Advanced Filing and Naming Protocols! 

Have you ever found yourself wondering where people are saving your documents?  Having clear filing and naming protocols are vital.

All too often we experience the process of searching and searched … looking for that missing document that you know should be in that file, but you can’t find it to save your life?  

Trust me, I get it. It is SO Frustrating, but there is a solution.  Time to enhance your filing and naming protocols.

The solution is having a clear filing and naming protocols!

By “System”, I mean having clear guidelines for your team on the way everyone in the company will save documents, with examples, templates, a policy that explains why and a succinct procedure.  

Now depending on your stage of growth, you may have Basic Guidelines, or if you have a more robust team with departments, you may have Advanced Guidelines.  Let’s review.

Basic Naming Protocols.  

Let’s start with basics such as Dates, Formats and Names 

Dates.  

First, let’s start with dates. I love to use European style. For one thing , it’s great because it has the year, then the month, then the day (20240131).  These eight digits, all together, make it quick and easy and the brain gets into the habit of always seeing it the same way. No wasted energy reconfiguring or wondering if someone saved it in a different way! 

Now, many like to rely on the creation date or the save date but what about when someone goes in months later and makes a small change and then saves the document, now it is in the wrong order.  Easier to keep a date reference that makes sense.  Sometimes it is the date the letter was drafted, the date it was received, the date something was filed or signed, or sometimes it relates to a future event date. This is why the guidelines need to provide clarity on which date to use.  

Formats.

Second, you want to set the ground rules on formatting and use of symbols and punctuation.  Love hyphens? Great, use hyphens … just make it clear. Whatever you ultimately use, everyone has to use it the same way. For instance, if you’re going to use hyphens in between the year and the month and the month and the day (2024-01-31), you need to make that clear. Prefer periods, (2024.01.31), great, make it clear in your naming procedure.  Whatever it is, get clear on what you want!  

Thereafter,, consider Punctuation Style.  Spaces versus No Spaces. Hyphens versus No Hyphens. Capitalization versus No Capitalization. Make A Hard Decision And Stick To It!  

Spaces versus No Spaces.

20240131lettertomrsmithredeadlineforreturningproperty.doc 
20240131 letter to mr smith re deadline for returning property.doc 

Hyphens versus No Hyphens. 

20240131lettertomrsmithredeadlineforreturningproperty.doc 
20240131-letter-to-mr-smith-re-deadline-for-returning-property.doc 

Capitalization versus No Capitalization. 

20240131 Letter to Mr. Smith re Deadline for Returning Property.doc 
20240131 letter to mr smith re deadline for returning property.doc 

Now, this can seem nitpicky, but it reduces the mental energy, especially if the name is long to have everything uniform. Caps and spaces can definitely make it easier for words to pop out in a long string of a name… but your system may or may not allow long naming protocols so you will need to develop your plan.  

Abbreviations

Finally, what is your plan for abbreviations?  And what about text short-hands? And emojis? Make sure you have something in your protocol on whether it is allowed or not allowed.  

Ltr2John4hisl8brief&r4urmsg.v3 
😂😂😂 

Advanced Naming Protocols

As your business grows and there are more humans who are involved, you will likely want to build out your naming protocols by department. In my law firm business, we had legal team requirements, but we also had our admin team, finance team, marketing, etc. each with their own protocols to make it quick and easy to find what they needed.  

Your marketing team is going to have different elements like rough draft, final draft, and approved. Or you may need to enact strong version control for graphic designs and images that will undergo multiple changes. IT is vital that you set the stage and control this or you will end up with images being saved in a format that is not helpful like this:  

Image 9024930849320. 
Image 9039089003090. 
Image 9248492308492. 
Image 9802834903289. 
Image 9918394823903.  

Anybody open up a file folder and seen dozens of images like that?  😂😂😂. Yep… good luck and have fun wasting your time review dozens of images just to find the one you were looking for!!  

Technical teams…  whether you’re a law firm or a dentist or a doctor or a business owner or CPA, again, your technical team needs to have good clarity on those different naming protocols so that they can all quickly find what they need!  

As with any protocols and procedures, always take the time to talk to your team and find a usage that makes sense.

Benefits of Clear Filing and Naming Protocols

This is where a business can increase productivity and profitability.  You see, when the brain gets in a habit of doing things the same way, in just a nanosecond, the brain identifies and can move forward knowing whether that document was… finalized…  signed… approved… sent out… etc.  ?  We don’t need to sit there wondering, was that a draft or not a draft?  

I am such a big fan of making this one of the first areas you tackle when you’re looking to increase productivity, increase your profit margin. Why? Because it’s super easy. Everyone on the team will get a benefit. You will claw back 15 to 20 minutes every day from everyone on your team just by implementing this system. 

In conclusion, I hope this post has inspired you and I would love to read some of your favorite naming and file protocols… and some of the craziest you have ever seen too!  

And if you have questions or you want more help on this or building out your General Systems Manual, let us know.