Enforcing Data Uniqueness in Acumatica with PXUnique

In ERP systems, data integrity is everything. One of the most common integrity rules is uniqueness—making sure that certain values (like company names, codes, or identifiers) don’t get duplicated. In Acumatica, this is handled elegantly with the PXUnique attribute.

What Is PXUnique?

PXUnique is a data validation attribute in Acumatica that ensures a field’s value is unique across records. When a user tries to save a record with a duplicate value, Acumatica immediately throws a validation error.

Example:

[PXUnique(ErrorMessage = "Company must be unique.")]

How PXUnique Works

When a record is saved:

1. Acumatica checks the database for existing records with the same value.

2. If a duplicate is found, saving is blocked.

3. The user sees the error message defined in ErrorMessage.

Typical Use Cases

PXUnique is commonly used for:

- Company names

- Customer or vendor codes

- Custom identifiers

- Any field that must remain globally unique

Best Practices

Use clear error messages to improve user experience. Combine PXUnique with database unique indexes for maximum data safety. Be careful when allowing updates to fields that must remain unique.

PXUnique vs SQL Constraints

PXUnique provides user-friendly UI validation, while SQL unique constraints protect against direct database writes. The best approach is to use both.

Final Thoughts

PXUnique is a simple but powerful tool in Acumatica that helps enforce business rules early and clearly. Used correctly, it improves data quality, user experience, and long-term system stability.