Ledger 9.2A
We would like to create a number of Dept Codes that have a format: 99-999.

According to the Help screen (Dept Code Format on the Company Profile>Options tab), a period or a tilde in the format should allow for a dash (the "-" character).

But when I create a new Dept Code in the sample company such as: 99-999, I receive this error message: Department has invalid characters.

Note that the other non-regular characters such as "/" and "_" are acceptable.

Hi Samuel,

As you know, the dash character is used in the Adagio Financial Reporter to separate accounts and departments. If a dash was saved with a department (or an account), then this would mess up the formulas in financial statements. For this reason, dashes or other special reserved characters for the Financial Reporter are disallowed in account and department code setup, as you have found.

Sorry, but you'll have to pick a different separator character for the department setup.

OK, makes sense - I understand.
We can probably use the "/" character.

But this being the case, I think we have to modify the Help screen where it states: A period denotes upper and lowercase alphanumeric and ! - / (eg. 0 through 9, A through Z and a through z, along with exclamation, dash and forward slash).

Here is where I originally thought I could use the dash for Depts, based on the Help description.

The period (".") makes as good a separator as the dash.

We have multiple client sites using a period as a separator. No issues so far.

Is there any way to force the period (or another character) in the third position, for example?
Or, does the user have to always remember when they setup the Dept Code to include the period?

The user needs to remember, but you can use an entry mask to help them out. Also, if they create new departments by copying an existing department, there is less chance of error.