diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 44fe923443..45394536ad 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
     <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
     <artifactId>acs-community-packaging</artifactId>
     <name>Alfresco Content Services Community Packaging</name>
-    <version>6.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>6.0.a-SNAPSHOT</version>
     <packaging>pom</packaging>
 
     <parent>
diff --git a/war/pom.xml b/war/pom.xml
index 81413bcfde..6486c4afbf 100644
--- a/war/pom.xml
+++ b/war/pom.xml
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
     <parent>
         <groupId>org.alfresco</groupId>
         <artifactId>acs-community-packaging</artifactId>
-        <version>6.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+        <version>6.0.a-SNAPSHOT</version>
         <relativePath>../pom.xml</relativePath>
     </parent>
 
@@ -215,6 +215,25 @@
                     <shortRevisionLength>8</shortRevisionLength>
                 </configuration>
             </plugin>
+            <!-- populate version.properties with the correct version -->
+            <!-- Creates the following variables:
+                 parsedVersion.majorVersion
+                 parsedVersion.minorVersion
+                 parsedVersion.incrementalVersion
+             -->
+            <plugin>
+                <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
+                <artifactId>build-helper-maven-plugin</artifactId>
+                <version>3.0.0</version>
+                <executions>
+                    <execution>
+                        <phase>validate</phase>
+                        <goals>
+                            <goal>parse-version</goal>
+                        </goals>
+                    </execution>
+                </executions>
+            </plugin>
             <plugin>
                 <artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
                 <executions>
diff --git a/war/src/main/resources/alfresco/version.properties b/war/src/main/resources/alfresco/version.properties
index 5243b3857d..216ccff4ab 100644
--- a/war/src/main/resources/alfresco/version.properties
+++ b/war/src/main/resources/alfresco/version.properties
@@ -4,9 +4,9 @@
 
 # Version label
 
-version.major=5
-version.minor=3
-version.revision=0
+version.major=@parsedVersion.majorVersion@
+version.minor=@parsedVersion.minorVersion@
+version.revision=@parsedVersion.qualifier@
 version.label=
 
 # Edition label
diff --git a/zip/pom.xml b/zip/pom.xml
index 759839e6c2..ee8a2cc871 100644
--- a/zip/pom.xml
+++ b/zip/pom.xml
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
     <parent>
         <groupId>org.alfresco</groupId>
         <artifactId>acs-community-packaging</artifactId>
-        <version>6.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+        <version>6.0.a-SNAPSHOT</version>
         <relativePath>../pom.xml</relativePath>
     </parent>