Filing and Document Management

Updated 5/14/21

As keepers and managers of enormous amounts of project information, organization and filing are fundamental to the success of our department. Here are some essential pointers to keep in mind when filing and organizing information.

• File Naming. Every file name should have (at a minimum) a project name, what the file is, and a date. Avoid capitalization. Use underscores instead of spaces. For example, the PDF file for a Survey dated January 1, 2018 for “Project X” would be named projectx_survey_180101.pdf.

• File Name Dates. For file names, always use Year-Month-Date format so that when files sort alphabetically they will also always sort chronologically.

• Dates. Every document you produce must have a date.

• Live Files. Avoid emailing live files (i.e., excel and word files) except within your working group. Files should be sent as PDF whenever possible (especially to clients). Subcontractor proposals should not be saved as live files. They should be saved as PDFs, even when sent to us as Excel or Word files.

• Superseded Files. You must be diligent about marking documents “Superseded” when new superseding documents are issued. Never mark any file or folder “Current”, “Newest”, or “Latest”—they are unlikely to stay that way where as a “Superseded” mark is more likely to be permanent. When you are inclined to mark something “Current”, think about whether you can instead mark everything else “Superseded”.

• CSI Codes. Use CSI codes for filing wherever possible (instead of alphabetic). This is especially true for trade-specific files such as trade scopes and bids.

• Note Distributed Docs. Whenever possible, distinguish between drafts of documents and documents that have been sent to clients (using a “_distributed” suffix or some other convenient means).

• Drawings Filing. Drawings should be filed as complete PDF sets broken down by discipline (i.e., Mechanical, Plumbing, Architectural, etc.). The root folder for the drawings (“00 00 00 – Drawings and Specifications”) should contain a complete set and should not contain any superseded documents. If there is a set name, such as “Bid Set”, it should come after the date so that drawings still sort by date.

• Job Folders. Sub-folders within a job folder should be added as needed provided they are named according to CSI code. However, there always needs to be a “00 00 00 - Drawings and Specifications” folder at the top.