Tables :: Consecutively Number Table Rows With User Determined Start Number

I have an Access2007/SQL Server 2012 system with 20 users for an insurance company. The company does most of its business via a network of vehicle dealers around the country. If someone comes in to buy a motorcycle, boat, or recreational vehicle at a dealership they need insurance to take it home, and our dealers send the quotes to us.

The dealers, in turn, receive payment from us each month for their efforts. Some are paid a % commission on the premium, some are paid for each quote they send regardless of whether the policy actually sells or not, and some are paid a set amount per sold policy. (Yes, that is relevant information!)

We already have reports that tally the amounts due each dealer based on their payment scheme, but last month our bookkeeper had to write about 650 checks manually because the check writing is not automated. She'd look at the report, and then enter name, address, and amount (in digits and words) into Quick Books and print the checks from there, a horribly tedious process. I've been asked to print the checks from Access. Basically one click would print all 650 checks.

I've opted to use a Make Table query to move the commissioned dealers amounts to a single location, and then to run two append queries to add the records from those paid per quote and those paid per policy. At the end of the day, one table contains all the information necessary to print the checks...except one.

The check number.

I need a way to sequentially number each record in the new table with a user generated starting point, the first check number.

By the way, the check blanks are on standard letter sized paper, three to a page, with tear-off perforations to separate them, in case that information has any relevance.

I think the best way to accomplish this is from the report itself. I've created a blank field on each record for the check number, and what seems most logical is that the sequential number is generated on print and written back to the table, rather than just generating all the numbers at once. That way, should print ever be interrupted, it will be easy to take up where we left off.