Year, the client's last name and the company's running number for the year, in a format you set. Issued the moment a project is created, from a counter that can't hand out the same number twice, and kept for good — through a rename, an archive or completion. It shows in the project window, the client directory and the property panel, and you can jump to a job by typing part of its number.
Also called: job number · project number · 26-smith-042 · job reference · numbering
Your format, with a live preview
Try itIn Settings → Project Numbers, build the format from the year, the client's last name and the year's running number — {YY}-{SURNAME}-{SEQ3} gives 26-SMITH-042 — and the next number shows as you type. Moving from another system? Set where this year's count carries on from. Number existing projects numbers what you already have, oldest first, using each project's own year.
Jobs were found by customer name, and two Smiths in one season meant the wrong job got the call.
A format must include the running number, so two jobs in one year can never share a number.
The last name in the number
Try itThe name part is the client's last real word: "John & Mary Smith" is SMITH, "Brooks, Tyler" is BROOKS, and suffixes and company words — Jr, III, LLC, Family, Farms — are skipped, with accents folded. With no client, the name after a dash in the project's title is used. The running number is company-wide, so the name is there to read, not to keep numbers apart.
Job numbers were strings of digits nobody could connect to a house.
A number a person can read on a label or say on the phone gets used; an internal id doesn't.
Issued once, never changed
Try itA project is numbered the moment it's created, from a counter that can't hand out the same number twice, and keeps it through a rename, an archive or completion. It sits before the project's name in the project window, in the client directory and on the property; type part of it anywhere to jump straight to the job. A trade division's field-service app can store it and quote it back.
The trade division's app pointed at a job by name, and the name changed.
Another system can only link work to a project by something that will still be true next year.
- 1Set the format in Settings → Project Numbers — {YY}-{SURNAME}-{SEQ3} gives 26-SMITH-042.
- 2Set where this year's numbers carry on from if you're moving from another system.
- 3Number existing projects numbers what you already have, oldest first.
- 4New projects are numbered the moment they're created; the number never changes after that.
- 5Right-click anywhere and type part of a number to jump straight to the job.
A builder's in-house trade division quotes and schedules its work in its own field-service app, and needs to attach that work to the right builder project. Names collide and change; a permanent, human-readable number doesn't. It is issued once from an atomic counter and frozen, so another system can store it safely.
- No readable job reference across systems
- Jobs confused by customer name
