Document Naming

Written By Timothy Murenzi

Last updated 9 days ago

Customize how your Estimates, Invoices, Purchase Orders, and Proposals are numbered — so the prefix, separator, starting number, and padding all match the way your studio already files things internally.

Where to find it

Settings → Finances → Document Naming

You'll see one card per document type:

  • Estimates

  • Invoices

  • Purchase Orders

  • Proposals

Each card lets you build the next number from four pieces.

The four pieces

FieldExampleWhat it does

Prefix

EST

Letters / symbols that lead every number. Leave blank for pure numeric.

Separator

-

What sits between the prefix and the number. Common: -, _, /, or nothing.

Start at

1001

The number used on the next document you create. Workroom increments from there.

Padding

4

Pads the number with leading zeros to this many digits. 1 with padding 4 = 0001.

Combined preview: EST-0001, INV/2025-100, PO_500, PROP-001.

The card shows a live preview as you type — what you see is what the very next document will be stamped with.

Setting it up

  1. Open Settings → Finances → Document Naming.

  2. In the card for the document type you want to change, fill in each field.

  3. Watch the preview at the bottom of the card update as you type.

  4. Click Save.

The next document you create of that type uses the new format. Documents already in the system keep the number they were issued under — Workroom doesn't retroactively renumber.

Common patterns

Year-prefixed by project:

  • Prefix: EST-2025 · Separator: - · Start at: 1 · Padding: 3

  • Result: EST-2025-001, EST-2025-002, …

Pure sequential:

  • Prefix: (blank) · Separator: (blank) · Start at: 100000 · Padding: 0

  • Result: 100000, 100001, …

Client-friendly invoices:

  • Prefix: INV · Separator: - · Start at: 1001 · Padding: 4

  • Result: INV-1001, INV-1002, …

Per-project POs:

  • Prefix: PO · Separator: / · Start at: 1 · Padding: 2

  • Result: PO/01, PO/02, …

Good to know

  • Each document type is independent. Changing Invoice numbering doesn't touch Estimates or POs.

  • You can change the format any time. The change applies to NEW documents going forward. Old documents keep their original numbers.

  • Don't lower "Start at" below an already-used number. Workroom won't overwrite an existing document, but you'll get a duplicate-number warning on save.

  • Padding only adds leading zeros. It doesn't truncate. If your start number is 99999 with padding 3, you'll get 99999 (no padding added because the number is already longer).

  • Custom Prefix per project / per client? Not supported here — Document Naming is account-wide per type. Per-project labeling lives on the project record itself.

Troubleshooting

"The next number is showing the wrong value." You probably set Start at to a value lower than the most recent issued number. Set it to one higher than the last used number for that type and save again.

"My preview doesn't update." Refresh the page. Settings autosave to your account on the server, so the page is always pulling from the latest stored values.

"I changed the prefix but old documents still show the old one." That's expected. Document Naming only governs NEW documents. Existing documents retain whatever number they were stamped with at creation.

"Can I include the year automatically?" Not as a token. Bake the year into the prefix (e.g. EST-2025) and rotate it at the start of each year.