Departments

Overview

Departments are the main organizational structure behind position control. They organize positions, users, approval workflows, job-code availability, GL strings, and reporting filters.

The department tree is flexible and supports any hierarchy your organization needs. For most organizations, one root department at the top of the tree works best, with every division, location, cost center, or team underneath it. A single root makes department access, approval roles, GL inheritance, and reporting easier to review and maintain.

Note: You can customize the default name of "Department" to match your organization, such as cost centers, locations, or business units. This article uses "Department" for consistency.

Access needed

Department tree settings

To edit your department tree, open Settings > Departments > Department tree.

• Department name: The department name displayed in FTE Tree. The name must be unique across your organization.
• Parent department: The parent of the selected department. Parent changes preserve history where history is available, and FTE Tree prevents circular references.
• Available to assign positions: Controls whether users can assign new positions to the department. Turning this off does not deactivate the department, remove existing positions, or remove the department from reports or history.
• Include in breadcrumb label: Includes the department name in child breadcrumb labels for easier identification.

Departments with assigned positions cannot be deleted. If you no longer want new positions assigned to a department, turn off Available to assign positions. Existing positions remain assigned until they are moved or deactivated.

Approval roles by department

Department approval roles select approvers based on the request department. For example, a workflow step can require the Director role, and FTE Tree resolves the Director assigned to the request's department.

Role assignments can be inherited from parent departments. This lets a leader at a higher level review requests from departments below them. Inherited role assignments are shown for reference; update the parent department to change inherited values.

Department job codes

Department job-code availability defines which job codes can be used in a department. This helps prevent users from selecting job codes that do not belong in a department.

Job codes must be explicitly mapped to departments where they are available. Use batch imports when you need to maintain many department-job-code mappings at once.

Approval workflows

Approval workflows can be assigned anywhere in the department tree and inherited by child departments. You can assign a workflow at the top of the department tree and let it apply broadly, or assign specific workflows to individual departments or branches.

An approval workflow must be available for the department used in approval review before users can submit approval requests for that department.

GL strings

GL strings associate accounting values with departments. You define the segments that compose your GL string, create the allowed values for each segment, and assign values to individual departments.

GL strings are accounting values, not department ownership. More than one department may share the same resolved GL string when your finance structure needs independent department slices under the same account coding.

Managing GL segments

GL segments define the component parts of your GL string. Each segment represents a category such as Fund, Cost Center, or Account Code. Segments have a display order, separator, and required setting.

A segment cannot be deleted if any of its values are currently assigned to departments.

Managing segment values

Each GL segment has a list of allowed values that can be assigned to departments. Mark a value unavailable when you want to hide it from new assignments while preserving existing department history.

A value cannot be deleted if it is assigned to one or more departments.

Assigning GL values

Navigate to a department and select the GL string tab to view and update assignments. Child departments can inherit GL values from their parent department when a direct value is not assigned.

Department totals

Department totals show approved position FTE, annualized position cost, assigned cost where assignment data is available, and headcount for the selected date or report period. Users see only departments and positions they have permission to view.

Department names can link to drill-down views showing positions or job-code totals within that department. Use reports when you need date-range allocation, GL grouping, exports, or detailed calculation evidence.

Example department trees

Simple flat department tree

A smaller organization might use one root department with departments such as Administration, Finance, Operations, and Clinical Services underneath it.

This structure works well when most settings can inherit from the root and users need clear department-level access.

Complex department tree

A larger organization might group departments by division, location, fund, or cost center. For example, Operations might contain Manufacturing and Distribution, with several cost centers below each.

Use deeper trees when they match real approval, reporting, or access boundaries. Avoid adding levels that do not help users filter, approve, or report on positions.