Browse articles
Codes and numbering
Stop typing reference numbers by hand: set the patterns that auto-generate project codes and invoice, quote and purchase order numbers.
What you'll achieve
Set the numbering patterns so Monument generates project codes and invoice, quote and purchase order numbers automatically, matching the scheme your firm already uses.
You'll end up with: Automatic project codes and invoice, quote and purchase order numbers that follow your firm's pattern, continuing from where your old system left off.
Before you start
Every project gets a code, and every invoice, quote and purchase order gets a number. Type those by hand and sooner or later you get a gap, a duplicate, or a scheme that drifts. Code generation takes the job off you: you describe a pattern once, and Monument fills in the next value automatically, every time.
We'll set up the project numbering Northlight Architects already uses, so Riverside Apartments picks up a project code in their house style. Invoice, quote and purchase order numbers follow the same idea in their own sections.
How a pattern works
Code generation lives on the Application tab in Settings, under Code Generation. You set a pattern for each of five things: client project codes, admin project codes, invoice numbers, quote numbers and purchase order numbers, each in its own section on the same page.
A pattern is plain text plus placeholders that Monument substitutes when it generates a code. The braces button beside the field opens a picker, so you don't have to remember the syntax. For Riverside Apartments we use two: the four digit year, and a running number padded to three digits, giving 042, 043, and so on as more projects are created.
Invoice, quote and purchase order patterns share the same picker, plus their own placeholders that are aware of the parent project, so an invoice can count from 01 within its own project instead of racing every other project firm-wide.
Set your patterns
- 1
In Code Generation, choose Custom for Project Codes, since Northlight's house style doesn't match a ready-made preset.
- 2
Type the firm prefix NL, then insert the four digit year placeholder and a three digit padded running number after it.
- 3
Set the Starting number to forty two, continuing Northlight's existing sequence, and check the live Next preview updates to match.
- 4
Click Save. Invoice, quote and purchase order patterns sit in their own sections further down the page, and follow the same pattern-and-preview idea.
Moving from another system partway through the year? Set the Starting number so Monument picks up where your old invoices left off. Monument continues its automatic sequence without concurrent duplicates; review existing and manually entered codes before choosing the starting number.
Troubleshooting
- Code generation waits for Save. This is the one customisation section that uses the page save bar. Nothing changes until you click Save, unlike custom fields, statuses and types, which apply the moment you add them. A half-edited pattern stays pending until you save it.
- The Next preview updates before you save. Change the starting number or the pattern and watch the preview change immediately, so you catch a mistake before committing it.
- This subsection only touches client project codes. Admin project, invoice, quote and purchase order patterns are separate sections further down the same page, each with its own Starting number and Next preview.
Where this fits next
Your projects and documents now name themselves. The numbering flows straight through to creating a project and to sending an invoice. To capture extra detail on records, add custom fields. The Customise Monument overview shows numbering alongside the other customisations on screen.