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 in read-only mode |
| Member | No access |
:::info Admin only The Organization group in the left sidebar — Org Chart, Departments, Users — is visible to admins only. If you don't see it, you don't have admin access. Ask an admin in your company to make the change for you. :::
Opening the page
Go to Organization → Departments in the left sidebar.
The Departments page at a glance
Toolbar
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Search departments... | Filters the cards as you type. Matches both the department name and its description |
| Refresh | Reloads the list (the icon spins while loading) |
| Add Department | Opens the Create Department form |
Department cards
The main area shows one card per top-level department, laid out in two columns. Each card shows:
- A folder icon and the department name
- A Department or Team pill, so you can tell the two apart at a glance
- 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 Showing X–Y of N departments and numbered page buttons.
:::note Reordering is for this session only Dragging a card changes the order you see right now and shows an Order updated message, but the new order is not saved permanently — 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. :::
Needs attention banner
If at least one top-level department has no manager, a banner appears above the list: "{N} departments have no manager assigned", with a Review button.
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
Below the cards sits the People panel, 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. The manager is pinned to the top of the list and carries a Manager pill.
Right rail
| 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. 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 Only top-level departments get cards The card grid and the People panel show top-level departments. Sub-departments and teams appear inside the detail view of their parent — open the parent card and drill down from there. :::
Teams
A Team is simply a department created with Type set to Team. Use teams for smaller working groups inside a department.
- Teams carry a Team pill instead of a Department pill
- Teams count toward the Teams tile in Quick Overview
- A team 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 SLAs behave, see SLA policies.
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 |
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 department card — or a name in the People panel, or Assign in the manager review window — opens the detail view.
Header: a folder icon, the department name, its Department / Team pill, either Parent: {name} or Top-level department, 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 |
| Teams | Click a row to drill into that team |
| Department assistants | The assistants this department may use, shown as chips — or No assistants assigned |
When you drill into a sub-unit, a Back button appears so you can step back up the tree.
Footer: Edit Department 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 card.
- Click Delete in the footer.
- Confirm in the Delete Department? dialog by clicking Delete.
:::caution Sub-departments go with it The confirmation says it clearly: This action cannot be undone. All sub-departments will also be removed. 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 |
| Your search matched nothing | No departments found / 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.
- 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.