How many characters in CoS Reference Number?

[dillingerband]

I'm filling out Appendix 5 to supplement my online Tier 2 General application, and I came across something that struck me as strange. The CoS reference given to me by my employer doesn't fill the entire number of boxes on the Appendix 5 form. There is one less character in the reference they gave me. Has my employer given me an incorrect number or is there not a fixed number of characters in a reference number? Has anyone else experienced this?

[chuuk]

This was also the case with me, so I think that is just the way it is!