Department
A department is a function of the business: Finance, Human Resource, Production, Procurement. Every position belongs to one, and every employee inherits it from their position. It is the breakdown HR reports on most often, and the one an approval chain most often follows.
What it is for
A company has to be able to say which function somebody works in, and this is the list of functions. It is deliberately a plain list: the code, the name, and who is answerable for it.
Where it differs from Business Unit is worth settling early with the client, because they will use the two words loosely. A business unit is a line of business, a department is a function. Garments is a business unit. Production is a department. A company can have Production in both its Spinning and its Garments business units and still keep one Production department.
A department reaches an employee through their position. You put the department on the Position, and Employee Organization Assignment carries it onto the person. You do not type a department on an employee.
The Responsible field names the head of department. It is what reports mean by "department head", and it is useful where an approval chain or an escalation needs somebody to go to who is not simply the employee's own manager.
Every field, in plain words
| Field | What it means | What to put in it | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Department | The short code. | 003 | Required. Three digits is the usual convention, it sorts cleanly in a list. |
| Name | What the department is called. | Production | Required. |
| Responsible | The head of the department. | Imran Shah | Pick them from the list, which shows the people set up as responsible for this screen in this company. Leave blank if the client has not decided. |
| Block | Stops the department being picked on any new record. What is already using it keeps it. | Leave clear | Tick it when a department is merged away, rather than deleting a record history refers to. |
How to configure it
- Ask the client for their organisation chart and take the department list from it, not from their job titles.
- If you intend to name heads of department, set those people up on Responsible first.
- Open Department and enter a code and a name, for example
001andFinance. - Pick the Responsible if there is one.
- Save, and repeat for the rest -
002Human Resource,003Production,004Procurement,005Administration. - Then use them on Position, which is how they reach people.
Scenarios
The client's list has forty departments, most with two people in them
Push back once. A department list that fine is usually a section list, and it makes every report unreadable. Keep the departments to the functions that have a head, and use Functional Area or the position title for the finer grain.
Two business units each have a Production department
One Production department, used by positions in both business units. The business unit is what separates them in a report, and the department stays a single function.
A department head changes
Change the Responsible field. Nothing else needs touching, and no employee record changes.
What it is connected to
- Legal Entity comes first.
- Responsible holds the people who can be named as a department head.
- Functional Area Dimension maps a functional area onto a department for a legal entity.
- Position names a department, and Employee Organization Assignment carries it onto the employee.
- Headcount, attendance and payroll reports break down by department.
If something looks wrong
- "The department does not appear when I create a position" - it is blocked. Clear the Block tick.
- "The Responsible list is empty" - nobody has been set up on Responsible for this screen in this company yet.
- "A report shows people with no department" - their position has no department on it. Fix the position, not the employee.