[ic] Change from #TEST0003 to real orders

[interchange-users@icdevgroup.org (marc.brevoort)]

> In about July 2001 there were some messages about distintive order numbers.
> My order number sequence today started at 02101801 and could have gone
> through to 02101899
>
> The '02' is for the year
> The '10' is for the month
> The '18' is for the day
> The '01' is a sequence number,

>From an information-analysis point of view, it is preferrable for database 
keys not to have structure or content, exactly for the reason mentioned 
above: As soon as you surpass the 99 items per day (100 if you
decide to start using 00 as a valid code as well), you need maintenance on 
your application. This would also likely change the order numbers themselves.

When a customer calls and has a unique order number ready, well, the computer 
can lookup the month/date/day/sequence number in an instance, so why store 
this information redundantly in the order number itself?

In addition, if date, month, year and sequence number are all stored in 
separate field, it will be much easier to make certain reports such as 
'average sales in January over the past five years' without needing to take
in account changed order numbers and all.

Just pointing out a possible source of future problems...

Regards,

Marc Brevoort