sunsetsystems wrote on Monday, March 21, 2005:
Currently the billing process creates invoices in SQL-Ledger that are constucted of the patient ID followed by "000" followed by the encounter ID. For example:
123400056789
Invoice numbers are actually character strings and need not be numeric. Does anyone mind if I change this to use a period instead of the "000"? For example:
1234.56789
– Rod
rod at sunsetsystems dot com
andres_paglayan wrote on Monday, March 21, 2005:
I think the dot may break some systems since it’s a floater not an integer
sunsetsystems wrote on Monday, March 21, 2005:
Would it break any accounting systems currently in use?
Assuming SQL-Ledger is the only one currently supported, then versions of ws_server.pl written for future systems could easily parse and translate invoice numbers as needed.
– Rod
rod at sunsetsystems dot com
andres_paglayan wrote on Monday, March 21, 2005:
not 100% sure,
but at least you’ll have to modify the int datatype in the table that stores the invoice number.
all furter data jugling will have to be done against a string rather than against an int
I don’t see a benefit from adding a dot there.
sunsetsystems wrote on Monday, March 21, 2005:
As usual I am not communicating clearly.
The column in SQL-Ledger that stores the invoice number is not an int, it is a character field. Therefore no table modifications would be necessary.
The only possible exception would be if there is already an accounting system that is NOT SQL-Ledger already interfaced to OpenEMR, AND if that other accounting system requires integer invoice numbers. This possibility is the primary reason for my original post.
The benefit of the period is that the current numbering scheme is amibiguous. What is invoice number 100020003? Customer number 1 with encounter number 20003, or customer number 10002 with encounter number 3?
There is also some benefit of brevity and readability.
– Rod
rod at sunsetsystems dot com