You are correct about having a default record in place. Use something that will never come up like ux87tz45. The problem with this method is your DRW page will always show "Record not found" or whatever your default is when someone first goes there. You could make that blank, but then if a user enters their account number in wrong, the screen would just flash and there would be no message.

The better option may be to separate the input form from the DRW. You would have a page with the field where the user would enter their account number. When they pressed submit the information would be sent to your new DRW page and processed from their. There should be no noticeable difference in performance.

If you would like to go that route I (we) could walk you through it...

Joe