Project specific reference numbers

[Jacob22x]

I have a database that has a table "Projects" related to a table "Issues." Each project has a project number (ex: W4012). Each project has multiple issues. Each issue then has a reference number, which is a numerical count of the number of issues concatenated with the project number. So the reference number for the third issue in a project would be 3-W4012, for example.

The problem comes in counting the number of issues per project. I previously had a calculation field in the projects table that counted the number of related issues, but that caused problems because it didn't always update and so I would get duplicate reference numbers. The system now works with a static number field in the Projects table called NextReferenceNumber that starts at 1 with a new project and then everytime a new issue is added, it increments by 1.

NextReferenceNumber is incremented by a script that has one Set Field script, replacing the number with itself plus 1. That script is activated every time a new issue is created by an auto-enter calculation field in the issues table that calls the script. (It uses a plug-in).

Hopefully that's clear. The problem is, when I import issues into the issue table, the reference numbers all come in as the same number. Since importing is important to us, this really isn't acceptable. Any suggestions for making this work? Thanks for your help.