Set up and maintain your organization

Begin with access and organization structure, then add a small example before loading the rest of your records. Set up budgets, employee pay, and forecasts only if you use Workforce Planning. Human resources system connections require an agreed early-access pilot.

Assign setup responsibilities

One person may cover several areas. Use Roles and permissions to give each person the responsibilities and department access they need.

Build the organization foundation

Open Settings, then Organization. Confirm:

• Organization name and time zone.
• The historical starting date, which determines the earliest supported information.
• FTE decimal display. Automatic keeps related values aligned on screen; imports and exports retain four decimals.
• Names used for departments, job codes, people, and other records.
• A recognizable support contact and sign-in, email, and MFA requirements.

Choose stable terminology. Changing a label does not change what the record means. See Organization settings and Company sign-in for the detailed choices.

Prepare departments and position choices

1. Create departments and any departments beneath them.
2. Add job groups and job codes, and make the job codes available to the intended departments and dates.
3. Add work schedules.
4. Configure position numbering, external IDs, assignment rules, required fields, and choice lists.
5. Review effective dates before creating records that use these choices.

Use the linked guides in Organization setup and administration for each area. Do not reuse a code for a different meaning.

Configure access and approvals

Start with a small setup team. Review built-in roles, choose department coverage, and create custom roles only where needed. Test that each person can open the intended departments, perform the intended actions, and see financial information or download reports only when authorized.

Configure request steps, approvers, and files before broad use. Review the starter approver assignments. Make sure each required step has an eligible reviewer other than the requester, including in departments that inherit approvers.

Then invite the wider team.

Check a complete sample

1. Create a draft position with department, job code, schedule, FTE, and reporting line.
2. Submit and complete its New position request for the intended effective date.
3. Create an employee and an assignment to the approved position.
4. Check approved, assigned, and vacant FTE.
5. If using budgets, add a budget rate and check its result. If using employee pay, add the protected pay entry separately.
6. If using Forecasts, create a forecast with one proposal and review its effect.
7. Run the reports your team will use regularly and compare a representative row with the record.

For example, 1.0000 approved FTE with a 0.7500 assignment leaves 0.2500 vacant FTE. At an $80,000 annual budget rate, before adjustments, that gives $80,000 capacity, $60,000 staffed budget, and $20,000 vacancy impact.

Check dates, required files, approval steps, and access with the people who will use them. Correct unexpected results before a larger import.

Use the setup guide

The organization setup guide links to the tasks for your organization. An organization administrator can choose Hide setup shortcut to hide it for everyone. Return through Settings, then Organization setup guide, and choose Show setup shortcut to restore it. Hiding the shortcut does not remove setup information.

Keep administration current

Assign someone to maintain each area and a backup where continuity matters. Review responsibilities when staff leave, departments change, or new financial processes begin. Tell your team how to reach its administrator and FTE Tree support.