Our firm likes to use the year the file was open as well as the next sequential number in line that the file was opened for that year. This is similar to what police departments do. Example. The first case opened in the year 2025 would have a Alt Case ID number of 2025-0001. The next case would be 2025-0002. Ideally, we would also be able to use this number when auto-generating our documents. CLIO, MyCase and other CRM have this option.