Naming Scheme

I decided on YYMM### where the first job of March of this year would be 1203001. I have a main "JOBS" directory with subfolders for each year and if my workload ever increases significantly I can create subfolders for each month to make it easier to scroll through the jobs.

Same here YY***. I started to do the month thing, but just went to the next number after awhile. I used to get 4 digets after the year, but not so fortunate this go around. But definately YY as the first two. Each year is in its own subfolder.

Invoice number is the project number, followed by whichever invoice it is for that job.

I once worked in a bigger firm who tried to number/name projects according to scope. That got really confusing when a boundary morphs into a topo that morphs into design that morphs into staking that includes permitting & project management, etc. That may work for multi discipline firms & multi office firms, but seems overkill for just surveying.

2012-001

Never had to worry about more than 1000 jobs but if that's a problem:

2012-0001

I use the year, month, and job. For the 10th job this month that is 20120310.
I started out using 2 digits for the year but went to 4 digits during 2000 when someone called to ask questions about a project they called 101 which was actually 000101.

> I decided on YYMM### where the first job of March of this year would be 1203001. I have a main "JOBS" directory with subfolders for each year and if my workload ever increases significantly I can create subfolders for each month to make it easier to scroll through the jobs.

Same here

today would be

20120322

field file gets named date and then job name (usually last name of client)

20120322_Brooks

Office folder on the PC gets named job name

BROOKS

Inside there you have folders

DRAWINGS - for dwgs, ect
FIELD DATA - for pic, field book scans, data collector files, gps files, ect
PROJECT MANAGEMENT - contracts, emails, research scans, etc

DWG files get named the dated they were created

Project number on the plat is the same as the DWG date that you created the plat from so when someone calls looking for info on project # 20120322 I can easily type that into Windows Search on my Projects folder and it takes me right it.

All projects filed into a year folder and as the job is completed and only after the pins are set it goes into an ARCHIVE folder that lives in my PROJECTS folder
2012
2011
2010
ect

I group mine by client.

such as one engineer is #198, in that folder are sub-folders with incremental numbers. I am now on 198-75 for this one, or 198.75...

This allows me to know what clients are the most valuable in quantity of work. I also use a description in the sub-folder heading to help me, such as 198-75 River Road Yarmouth. thje data collector files get named 198-75.whatever. for multi-day projects the raw files get coded as such, Day 1 etc...

I was tempted to figure out a numbering system by town but it wasn't feasible or beneficial. Google earth tracks the location of my jobs just fine! (if I could remember to put them all in there!)

we have a client by client numbering system
0001-01.0 would be the first job
the boss kept 0000 for himself
so we will stick with this

but our CAD file naming has changed over the years

back when you could only have 8 digits, all our files were named
0001010a
2742010a
and so on

but now we can use more letters
so when i get the file name
2891 170 Lot7A Site Plan Topo Revised 2011-09-16.dwg
by one drafter and
2891 170 Lot 7A Site Plan 2011.dwg
by another
and then the boss has another general naming scheme which truncates nothing
it drives me nuts...

we are a surveying, engineering and environmental permitting firm, so we have many many plans...

When I took over for my grandfather 6 years ago, the first thing I did was redo his filing system. Everything was filed alphabetically by the name on the folder. Generally the name on the folder was whoever called and ordered the job -- grantee, grantor, realtor, attorney, grandchild, niece, etc.. So you can imagine what I was dealing with. Also, all survey plats were filed the same way -- alphabetically by the name on the plat, which did not always match the name on the folder. At the time I took over, he had been in business for about 35 years. I think it took me a month full time to get this all done. Now everything is filed by job number (even the old ones) YYMMJJ. Also, every job and plat is indexed on a spread sheet that can be sorted by name, tax parcel, municipality, and date. This works well because 95% of his (and now my) work is all within one county. I have seen many systems, but I like mine and seeing that others use it as well gives me confidence that I developed a good system.