Have a look at http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Numbering/ListRestartMethods.htm
for some ideas.

Hi Barbara:

It's really difficult to explain why this happens.  Or rather, *I* found it
difficult to understand the explanation!

Simplistically, you can say that while the "Formatting" is part of the
Paragraph Style, the "Numbering" is not.  If you set the styles up
correctly, the numbering List Template is "Linked" to the style, but it is
not part of it.

What makes it difficult is that the tabs and indents in the numbering
override and conflict with the same settings in the paragraph style.

A document makes no further reference to the template after it has been
created.  So it doesn't matter what happens in the template after the
document is created.  UNLESS the document has "Automatically update styles
on open" turned on in the Tools>Templates and Add-ins dialog.  If that is
turned on, each time the document is opened, all of the styles from the
template are copied into the document each time it is opened.  But the
NUMBERING List Templates are NOT copied.  So immediately, the association
between the Styles and the numbering is broken each time the document is
opened.

So that's the first thing to check:  In Tools>Templates check that
"Automatically update styles ..." is NOT turned on in any document using
numbering.

The other thing is to check that that user is ACTUALLY using right-click to
restart the numbering.  If they use Right-click>Bullets and Numbering, they
will not restart the old list, they will apply a new list.  And the new list
will not be associated with the style.

You need also to check -- in the document, not the template -- that the link
between the Style and its numbering remains in place.  It is all too easy
for an inexperienced user to do something that breaks that association.  The
numbering can then be associated with a different style, the correct style
can pick up different numbering, or the correct numbering may not be
attached to a style at all.  The link is very fragile: playing around in
Format>Bullets and Numbering can break it in a flash, without the user being
aware of that or even intending to do it.

Come back if you find this a bit cryptic: It took me a while to understand
it.

The person who specified this mechanism in Word seems to have not properly
understood how the various numbering types are actually used.  That left the
software designer trying to do too many things with a single design.  The
net result is that we have a fiendishly complex mechanism that works very
well but requires users to know some very complex stuff, and most don't want
to take the time to learn it.

Hope this helps