The Batch Number field was added to the Sales Import screen, as well as the Order, Order Line Item, Invoice, and Invoice Line Item screens. Assigning a unique Batch Number to a file that is being imported allows the User to easily filter by Batch Number in any of the related screens to find all related items.
Think of the case where there is a Commission Statement being imported, and that statement includes Invoices across multiple months. To otherwise filter in the Invoices screen after import, the Created On date range would have to be used to pull up all the entries. Using the Batch Number instead, all entries, regardless of input time or occurrence date, can be pulled up with a simple text filter.
Unique Batch Numbers
Users will want to make sure that Batch Numbers are unique -- don't use the same name for multiple imports. When the same name is used, the filtering purpose of the field is eliminated.
To help keep the entries unique, an empty Batch Number field will automatically be filled in with a unique Number. In this way, it is not necessary for the User to enter anything at all in this field and still make use of it. If the User chooses to enter their own number, a combination of the file name and date with time of the import is usually sufficient to make the entry unique.