How to Use Departments

Departments are a new way of matching users together by expertise (such as sales or billing) to handle communication and workflow better.

Departments enable users to be divided into specific groups with customized permissions and dedicated caller IDs.

The way user management works depends on when your account was created:

Accounts created before the 23rd of April: Users are listed directly on the Users page without being assigned to a specific department. You have the flexibility to create some and assign users to them if needed. Until added to a department, their existing access levels remain unchanged. When assigned, the user will retain any additional privileges (extra permissions) if they are not already part of the department's permissions.
Accounts created in April or later: All users are automatically placed in a Default Department unless a different one is selected at the time of invitation or reassigned later. Keep in mind that this default group grants full access within the account.

Departments Breakthrough

The Default Department

Departments are built to ease the workflow. From the beginning, you will have a default Department to work with. You cannot delete the Default Department as long as you do not designate another created one to be used as default. The system permanently needs a default department; it does not matter if it is the given one or if you decide to create and assign another to be the default.

Once you reach Admin > Departments, you can see that you already have the Default Department created by the smrtPhone system. You can edit its details and transform it into a new department. You cannot delete it until you create a new one and assign it as the new default department.

Please be aware that the Default Department will have by default all permissions granted. You can edit this whenever you want.

A Department's permissions are fully customizable by departments and also by users.

Create new Departments

To create a Department, head to Admin > Departments > New Department. Hit the green button and start building a department.

Details

Then, start configuring your new department. Complete basic details, such as its name and description. Also, you can choose the permissions setup template if you previously created a department.

Permissions

Once you press Save, you will move to the next step, Permissions. If it is a brand new department, you need to choose what permissions its users will have. If you opted to import permissions from another department, you can now modify them. Toggle ON/OFF on the wanted permissions. After this, press Next.

Caller ID Management

The third step is Caller ID Management. You will see all the account's existing phone numbers. Choose the ones that will be dedicated to this newly created department. You can add as many caller IDs as you want. And hit Next to move to the fourth step.

The importance of the Caller ID Management is based on the control over phone numbers. Having particular departments with assigned users using only dedicated phone numbers helps track workflow and progress.

Please, do not forget the importance of a Call Flow and a Team. When talking about Departments, we are talking mainly about outbound communication, which has a different setup from inbound communication.

Learn more about how to assign a default Caller ID ⇢

Assign Users

You can add as many users as you want, and note that a user can be added to a department only. A particular user cannot belong to multiple departments at once.

From your account's user list, pick and select the ones that you want to integrate into the new department and then press Next.

The Account Owner cannot belong and cannot be added to any department.

Complete

That was the last step, and now you have a new department.

Back in the Department's list, you can see all current departments. Edit their details at will, create new ones, or delete some of them.

The Default Department cannot be deleted, only edited. As mentioned above, if you want to delete the default department, first you have to give this role to another department. You can also reach departments from the Users page, if you need to do extra editing while there.