Shipment numbers

Shipment numbers are assigned to sent and received shipments as a way to identify it at your laboratory.

When a new shipment is created or received, it is assigned the next available shipment number by LDMS. For example, if the last shipment that you received had the shipment number 152, the next shipment (whether you receive it from another laboratory or create it to send) will be assigned the shipment number of 153.

Shipment numbers are not unique between laboratories, nor will they be the same at the laboratory that sent and shipment and the laboratory that received it. For example, if you create a shipping file, it may be assigned the number 153 at your laboratory. When the receiving laboratory receives the shipping data file, it will be assigned the next available shipment number at their laboratory, which will probably be different from the shipment number at your laboratory.

For this reason, shipment numbers cannot be directly matched to shipments between laboratories. Instead, you would need to use the shipment setup date and other information to match a shipment that you sent to the same shipment received at another laboratory.