Departments
Departments are how your company's structure lives inside Arketic. Each department has a name, an optional manager, working hours, and a set of assistants its people can use. Teams are a lighter kind of department for smaller working groups.
On the Departments page you can create departments and teams, nest them under one another, assign managers, set working hours, and decide which assistants each department may use.
Who can use this page
| Role | What they can do |
|---|---|
| Admin | Full access — view, create, edit, delete departments and teams |
| Executive | No access to Departments. Executives can view the Org Chart instead |
| Member | No access |
| Restricted | No access |
The table shows what each system role gets by default. Your organization can also give this page — or only some of its actions, such as creating departments or assigning managers — to other people through a custom role. See Roles & Permissions.
:::info Admins by default The Organization group in the left sidebar — Org Chart, Departments, Users — appears for Admins by default. Other people see it only when a custom role gives them one of its pages. If you don't see it, ask an admin in your company to make the change for you. :::
When an action isn't available to you
Creating, editing and deleting are allowed separately, and so are a few individual fields. If your role doesn't include an action, its control is hidden or locked:
| What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
| No Add Department button | You can't create departments or teams |
| No Edit Department / Edit Team or Delete button in the detail view | You can't edit or delete |
| Type is greyed out while editing — "You don't have permission to change the type" | You can't turn a department into a team or the other way round |
| Manager is greyed out while editing — "You don't have permission to assign the manager" | You can't change who manages the department |
| Allowed Assistants is greyed out — "You don't have permission to set allowed assistants" | You can't change which assistants the department may use |
| No Manage Assistants button | You can't change the organization-wide assistants |
The messages appear when you point at the locked field.
Opening the page
Go to Organization → Departments in the left sidebar. The page title is Departments, with the subtitle "Manage company departments and teams".
The Departments page at a glance
Toolbar
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Search departments... | Filters the cards on the tab you're on as you type. Matches both the name and the description |
| Refresh (the circular-arrow button) | Reloads the list (the icon spins while loading) |
| Add Department | Opens the Create Department form — the same form creates teams |
The Departments and Teams tabs
Under the toolbar, two tabs decide which cards you see:
| Tab | What it lists |
|---|---|
| Departments | One card per top-level department. Sub-departments are reached by opening their parent |
| Teams | Every team in your organization, wherever it sits in the structure |
Switching tabs returns you to the first page and keeps whatever you typed in the search box.
Cards
The main area shows the cards of the tab you're on, laid out in two columns. Each card shows:
- An icon — a building for a department, a group of people for a team
- The name
- A Team pill on team cards, so teams stand out wherever they appear
- On the Departments tab, a drag handle for reordering the cards on screen
Click any card to open its detail view.
Cards are shown eight per page. Below the grid you'll see a line such as Showing 1–8 of 12 top-level departments — or, on the Teams tab, Showing 1–8 of 12 teams — and numbered page buttons.
:::note Reordering is for this session only On the Departments tab you can drag a card by its handle to change the order you see right now. The new order is not saved — it resets when the page is reloaded. Dragging is also disabled while a search term is active; the handle greys out with the hint Clear search to reorder. Clear the search box to drag again. Team cards have no handle and can't be reordered. :::
Needs attention banner
If any department has no manager — at any level, not only the top level — a banner appears under the cards on the Departments tab: "{N} departments have no manager assigned", with a Review button. Teams are not counted.
Review opens the Departments without a manager window, which lists every affected department with an Assign button. Choosing Assign opens that department's detail view — from there, use Edit Department to set the Manager field.
People panel
On the Departments tab, the People panel sits below the cards and is open by default. Its header reads People · {N} members across {M} departments, and the chevron collapses or expands it.
Each row is one top-level department and shows:
- A chevron to expand the member list
- The department name — click it to open the detail view
- A small stack of member avatars (plus a +N marker when there are more)
- The member count for that department
Expanding a row lists the people in that department, or No members. The manager is pinned to the top of the list and carries a Manager pill.
Right rail
The right rail stays in place on both tabs.
| Card | What it's for |
|---|---|
| Organization-wide Assistants | The assistants available to everyone, regardless of department. See Assistants and departments |
| Quick Overview | Four totals at a glance: Departments, Members, Teams, Sub-departments |
Creating a department
- Click Add Department.
- Fill in the Create Department form (fields below).
- Click Create.
To change an existing one, open its card and choose Edit Department (for a team, Edit Team). The form is identical, titled Edit Department, and the button reads Update.
Form fields
| Field | Required | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Name | Yes | The department name — for example Engineering |
| Description | No | A short summary of what the department does. It's also searchable from the toolbar |
| Type | Yes | Department or Team. See Teams |
| Parent Department | No | A searchable dropdown. Defaults to None (Top Level) |
| Manager | No | A searchable dropdown ("Search by name..."). Defaults to No Manager. Shows each person's name and email |
| Allowed Assistants | No | A checklist of assistants this department may use. See Assistants and departments |
| Working Hours | No | Start and End times plus Working Days. See Working hours and SLA |
:::tip Pick the manager after the parent When you set a Parent Department, the Manager dropdown only offers active people from within that parent's branch of the tree — so choose the parent first, then pick the manager. For a top-level department (no parent), the dropdown lists all active people. :::
Hierarchy and nesting rules
Departments can be nested to build your real structure — for example Engineering → Frontend → Design System. Set the Parent Department field to place a unit under another one, or leave it as None (Top Level).
