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Auto Number that Resets Every Year

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Devon_Godfrey
6 - Interface Innovator
6 - Interface Innovator

(So, since I’m a “New” user even though I’ve used airtable for years, I can only post 5 images per post, so I’m breaking this up into multiple responses. )

Hi guys! I encountered a need to have this solved, and the nature of the problem just doesn’t mesh well with creating a formula to fix it.

Here’s a topic that was looking for a good answer on this, and one that gives an answer that I think can be improved upon:

This does require an automation, but only requires one table and two fields: a created time field and a single line text field. It doesn’t matter whether they’re primary or not.

Here’s how it works:

First, create a new base, just to play with it and get a handle on it:
2021-10-30 23_51_23-Auto Number Base_ Projects - Airtable — Mozilla Firefox
Here, I’ve created a single base and renamed the first table “Projects”, as I will use this to create a project numbering system that resets each year.

Next, I’m going to add two fields: “Date” and “Number”:
2021-10-30 23_53_26-Auto Number Base_ Projects - Airtable — Mozilla Firefox
They MUST be a date and single line text field, respectively! ( I would highly suggest that we make the date field a created time field )

23 Replies 23

Can you create a test base with this and share it? 

Hi Atusr,

My organization has disabled scripts, so your solution would be a great help to me.  Can you go into a little more detail on your process?  If I'm reading your post correctly, I would want a 2nd table with a column that contains incremental numbers: 2024, 2025, 2026, etc.

Then what do I enter for Find Records?
- **Find Records** in "Time Periods" that match your period formula.
- **Update Record** to link the new record to the identified time period.
As a novice AirTable user this isn't clear to me.

Look forward to any help you might provide.

If you only need incremental numbers, then the auto-increment field should work nicely by itself. This solution is for if you need that counter to reset on a regular basis. 

You can read about auto-numbers here: https://support.airtable.com/docs/number-based-fields-in-airtable

If you need it to start at a different number, set up a formula field and add the auto increment number to it (For instance, {auto-number-field} + 2000)

Thanks for your reply Devon.

I'm actually looking for exactly what was described in the original post in this thread.  To have tickets numbered 2024_001 and on, then in January switch to 2025_001.  For now I'm using the autonumber field until I'm granted access to scripting or Atusr gives me some additional details for his suggestion.