How to manage departments

Departments are organizational units used for asset ownership, cost rollup, and reporting.

Requirements

• Available on: All plans
• Roles: Owner and Admin can create, edit, and archive. Everyone else can read.

Where to find them

Dashboard → Departments.

Creating a department

1. Go to Dashboard → Departments.
2. Click New Department.
3. Enter a name. Names are unique within your organization.
4. Save.

What departments connect to

• Assets are associated with a department, which is how cost rolls up
• People belong to a department
• Users carry a primary department

Why they matter

The Dept Costs report at Dashboard → Reports answers "which units are carrying the cost?". That report is only as good as the department assignments behind it.

If most assets have no department, the report shows most of your spend as unattributed.

(Cost reporting needs Orbit or above.)

Designing your department list

Match your organizational chart, not your floor plan. Where an asset physically sits is a location. Which budget it belongs to is a department.

Keep it flat. Departments are a flat list, unlike categories and locations which are hierarchies. If you need sub-units, either name them explicitly ("Operations – North") or reconsider whether the split matters for cost reporting.

Only create what you will report on. A department nobody runs a report for is an extra field on every asset form.

Archiving

Departments are archived, not deleted, so history stays attributable.

Common mistakes

Using departments for locations. "Manchester" is a location. "Facilities" is a department. An asset has both.

Leaving departments blank on assets. The department cost report then cannot attribute the spend.

Creating a department per person. Departments are units, not individuals. Individual responsibility is assignment to a person.

Troubleshooting

I can't create a department. It needs Owner or Admin.

The department cost report is mostly empty. Assets need a department set. Filter the asset list for assets with no department and fill them in.

I can't reuse a name. Department names are unique within an organization. Check whether an archived department already holds it.

I can't delete a department. Departments archive rather than delete.

Dept Costs is locked. Cost reporting needs Orbit or above.

Related articles

• Categories, locations and departments explained
• Managing categories
• Creating and managing locations
• Maintenance cost tracking
• Organization structure best practices