Many thanks for all your help guys

Went with the following option 3 for those that are interested:-

DECLARE @newseq AS float   UPDATE NextId SET @newseq = iNextNo = iNextNo + 1 WHERE cdbfname = 'JOBNO'          SELECT @newseq

The command above increases my field and puts the result into a local variable, I can then query the variable Voila

The main point here being that the update increase my field value and puts the result in a global variable in one move so to speak. Sweet.

This works fine for me :)