Setting up departments and teams

Setting up departments and teams

Shiftdesk structures your organization into three levels: Location → Department → Team. This hierarchy helps you plan shifts clearly, assign permissions cleanly, and run targeted reports.

Understanding the hierarchy

• Location: physical branch (e.g. "Cologne branch")
• Department: functional area within a location (e.g. "Kitchen", "Service")
• Team: smaller group within a department (e.g. "Early shift team", "Bar team")

Each employee is assigned to at least one department. Teams are optional but extremely helpful for larger operations.

Creating a department

1. Go to Settings → Departments.
2. Click Add department.
3. Choose the Location and enter a Name.
4. Choose a color — this appears later in the schedule and makes departments recognizable at a glance.
5. Save with Create.

Creating a team

1. Open the desired Department.
2. Click Add team.
3. Enter a name and optionally a team lead.

Assigning employees

There are two ways:

• In the employee profile: Go to Employees → Profile → Organization and choose a department/team.
• In the department: Open the department, click Assign employees, and select from the list.

An employee can belong to multiple departments (e.g. a temp who fills in for both Kitchen and Service). A primary department is used for reports and payroll.

Using colors effectively

The department color is used in the weekly plan, daily plan, and in statistics. Choose high-contrast colors to avoid mix-ups — e.g. blue for Kitchen, green for Service, orange for Warehouse.

Effects on permissions

Shift leads only see employees of their own department by default. More on this in the article "Roles and permissions".