BC Friday Tips #29 Gaps in Customer Ledger Entries

Customer Ledger Entries in Business Central use General Ledger Entry numbers instead of sequential numbering, which explains gaps in entry numbers and was designed historically to improve performance. Vendor Ledger Entries follow the same design pattern.

Key points

Gaps in Customer Ledger Entry numbers are intentional design, not a bug
Customer Ledger Entries reference General Ledger Entry numbers rather than using sequential numbers
This approach was chosen for historical performance reasons
Vendor Ledger Entries use the same numbering logic as Customer Ledger Entries

Quotes

“The Customer Ledger Entries use the General Ledger Entry No. instead of sequential numbers.” (Explains the root cause of gaps in entry numbers that consultants observe)
“This approach was historically adopted to improve performance.” (Clarifies the business rationale behind the design choice)

AL objects mentioned

As named in the post. A name that matches one object page by exact type and name links to it; the others stay as named.

table “Customer Ledger Entry”
table 25 “Vendor Ledger Entry”
table “General Ledger Entry”

Not found in BC28-30: table “Customer Ledger Entry”, table “General Ledger Entry”.

Context

Features: ledger entry numbering system

Source: That NAV Guy, community blog. Summary, key points and quotes are derived (CONTENT-NOTICE.md); read the original for the full text.