Departments help categorize and route requests. Even if all your requests are processed by one person it may be useful to keep track of what types of requests you are receiving. Departments will be visible in a list that the requester can select from when submitting their request unless you choose to not give them this ability (Basic Configurations) or make the department Private. If you assign a POC to every department, requests will be automatically routed to that person, which can help distribute the workload of responding to requests across your organization.
Important Note
Review the Assigning Requests article to learn more about manually assigning requests to a department after it has been submitted.
Who can use this feature?
Create a Department
There are two parts to creating a new department. Creating the department itself and adding users to it. These steps cover how to create the department.
Log into your account
Click Departments on the Settings drop-down menu
Click the Create Department button
Use the input fields to enter the department's information
Department name: Add a name for the department.
Description (Optional): Describe the department.
Default request visibility: Set the visibility for the department. This will automatically set who can see requests assigned to a department. This can be overridden for individual requests.
Note:
To learn more about the different visibility settings and how they work for departments, review the Request Visibility article.
Point of Contact (Optional): Select the main contact for the department. The department's Point of Contact overrides the organization's Point of Contact for requests assigned to that department.
Note:
For more information about how the Point of Contact works, review the Automatically Assign Users to Requests article
Department visibility (Optional): Set the department to Private. Private departments do not show up on the list that requesters see when they select a department for their request and any actions taken by private departments on a request are not seen by the requester. Private departments are visible to and selectable by internal users.
Click the Save button
Add Users to a Department
You can add users to a department from either the Department or the User page. For additional information about adding a user to a department, review the Create and Manage Users article.
Log into your account
Click Departments on the Settings drop-down menu
Click the Edit icon (pencil) next to the department you want to add users to
Click the Add Staff button above the list of department staff
Type a staff name or email and select the user you want to add from the drop-down menu
(Optional) Check the box Assign as Support Staff to all requests assigned to this department
Note:
Department members who are not auto-assigned to requests will still be able to view all requests assigned to the department but will not receive notifications about the request.
Click the Save button
Remove Users From a Department
You can remove a user from a department from either the Department or User page. If you want to remove multiple users from the same department at once we recommend the steps below. If you want to remove one user from multiple departments we recommend doing so directly from that user's edit page. For more information on how to remove users from a department, review the Edit User Accounts section of the Creating and Managing Users article.
Log into your account
Click Departments on the Settings drop-down menu
Click the Edit icon (pencil) next to the department you want to edit.
Navigate to the Department Staff tile
Click the Remove button next to the user you want to remove
Click Ok on the pop-up that says Are you sure you want to remove [user] from this department?
Update Department Settings
This section covers how to update department-wide information. Review the Add Users to a Department section in this article for more information. To update a department's Point of Contact, review the Set a Department's Point of Contact section of the Automatically Assign Users to a Request article.
Log into your account
Click Departments on the Settings drop-down menu
Click the Edit button (pencil) next to the department you want to edit
Update the department's information
Department name: Modify the name of the department.
Description: Edit the description.
Default Request Visibility: This automatically sets who can see requests assigned to a department. This can be overridden for individual requests.
Note:
Updating the default visibility for a department will not update the visibility for all requests already assigned to that department. To learn more about the different visibility settings and how they work for departments, review the Request Visibility article..
Department Visibility: You can choose to make the department Public (default) or Private. Private departments do not show up on the list that requesters see when they select a department for their request and any actions taken by private departments on a request are not seen by the requester.
Click the Save button
Archive a Department
When a department is archived, users added to that department and requests assigned to that department will be unaffected:
Users assigned to an archived department: If you do not want users to be shown as assigned to an archived department you must remove the users from the department before archiving it.
Requests assigned to an archived department: Requests can be assigned to different departments after their currently assigned department is archived.
Log into your account
Click Departments on the Settings drop-down menu
Click the Archive [Department] button (file cabinet) next to the department you want to archive
The department updates immediately
Restore an Archived Department
This section explains how to restore a department from the archives.
Log into your account
Click Departments on the Settings drop-down menu
Navigate to the Show Archived filter
Toggle on the filter
Click the Restore [Department] button (circle with a check mark) next to the department you want to restore
The department updates immediately
Recommended User Setup for Each Process Category
What role a user will have is largely dependent on whether your agency is Fully Centralized, Partially Centralized, or Fully Decentralized:
Fully Centralized: All users who are not central coordinators should be given the Staff role. This will allow them to assist internally while restricting the ability to release documents and communicate with the requester to central coordinators.
Partially Centralized: At least one user in each department should be given the Publisher role. This user will be responsible for communicating with the requester, releasing responsive documents, and closing out requests. Additional department users can be Publishers or Staff depending on whether they are authorized to release records.
Fully Decentralized: At least one user in each department should be given the Publisher role. This user will be responsible for communicating with the requester, releasing responsive documents, and closing out requests. Additional department users can be Publishers or Staff depending on whether they are authorized to release records.