Filing

The objective of the Filing System is to make it easy for people to save their work, so that:

  • Working together on shared projects is the default way of working
  • Information valuable to the organisation is protected

Layout

Folder Contents
books Books - Our reference Library, it is where the publised results of Projects is kept Eg, Annual Reports, Building Plans, Current Insurances, Current Lease etc
contacts Contacts - A folder per external Contact, containing records of significant correspondence between the parties and ordered chronologically
cprojects Completed Projects - Where Projects go to die once they’ve been completed
projects Projects - A folder per current operational project, ordered by expected completion date
  • Keep the system as flat as possible, you should generally have no more than one level of folders within folders. If you feel you need more levels you probably need to promote to a new project.

The Rules

We all have different ideas on how to organise and classify information. Everyone will have a different view as to what is “logical” and/or “intuitive”. But that doesn’t work when you are sharing information with a lot of people. Have a look at most people’s “logical” filing sytem, it will be full of nested directories, 2 or 3 levels deep and often with only one or two files in a directory.

To work for a lot of people we need to keep the structure as flat as possible - think of a library - it’s just one level of a lot of books.

So …

projects

Projects are the way we organise work

  • Each Project typically matches an item on your and/or your team’s “to be done” list.
  • Each Project is named with a prefix in the format YYMM, being the expected completion date (or “use by”) of the projects eg “2408 Audit for Year Ending 240630”. For example:
    • 2406 Accounts
    • 2406 Committee Meetings
    • 2404 Policies and Procedures Update - Version 6
    • 2405 Winter Newsletter
    • 2405 Role Descriptions - Review and Update

Importantly, this means the list of projects is ordered by expected completion date and means that we can easily archive projects once they are completed. Simply move the project folder into “cprojects”.

We can copy the contents of a completed project to be a template for the next project, eg “2308 Audit for Year Ending 230630” can be copied as a starting point for “2408 Audit for Tear Ending 240630”.

  • EVERY document, filed anywhere, MUST be filed with a prefix of YYMMDD. For example:

    • 230930 NAB Bank Statement
    • 230310 Booking Form.pdf
    • 220630 Gross Revenue Schedule.pdf
    • 170523 Merriment Annual Fire Safety Statement.pdf
    • 230613 DPIE Credit Note - 15015175 MSU Charges.pdf
    • 230628 Alpine Range Invoice INV-0019.pdf
    • 240701 Lodge Procedures Manual.docx
    • 240627 Member and Share Register

Files then appear in chronological order and you never get caught with names such as “Final Draft”, “Almost Final Draft”, “Final Draft But Now It’s Changed!”. Because as we all know, “Final Draft” is NEVER the Final Draft!

if you have lots of versions of a file as a project develops, create a sub-folder called something like “Archive” and move all except the “current” version into the archive. That way you will have a clean view of what’s current but will still have access to a history of how your drafts have changed over time.

cprojects - completed projects

  • Once a project is completed, copy the final output of the project to “books”. eg a set of Annual Accounts, the next version of the Lodge Procedures Manual, the current Members Register etc. and the move the project to “cprojects”.

books

“books” are our permanent history and/or our “current” state, eg current building plans, current insurances, current lease etc.

  • “books” must be “published” in permanent formats such as .PDF or .EPUB. “books” must NOT contain modifiable files like .docx or .xls etc

contacts

Contacts are all the separate external “legal” entities that we have contact with, most typically suppliers and industry groups. If the amount of correspondence with a contact becomes too voluminous then the contact may in turn need to have sub-folders of Books, Projects, etc