Departments, units & heads

The suite's organisation tree, called Departments & Units here (User Groups by default), decides who approves what. This page shows how to keep the tree, its heads and its members right.

Open People › Departments & Units. You need view_user_groups to see it, and add_user_groups, edit_user_groups or delete_user_groups to change it.

Why the tree matters

• Approvals follow it. The first level of most request chains is “the head of the submitter's unit”. Office levels (the DA, CMAC, DFA, Checking, Audit…) are “the head of a named unit” or “any member of a named unit”. See Who a step goes to.
• Heads are people, offices are units. The CMD, DA, CMAC and DFA are not special accounts: they are whoever heads the EXEC, ADMIN, CMAC and FIN / FIN-021 units today. Changing the head changes who receives those approvals.
• Registries and access follow it. Registry desks, request-template access and mailboxes are granted to units.

The list

1. Search by name or code (for example FIN-023).
2. Sector. Show only one sector, such as Clinical, Nursing or Finance.
3. Status. The list shows active units only. Choose Include inactive to see deactivated ones.
4. Add user group. Create a new department or unit.
5. Counts. Total groups, active, child groups and how many have a head. A unit without a head cannot receive “head of unit” approvals.

Add a department or unit

1. User Group Name. The name people see, for example “Checking Unit (023)”.
2. User Group Code. A short unique code. Approval steps, office templates and settings refer to units by code, so choose it carefully and do not change it later.
3. Sector. Used for filtering and reports.
4. Parent group. The department this unit sits under, or Top-level (no parent).
5. Head (HOD / HOU). The person who heads it. Only active users are listed. Choose No Head Assigned to leave it empty.
6. User Group Status. Switched on, the unit is active. Inactive units are hidden from pickers and from the default list.

1. Select Add user group.
2. Fill in the name, code and sector, and choose the parent department.
3. Choose the head if you know who it is.
4. Select Add.

Set or change a head

1. Open the unit from the list and select Edit.
2. Choose the new person in Head (HOD / HOU).
3. Select Update User Group.

What happens straight away:

• New work routes to the new head. Every “head of this unit” step that opens from now on goes to them. No request template or approval route needs editing.
• Pending approvals move over. Approvals the old head was holding because they headed this unit move to the new head, and the new head is notified. On requests the task is re-pointed; on payment vouchers and memos it is delegated, so the history shows both names. The confirmation says how many approvals moved. Items the old head holds for any other reason (named personally, by role, or as a desk member) stay with them.
• If the new head submitted a request that was waiting on the old head, it is not handed to them: nobody approves their own request.

Permissions of office holders

Changing the head changes routing. It does not change the person's permissions. Each office has a role template with the extra access its work needs:

Every other head gets Head of Department / Unit. A more specific unit wins over its parent (Checking officers are not overwritten by the Finance tree), and a head wins over a member.

So when an office changes hands, also update permissions, in one of two ways:

• In the app: on the new holder's Edit User › Permissions tab, copy the office's template; on the outgoing holder's, copy their new template (or Employee). See Apply a role to a person.
• On the server: the ICT team runs npm run db:seed:uath -- --skip-users, which re-applies these office templates from the tree.

Put people in a unit

Membership is set on the person, not on the unit. Open the person, select Edit User › Employment, change User Groups and select Save Employment. A person can belong to more than one unit. See Edit a user.

A head does not have to be a member of the unit they head, but it is clearer if they are.

A unit's page

1. Edit. Change the name, code, parent, head or description.
2. Deactivate (or Activate). Also Delete, which is available only when the unit has no child units and cannot be undone.
3. Head. Who heads it today and their role.
4. Parent group. Select it to go up the tree.
5. Child groups. The units under this one, with their heads. Select one to open it.

Deactivate or delete a unit

Deactivate a unit that is closing: it disappears from pickers and from the default list, but its history stays. Before you do, move its staff to their new unit and make sure no request template or approval route still names it (the approval route preview will show a step that cannot be assigned).

Related

• Departments & Units reference
• Roles & permissions
• Build a request type