How invoice numbers work in TelMaar
The Belastingdienst, the Dutch tax authority, wants your invoices numbered consecutively, without gaps. TelMaar takes care of that for you, but it helps to know how.
What a number looks like
An invoice number is made up of three parts: your own prefix, the year and a four-digit sequence number. For example INV-2026-0001.
The sequence number simply keeps counting and does not start over in a new year. Your series therefore stays consecutive, exactly as it should be.
Quotes work the same way, with their own prefix and their own counter.
The number is only assigned on sending
As long as an invoice is a draft, it does not have a real number yet. The number is only assigned once you click Send, or Mark as sent.
That is deliberate. If a draft already got a number, every draft you threw away would knock a gap in your series.
If you send the same invoice again later, the existing number stays in place. Your customer therefore never receives two documents with different numbers for the same amount.
What you can set yourself
- The invoice prefix and the quote prefix, under Settings and then Company, in the Invoicing block.
- If you change a prefix, that only applies to new documents. Existing numbers never change.
- You cannot set the sequence number yourself. TelMaar starts its own series from number 1.
Last checked on 28 August 2026
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