What is Contract Number?
A contract number identifies the agreement under which you are providing a service. It could be the number on a master services agreement, a statement of work, a purchase order issued by the client, a signed quotation or an engagement letter. Large clients usually assign their own PO or contract numbers; smaller ones may leave it to you to create a reference.
Why it matters for exporters
Part 2B of the EDF has a column for contract number and date, alongside the invoice number, invoice date, currency, amount, NRV, description and SAC code. It gives the bank a link between the invoice and the underlying commercial arrangement, which helps when it needs to understand what a payment is for.
If you work under a master agreement with monthly statements of work, use the reference that best identifies the work invoiced, and be consistent across months. If you have no formal contract, an accepted quotation or a client's email confirmation can serve as the basis, and you can note its date. For retainers and long engagements, the same contract number may appear against many invoices over the year, which is fine.
Keep a copy of each contract or PO in your EDF records. If the bank asks for supporting documents later, you will be able to produce them quickly.
Example
Saral Payroll Services Pvt Ltd provides payroll processing to a UK client under master agreement MSA-2026-04 dated 1 April 2026, with monthly POs. In its November 2026 EDF, Saral lists invoice SPS/112 against "PO 4500789123, 2 Nov 2026" in the contract column, and keeps the MSA reference in remarks. The EDF form generator has a separate field for contract number and date in each row.
Common confusion
The contract number is not the invoice number, and it is not the purpose code on the remittance. For each Part 2B column, see EDF Part 2B explained.