diff --git a/.buildlibrary b/.buildlibrary
index a779412..66c2443 100644
--- a/.buildlibrary
+++ b/.buildlibrary
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-ValidationKey: '613522360'
+ValidationKey: '6.14e+08'
 AcceptedWarnings:
 - 'Warning: package ''.*'' was built under R version'
 - 'Warning: namespace ''.*'' is not available and has been replaced'
diff --git a/CITATION.cff b/CITATION.cff
index 2c4f301..b964109 100644
--- a/CITATION.cff
+++ b/CITATION.cff
@@ -2,8 +2,8 @@ cff-version: 1.2.0
 message: If you use this software, please cite it using the metadata from this file.
 type: software
 title: 'quitte: Bits and pieces of code to use with quitte-style data frames'
-version: 0.3124.0
-date-released: '2023-10-09'
+version: 0.3125.0
+date-released: '2023-10-18'
 abstract: A collection of functions for easily dealing with quitte-style data frames,
   doing multi-model comparisons and plots.
 authors:
diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 9c730f4..e5cb620 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 Type: Package
 Package: quitte
 Title: Bits and pieces of code to use with quitte-style data frames
-Version: 0.3124.0
-Date: 2023-10-09
+Version: 0.3125.0
+Date: 2023-10-18
 Authors@R: c(
     person("Michaja", "Pehl", , "pehl@pik-potsdam.de", role = c("aut", "cre")),
     person("Nico", "Bauer", , "nicolasb@pik-potsdam.de", role = "aut"),
diff --git a/R/quitteSort.R b/R/quitteSort.R
index aae5213..ca08a1d 100644
--- a/R/quitteSort.R
+++ b/R/quitteSort.R
@@ -10,9 +10,16 @@
 #' @return the sorted quitte object
 #' @export
 quitteSort <- function(x) {
-  model <- scenario <- region <- variable <- unit <- period <- NULL
   x <- as.quitte(x) %>%
-    relocate(model, scenario, region, variable, unit, period) %>%
-    arrange(model, scenario, variable, unit, region, period) %>%
-    return()
+    relocate('model', 'scenario', 'region', 'variable', 'unit', 'period')
+
+  for (col in names(which('factor' == sapply(x, class)))) {
+    x <- x %>%
+      mutate(
+        !!sym(col) := factor(.data[[col]], levels = sort(levels(.data[[col]]))))
+  }
+
+  x %>%
+    arrange(.data$model, .data$scenario, .data$region, .data$variable,
+            .data$unit, .data$period)
 }
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 268bd55..3cc5bde 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # Bits and pieces of code to use with quitte-style data frames
 
-R package **quitte**, version **0.3124.0**
+R package **quitte**, version **0.3125.0**
 
 [![CRAN status](https://www.r-pkg.org/badges/version/quitte)](https://cran.r-project.org/package=quitte)  [![R build status](https://github.com/pik-piam/quitte/workflows/check/badge.svg)](https://github.com/pik-piam/quitte/actions) [![codecov](https://codecov.io/gh/pik-piam/quitte/branch/master/graph/badge.svg)](https://app.codecov.io/gh/pik-piam/quitte) [![r-universe](https://pik-piam.r-universe.dev/badges/quitte)](https://pik-piam.r-universe.dev/builds)
 
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ In case of questions / problems please contact Michaja Pehl <michaja.pehl@pik-po
 
 To cite package **quitte** in publications use:
 
-Pehl M, Bauer N, Hilaire J, Levesque A, Luderer G, Schultes A, Dietrich J, Richters O (2023). _quitte: Bits and pieces of code to use with quitte-style data frames_. R package version 0.3124.0, <https://github.com/pik-piam/quitte>.
+Pehl M, Bauer N, Hilaire J, Levesque A, Luderer G, Schultes A, Dietrich J, Richters O (2023). _quitte: Bits and pieces of code to use with quitte-style data frames_. R package version 0.3125.0, <https://github.com/pik-piam/quitte>.
 
 A BibTeX entry for LaTeX users is
 
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ A BibTeX entry for LaTeX users is
   title = {quitte: Bits and pieces of code to use with quitte-style data frames},
   author = {Michaja Pehl and Nico Bauer and Jérôme Hilaire and Antoine Levesque and Gunnar Luderer and Anselm Schultes and Jan Philipp Dietrich and Oliver Richters},
   year = {2023},
-  note = {R package version 0.3124.0},
+  note = {R package version 0.3125.0},
   url = {https://github.com/pik-piam/quitte},
 }
 ```
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-quitteSort.R b/tests/testthat/test-quitteSort.R
index ad8b209..26e4f91 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-quitteSort.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-quitteSort.R
@@ -14,8 +14,8 @@ test_that('quitteSort works', {
     expect_identical(qes, quitteSort(qewrong))
     # move first region to the end
     qewrong <- bind_rows(
-          qes %>% filter(first(region) != region),
-          qes %>% filter(first(region) == region)
+      qes %>% filter(first(region) != region),
+      qes %>% filter(first(region) == region)
     )
     expect_false(identical(qes, qewrong))
     expect_identical(qes, quitteSort(qewrong))