On 22 Dec 2011, at 05:29, Peter Buchanan wrote:

> So any further ideas on the gaps?

No. But further ideas based on the situation you describe.

If you were to assign the numbers only at the moment of sailing (or whatever is your cutoff point for absolute final documentation), then there'd be no problem with cancellations...

So what about using some kind of 'in-house' provisional numbering if needed during the cargo manifesting process leading up to departure. Then use a script to assign correctly serialised numbers at the point when you print/finalise the summary document.

Maybe you could come up with some other means of ensuring that no cargo is 'dropped'. (In fact, I can't really see how studying the summary report helps to locate any dropped cargo; you might want to investigate this process in more detail to see what you can contribute.)

Steve