Item Numbering
Learn how sequential Item numbers are assigned, edited, and managed in Join across drafts, milestones, options, and bulk imports.
Assigning Item Numbers
Item numbers are assigned automatically and sequentially as they are published. The first Item you publish becomes Item #1, the next becomes Item #2, and so on.
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An Item keeps its number across Milestones. Transitioning an Item to a new Milestone doesn’t change its number. Join tracks numbering at the project level, not per Milestone.
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New Items continue the project’s running count. A new Item created in your next Milestone doesn’t start back at Item #1; it picks up wherever the project’s numbering left off. For example, if your Design Development Milestone ended at Item #10, the first new Item you publish in the next Milestone will be Item #11.
Draft Versus Published Items
A new Item doesn't always get a number when you create it, only when it's published. Numbers are assigned in the order Items are published, not the order they're created. If you create three Items as drafts and publish them out of order, the first one you publish gets the lowest number, regardless of which one you created first.
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Draft Items have no Item number. You can build them out privately (name, description, cost, assignee, etc.) without affecting the project's numbering sequence.
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Published Items are assigned the next number in the sequence when you click Publish.
Tip: If you're not sure an Item belongs in the project yet, leave it as a draft. Since only published Items create an Item number, staying in draft is how you control when Items enter the numbering sequence.
Editing an Item's Number
The Item number field is a freeform text box and can be manually overwritten at any time by typing any value into the number field, including alphanumeric characters ("1.1", "6A", etc.). This can be helpful if you want numbers that match your own tracking convention.
Caution: Manually renumbering an Item doesn't change what number the next published Item receives. If you rename Item #4 to "D," the next new Item you publish will still be Item #5. Items will continue to be numbered based on the number of Items on the project, regardless of custom Item numbers.
Deleting an Item
Deleting a published Item will leave a gap in the numbering sequence.
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Remaining Items are not renumbered after an Item is deleted. Gaps after deletion are expected, as Join does not shift the remaining Items down to close the gap. If you have Items #1 through #5 and delete Item #4, Item #5 does not shift to become a new Item #4.
- The next Item you publish continues from the number of Items on the project (including deleted Items, excluding Options), not from the count of Items currently remaining. If you delete Item #5 out of five Items, the next new Item you publish will be Item #6, not a new Item #5.
Note: If a clean, gapless numbering sequence matters, the workaround is to manually renumber the surrounding Items yourself using the manual override described above. However, that's a manual workflow you'll need to maintain for the rest of the project, not something Join will do automatically.
Numbering for Items with Options
When an Item has multiple Options, each Option is a full Item nested under the parent Item.
- New Options get automatic sub-numbers. When you add a new Option to an Item, Join generates decimal-style numbers that tie back to the parent Item. For example, Options under Item 26 would be "26.1," "26.2," "26.3,".
- When you convert an existing Item to an Option, the original Item’s number is retained.
- When you detach an Option, it becomes a standalone Item, and its original number is retained. Join does not automatically assign it a new number, so if the Option was numbered "11.2," it stays "11.2" until you manually rename it.
Caution: Converting Items to Options, and detaching Options to become Items effectively changes the number of Items on the project, thus affecting the number sequence. For example, if there are ten Items on the project and #10 is converted to an Option on an existing Item, the next Item number issued will be #10 again, because there are only nine remaining.
Numbering When Importing Items
When you import Items, you decide whether they come in as Published Items or as Draft Items. That choice can impact how they get numbered.
Importing as Published
Items are numbered in the order they appear in your import spreadsheet list, following the same sequential numbering described above. The first Item in the spreadsheet takes the next available number in the sequence, and so on.