A few rules keep the structure sound:
| Rule | What you'll see |
|---|---|
| A Department cannot sit under a Team | Teams are filtered out of the Parent Department list |
| A department cannot become a Team while it has sub-departments | The Team option is disabled, with the hint Cannot convert to Team while sub-departments exist |
| A department cannot be its own parent or sit under one of its own sub-departments | It and its sub-departments are excluded from the Parent Department list |
:::info Where to find a sub-department The Departments tab and the People panel show top-level departments only. To reach a sub-department, open its parent's card and drill down from there. Teams are easier to find: the Teams tab lists all of them. :::
Teams
A Team is simply a department created with Type set to Team. Use teams for smaller working groups inside a department.
- To create one, click Add Department and choose Team under Type
- Every team appears on the Teams tab, and also inside the detail view of its parent
- Teams carry a Team pill
- Teams count toward the Teams tile in Quick Overview
- A team can sit under a department or under another team, but it cannot contain sub-departments of type Department
- People can be assigned to teams when you invite or edit them — see Users
Working hours and SLA
Every department has working hours: a Start time, an End time (both in 30-minute steps), and a set of Working Days you toggle from Mon to Sun.
Defaults are 09:00–18:00, Monday to Friday.
These hours drive SLA timing on tasks: time that falls outside them doesn't count toward the SLA. The form states it plainly — Used for SLA calculation. Times outside these hours don't count toward SLA.
:::caution Start must come before End The form won't save working hours where the start time is the same as, or later than, the end time. Adjust the times and try again. :::
Set the hours to match when the department actually works, so SLA timers reflect reality. For more on how target times behave, see Time Tracking.
Assistants and departments
An assistant can be made available in two ways.
| Scope | Where you set it | Who gets it |
|---|---|---|
| Organization-wide | The Organization-wide Assistants card on this page | Everyone, in every department |
| Department-level | The Allowed Assistants field in the department form | Only the people in that department |
A third way, for a single person, is on the Users page.
Managing organization-wide assistants
The Organization-wide Assistants card lists these assistants as chips (emoji + name), described as "These assistants are available to all departments globally." If none are set, it shows No organization-wide assistants configured.
- Click Manage Assistants.
- In the Manage Organization-wide Assistants window, click an assistant to switch it on or off. Assistants that are on show a tick and an Org-wide badge.
- Click Done to close.
Each change is confirmed with a short message — Assistant added to organization-wide access or Assistant removed from organization-wide access.
The Allowed Assistants checklist in the department form lists department-level assistants only; anything already shared organization-wide is left out, because everyone can reach it anyway. If the list is empty you'll see No department-level assistants available.
To learn what assistants are and how people use them, see Browsing assistants.
Department detail
Clicking a card — or a name in the People panel, or Assign in the manager review window — opens the detail view. Departments and teams use the same view.
Header: an icon, the name, its Department / Team pill, either Parent: {name} or Top-level department (Top-level team for a team), and the description (or No description).
Left side — three stat cards:
| Stat | Shows |
|---|---|
| Members | How many people are in the department |
| Sub-departments | How many sub-departments it contains |
| Teams | How many teams it contains |
Below them is the Manager card with the manager's avatar and name, or No manager assigned.
Right side — three lists:
| List | Details |
|---|---|
| Sub-departments | Click a row to drill into that sub-department. Empty: No sub-departments |
| Teams | Click a row to drill into that team. Empty: No teams |
| Department assistants (Team assistants for a team) | The assistants this unit may use, shown as chips — or No assistants assigned |
Each sub-department or team row shows its name, its pill and how many members it has. When you drill into a sub-unit, a Back button appears so you can step back up the tree.
Footer: Edit Department — Edit Team for a team — and Delete.
:::tip Looking for the member list? The detail view shows member counts, not names. To see who is in a department, expand its row in the People panel on the main Departments page. :::
Deleting a department
- Open the department or team card.
- Click Delete in the footer.
- Confirm in the dialog by clicking Delete.
| You are deleting | Dialog title | Message |
|---|---|---|
| A department | Delete Department? | This action cannot be undone. All sub-departments will also be removed. |
| A team | Delete Team? | This action cannot be undone. All sub-teams will also be removed. |
Afterwards you'll see Department deleted successfully or Team deleted successfully.
:::caution Everything underneath goes with it Move any sub-departments and teams you want to keep to a different parent before you delete, and reassign the people who belong to them so they don't lose access to department-scoped features. :::
What you'll see when the list is empty
| Situation | On screen |
|---|---|
| No departments created yet | No departments yet / Create your first department to get started. with an Add Department button |
| No teams created yet (Teams tab) | No teams yet / Add a department and choose Team as its type to create one. with an Add Department button |
| Your search matched nothing | No departments found — or No teams found on the Teams tab — / Try a different search term. |
| The list couldn't load | Failed to load departments with a Try Again button |
Tips
- Mirror your real structure. The hierarchy you build here shows up in the Org Chart and drives who can reach which assistants.
- Give every department a manager. The Needs attention banner and its Review window make it quick to close the gaps — sub-departments included.
- Set working hours honestly. They decide how SLA time is counted on tasks.
- Use the description field. It's searchable, so a good description makes large structures much easier to navigate.
- Reserve organization-wide assistants for genuinely universal ones. Keep everything else department-level so people see a shorter, more relevant list.