In certain circumstances, you wish to supply Empress with your own number sequence rather than let Empress assign the next available number for you.

This can be performed by clicking on External from the function menu, and entering the desired number into the External Number entry prompt. Once entered, Empress will confirm that this number has been entered correctly by the number validation functions, then verify that it has not been entered already and is already stored in its local database. After checking that the number is not in the excluded number list, Empress will then accept the entry if all checks are verified OK.

If a previous entry is found for that number, Empress will prompt informing the user that the external number supplied has been allocated already and further use will result in the new entry overwriting the previous entry. The operator can then accept the warning prompt by clicking OK and overwrite the previous entry with the updated user and test selection. If Cancel is selected, Empress will again prompt for the external number to be supplied. If Cancel is selected at this prompt without any input, the operator will be returned to the test selection screen with all tests still selected, and the external number entry will be cleared.