What makes a good file naming convention
A naming convention is useful when it makes files sortable, scannable, and searchable without anyone thinking about it. Three principles do most of the work. Lead with an ISO date so a folder sorts into a timeline on its own. Put the entity the file is about (client, matter, property, project) second so you can scan a folder by eye. Keep a short document type third because that is what people search for. Use hyphens inside a field and a single separator between fields so every field stays machine-parseable, and avoid spaces, slashes, and abbreviations only one person understands.
A convention is only as good as its enforcement
The hard part is not designing the convention. It is getting every file to actually match it, on day one and under deadline. A written policy in a wiki decays the moment the team gets busy. The conventions that hold are the ones a tool applies at the point of filing, so the output is identical no matter who did the work.
How to actually enforce the convention you just built
Once you have a pattern, there are two jobs left: apply it to the pile of existing files, and keep new files matching it. Sortio reads the content of each file with an LLM, writes the name and folder from your template, and shows you a preview before anything moves, so a backlog that would take weeks of manual renaming becomes a review-and-apply session. Point a watch folder at where new files land and the same template applies on arrival. The full approach is in our guide on enforcing a file naming convention your team actually follows.