Naming Conventions

Why This Matters

Every workflow, form, tag, and field in GHL needs a consistent name. Without conventions, two people building the same workflow will name things differently, making it impossible to find anything, duplicate across clients, or maintain a master snapshot.

These conventions apply to every client sub-account, every time, without exception. If something isn't covered here, ask James before inventing your own naming scheme.

---

Club Codes

Every client club is assigned a two or three-letter code. This code prefixes everything built in their sub-account.

How to assign a new club code:

• Use the first letter of each word in the club name, up to three letters
• Avoid codes already in use — check the list above first
• If there's a conflict, use the first two letters of the most distinctive word in the name
• Add the new code to this table before building anything

---

Sub-Account Naming

When a new client sub-account is created in GHL, use the full formal name of the club exactly as the club uses it — including spaces, proper capitalisation, and & where it is part of the official name.

Examples:

• Hadley Wood Golf Club
• Crane Valley Golf Club
• Cottesmore Hotel Golf & Country Club
• Ashford Manor Golf Club

Rules:

• Do not abbreviate the club name
• Do not add suffixes like — Capture or (Client)
• Use & where it appears in the club's own name — this is the one place in GHL where & is correct
• Match the capitalisation the club uses in their own branding
• Sandbox or test accounts must be prefixed: DO NOT USE — [Description]

The tag and workflow naming rules (dashes, no spaces, no special characters) do not apply to sub-account names. Sub-account names are display labels, not system identifiers.

---

Workflows

All automation workflows follow this format:

Format: [Club Code] — [Workflow Name]

Examples:

• HW — New Member Onboarding
• CV — Lead Autopilot
• SP — Member Birthday Summary
• HW — Contact Us Routing

Additional rules:

• Use title case for the workflow name
• Be specific — HW — Membership Follow-Up is better than HW — Email 1
• For multi-step sequences, name the parent folder and number the individual workflows inside it: HW — Onboarding / 01 Welcome, HW — Onboarding / 02 Meet the Team
• Lead Autopilot campaign workflows include the campaign name and month: CV — Lead Autopilot / Women's Membership Mar 2026

---

Forms

Format: [Club Code] — [Form Name]

Examples:

• HW — Contact Us
• HW — Membership Enquiry
• HW — New Member Intake (Internal)
• HW — Get to Know You
• CV — Society Brochure Download

Additional rules:

• Add (Internal) to the end of any form that is staff-only and should never be shared publicly
• Form names should describe what the form does, not the workflow it belongs to
• Keep names short — under five words where possible

---

Tags

All tags use dashes. No spaces, no special characters, no underscores.

Format: Category-Description for named tags, lowercase-with-dashes for status and campaign tags.

Never use spaces or special characters. Spaces and characters like &, /, (, ) break GHL workflow conditions — the tag will not match and automations will silently fail. This has caused real issues on client accounts (e.g. Stonebridge).

If you find an existing tag with spaces or special characters, do not rename it — renaming breaks existing workflows. Add the correctly formatted tag, update the relevant workflow conditions to point to the new one, then leave the old one in place.

Source Tags

Applied when a contact is created. Never removed.

Interest Tags

Applied based on the type of enquiry or interest shown.

Compliance Tags

Applied to record consent and marketing status.

Content Tags

Applied when a contact downloads a gated asset.

Data Tags

Applied for data origin and segmentation.

Status Tags

Applied to track pipeline and lifecycle stage.

Campaign Tags

Applied when a contact enters a Lead Autopilot campaign.

Format: campaign-[start-date]-[campaign-name]

Examples:

• campaign-03.26-womens-membership
• campaign-04.26-society-golf
• campaign-05.26-visitor-day

Chatbot Tags

---

Custom Fields

All custom field keys use lowercase_snake_case.

Format: [field_name]

Custom fields are grouped into folders inside GHL. Name the folder clearly — it appears in the contact record.

Standard folders and fields:

Any new custom fields must be added to this table and to the master spreadsheet before they go live.

---

Custom Values

Custom values are club-wide variables — they apply to the whole sub-account and are referenced in all email and automation copy.

All custom value keys use lowercase_snake_case.

Format in copy: {{custom_values.key_name}}

Populate all custom values on day one of a new client build. Do not leave any blank.

---

Workflow Reference System

Every workflow in this library has a unique reference slug. References use a category prefix followed by a descriptive slug — they are not numbered, so new workflows can be added without renumbering existing ones.

Category Prefixes

Full Reference List

Why slug-based refs, not numbers? Numbered refs (WF-01, WF-02) break when new workflows are inserted between existing ones — everything downstream needs renumbering. Slug-based refs are stable. Adding WF-brochure-events in future does not require changing any existing ref.

---

Email Naming

All emails use a reference ID that matches the workflow they belong to.

Format: E[workflow_number].[email_number] [Description]

Examples:

• E01.1 Staff Alert — Contact Us
• E01.2 Customer Confirmation — Contact Us
• E07.1 Welcome — New Member Onboarding
• E07.2 Meet the Team — New Member Onboarding

The workflow number corresponds to the workflow reference in the master spreadsheet. The email number within a workflow is sequential starting at 1.

Staff alert emails always end with the description Staff Alert. Customer-facing emails describe what they do.

Brochure Download Emails (E03 series)

The three brochure download variants share the E03 series. Emails are numbered E03.1 through E03.6:

---

Pipelines

Pipeline names use title case and match the department name exactly as it appears in the club's organisational structure.

Standard pipeline names:

• Membership
• Society / Group Golf
• Events
• Weddings
• Golf Lessons
• Green Fees
• General Enquiries
• Facebook Leads (Lead Autopilot only)

Do not create custom pipeline names without James's sign-off. If a club has a department that doesn't fit the standard list, flag it before building.

---

Folders in GHL

Workflows and email templates are organised into folders inside each sub-account.

Workflow folders — format: [Club Code] — [Category]

Examples:

• HW — Lead Capture
• HW — Onboarding
• HW — Member Comms
• HW — Internal
• HW — Lead Autopilot

Keep each folder to a single category. Do not put lead capture workflows in the same folder as onboarding workflows.

---

Non-Negotiable Rules

1. Club codes are assigned before building starts. Do not begin a new sub-account without a confirmed club code — everything else flows from it.
2. Tags are never renamed after go-live. Renaming a tag breaks every filter, smart list, and workflow that references it. If a tag is wrong, add the correct one and migrate — never rename.
3. Custom values must be populated before any workflow goes live. An email with a blank {{custom_values.club_name}} is worse than no email at all.
4. New fields and tags go into the master spreadsheet immediately. Not after the build. Not after go-live. Immediately.
5. Tags must never contain spaces or special characters. No spaces, no &, no /, no brackets. These break GHL workflow conditions and cause automations to silently fail. Use dashes only — Interest-Membership not Interest Membership, never Interest Membership & More.
6. If a convention isn't covered here, ask James. Do not invent naming schemes. One inconsistency compounds into dozens when you're duplicating across clients.