Departments

Departments give your organization its structure in SolaHR. Each employee can belong to one department. Departments can sit under other departments, for example Sales under Management, and each can have a manager. Department data appears on the employee list and profile, on the Org Chart, and in Reports filters. It is also how you scope managers in Team access.

Set departments up before you add employees, and keep them current when you reorganize. Owners, SolaHR Administrators and HR managers maintain them. Everyone with employee access can browse them.

Where to find it

• Sidebar: People → Departments.
• URL: /departments. One department opens at /departments/{id}.
• From the Org Chart: List View (top-right) brings you back here. View department on a chart card opens the department.

If your plan lacks Departments, the page shows Not included in your plan. Without view permission you see Access denied.

Screen tour

Header

The page title is Departments, with the subtitle Manage the company organizational structure. Top-right:

• Organization Chart: opens the Org Chart.
• Add Department: opens the form. Only shown if you can create employees.

Summary tiles

The tiles always show organization totals. Filters do not change them.

Filters

The list

Click any row to open the department. Rows are sorted by name, 15 per page, with a pager at the bottom showing Showing x–y of z.

Empty state: No departments found — "Start by adding the first department in the system", with Add Department if you are allowed.

Add a department

1. Go to People → Departments and click Add Department (top-right).

2. Fill in the Add Department dialog:

   Field	Required	Rules / defaults	Notes
   Department Name	Yes	Up to 255 characters.	Names do not have to be unique, but duplicates are confusing in pickers.
   Department Code	No	Up to 50 characters. Must be unique across departments.	Placeholder Example: HR, TECH, FIN. Shown under the name and searchable.
   Description	No	Free text.	Placeholder Short description of the department and its responsibilities. Shown under the title on the department page.
   Parent Department	No	Default -- None (top-level department) --. Only active departments are offered. A department can't be its own parent.	Builds the tree on the Org Chart.
   Department Manager	No	Default -- Select manager --. Chosen from the employee picker (up to 100 employees, shown with their number).	Display only. It does not give that person access to the department's employees (see Access).
   Location	No	Up to 255 characters.	Placeholder Example: second floor, main building.
   Department is active	—	Ticked by default.	Untick to retire a department without deleting it.

3. Click Save Department (or Cancel). You see Created successfully and the list refreshes.

If a rule fails (for example The code has already been taken.), the dialog stays open, the field is highlighted, and a summary of the errors appears at the top of the dialog.

View a department

Click a row, or ⋯ → View. The page shows:

The employees list and the salary tile include every employee linked to the department, including resigned or terminated ones who still have it set.

Edit a department

1. Open the department and click Edit, or use ⋯ → Edit on the list.
2. Change any field in the Edit Department dialog. The same rules apply as for adding. The parent list excludes the department itself.
3. Click Save Department. You see Updated successfully.

Effects of common edits:

Delete a department

1. On the list, click ⋯ → Delete.
2. The Delete Department dialog asks Are you sure you want to delete this department? (name). Click Delete (or Cancel).
3. You see Deleted successfully.

Deletion is refused while the department is in use:

Some of these server messages may appear in Arabic even when SolaHR is in English. The rule is the same either way.

Statuses

How departments affect access

• Owners and SolaHR Administrators see every department and employee.
• The scoped roles HR Manager, Department Manager, Attendance Recorder and HR Viewer see no one until you assign them departments or employees in System → Team Access. They then work only with employees in those departments.
• The Department Manager field on this screen is only a label. Choosing Layla as manager of Sales does not let her see Sales staff. Give her the Department Manager role and assign Sales in Team access.
• Moving an employee to another department changes who can see them straight away: scoped users of the old department lose them, and users of the new one gain them.
• Being an employee in a department never gives access to it.

Permissions

Worked examples

Example 1 — add a department and move an employee

Al Noor Trading LLC opens a returns desk.

1. Mariam clicks Add Department: Department Name Returns, Department Code RET, Parent Department Warehouse, Location Dubai Main, gate 2, Department is active ticked. Save Department → Created successfully.
2. Total Departments goes from 6 to 7.
3. She edits Sara Khan in Employees and sets Department to Returns. On the Returns page, Employees shows 1 and AED (salaries) shows 6,200.

Example 2 — restructuring Sales

Al Noor has Management (MGT) with sub-departments Sales (SAL), Finance (FIN) and Warehouse (WH). Sales has 12 employees. It is now being split into Retail Sales and Corporate Sales, and the old Sales department is being closed.

1. Mariam adds Retail Sales (code SAL-R, parent Management, manager Omar Haddad) and Corporate Sales (code SAL-C, parent Management, manager Layla Mansour).
2. She edits each of the 12 Sales employees and moves 8 to Retail Sales and 4 to Corporate Sales.
3. She tries ⋯ → Delete on Sales while one employee, a resigned salesperson, is still linked. Deletion is refused because employees are linked. She edits that employee's department to Retail Sales and deletes again → Deleted successfully.
4. In Team access, Omar (Department Manager role) previously had Sales. She now assigns him Retail Sales.

Results:

How it connects

Tips and common problems

Related

• Job Titles
• Org Chart
• Employees
• Team access
• Reports
• Getting started