Is there any way, in the most recent version of Word, to create a number field that acts like page numbers but without the pages?

I deal with a lot of very large documents at work, and a continual problem is the fact that every time we change one of the figures that are cited in the text, or add a new figure, all the other numbers in the entire 80+ page thing need to be changed by hand so they’re all bumped up: 50 to 51, 51 to 52, etc.

This would be a LIFESAVER if it is possible.