow serial numbers to expand to 30 characters. Clear this field to prevent expansion of serial numbers. When you update this field, all users must log out and back in before the new value takes effect in the system.

Caution:

If you want the system to automatically generate serial numbers for you, you must select the Expand S/N field. If you enter a prefix in the S/N Prefix field, the serial number will be 30 characters. If you do not enter a prefix in the S/N Prefix field, the serial number will be the next available number. For example, if the last serial number was 123, the next one will be 124.

If you clear the Expand S/N field, you have to manually create serial numbers.

Do not mix expanded and unexpanded serial numbers. Doing so increases the difficulty of finding any particular number by filtering.

For example, if the Expand S/N field is selected, and you use 99SN as your prefix, the serial numbers will be 99SN000...00011, 99SN000...00012 and so on, using all 30 characters allotted for serial numbers. The value to the left of the last character is left justified. The number after the last character is right justified, and zeros are added to the middle to make the serial number 30 characters.

If you type just a string of characters with no numbers, for example ABCD, there is nothing to expand, so the serial number is set to ABCD.

If the Expand S/N field is cleared, your serial numbers will be exactly as you enter them without adding extra zeros.