Written by Argie Radics- Business Central Consultant
If you’ve worked with ERP systems for a while, you’ve probably seen an item number like this:
04852-0200-30-REVF-B168
At first glance, it looks impressive.
Someone clearly put a lot of thought into it.
But what exactly does it mean?
Maybe the first five digits identify the product family. The next four indicate the department. Then comes the revision, the manufacturing process, the warehouse location, the color, and perhaps even the building where it was first produced.
I’ve worked with systems where you practically needed a decoder ring just to identify a bolt.
Years ago, that made perfect sense.
Today’s ERP systems are different.
Why We Used Clever Item Numbers
Legacy ERP systems had limitations.
Searching wasn’t very flexible. Reporting was limited. There weren’t dedicated fields for many of the things businesses wanted to track.
As a result, companies became creative.
If the system couldn’t store a product family, they embedded it in the item number.
If it couldn’t store a manufacturing location, they embedded that too.
Revision? Add another segment.
Department? Another segment.
Eventually, the item number became the database.
It wasn’t pretty, but it worked.
Business Central Changed the Rules
Today, Business Central already has places to store almost everything companies try to squeeze into an item number.
Need to know what kind of item it is?
Use an Item Category.
Need product characteristics?
Use Item Attributes.
Need different versions?
Use Variants.
Need to know where it’s stored?
Use Locations and Bins.
Need to track production?
Use Lot Numbers or Serial Numbers.
Need reporting?
Use Dimensions.
Those fields exist for a reason.
When information has a dedicated home, it becomes easier to maintain, report on, and search. Yet, when we continue packing data into the item number, we’re solving yesterday’s problems with yesterday’s solutions.
The Problem with Smart Item Numbers
The biggest problem isn’t that they’re long.
Instead, it’s that they assume the future never changes.
Imagine an item number like this:
304-17-RED-REVF
What happens when the product changes from red to blue?
The item number says red forever.
What happens when manufacturing moves to another facility?
The item number is wrong.
What happens when Revision F becomes Revision G?
Now everyone has to decide whether to create a new item or violate the naming convention.
Eventually, the item number stops describing reality.
The information inside it becomes historical fiction.
My Three Biggest Pet Peeves
1. Leading Zeros
000123
Why?
Humans don’t enjoy counting zeros.
Excel removes them.
People misread them.
Phone conversations become:
“No… not 123.”
“Three leading zeros.”
“No… four digits after that.”
There are legitimate reasons for fixed-length numbering schemes, especially when integrating with other systems. However, if the zeros exist only because “we’ve always done it that way,” it may be worth asking whether they still add value.
2. Embedded Meaning
The more meaning you build into an item number, the more fragile it becomes.
Locations change.
Departments change.
Colors change.
Product lines change.
Companies merge.
Manufacturing moves.
Meanwhile, item numbers don’t.
3. Wildcard Searching
This one surprises people.
When users become dependent on searching for:
ABC*
instead of searching descriptions, categories, or attributes, the system slowly becomes harder to use.
For example, you eventually end up with:
- ABC-100
- ABC-100A
- ABC-100B
- ABC-100-NEW
- ABC-100-CUSTOM
- ABC-100-TEST
At that point, the item number has become a filing cabinet instead of an identifier.
A Real Migration Lesson
During one Business Central implementation, we inherited decades of carefully engineered item numbers.
Each section represented something important: product family, manufacturing details, location codes, revisions, and other business information.
At first, the numbering system looked intimidating.
However, once we started mapping the data into Business Central, things became much simpler.
Product family became an Item Category.
Manufacturing details moved into dedicated fields.
Locations became… well… Locations.
Dimensions handled reporting.
Attributes described the product.
By the time we finished, most of the information hidden inside the item number already had a proper home.
As a result, the item number no longer needed to carry the weight of the entire business.
Keep Item Numbers Simple
Business Central gives companies dedicated tools for classifications, attributes, reporting, locations, and inventory tracking.
When item numbers are treated as identifiers instead of databases, they’re easier to maintain, easier to understand, and far more adaptable when the business changes.
What initially looks like a sophisticated numbering strategy often turns out to be a workaround for limitations that no longer exist.
A good item number doesn’t need to be clever.
It just needs to identify the item.
This keeps the same conversational tone as the rest of the article while giving readers a clear takeaway and reinforcing the main message one final time.