Managing Business Units with Departments

Article Contents

1. Introduction
2. Why Departments Matter
3. When Not to Use Departments
4. Departments and Timesheets
5. Departments and Work Schedules
6. Departments and Invoicing
7. Departments and Internal Cost Transfers
8. Setting Up Departments

Introduction

Departments and Branches are two of the main ways you can segment business data in Hiro.

• Departments represent the business units across your organisation, such as Surveying, Town Planning, or Landscape Architecture.
• Branches represent the physical offices your business operates from.

Departments and Branches are independent of each other. They are not hierarchical, and neither sits “above” the other. A department’s services may be offered from multiple branches, and a branch may include people from multiple departments. The branch and department combination comes together through projects, work schedules, timesheets, invoicing, and reporting.

Why Departments Matter

Departments are central to how Hiro tracks business performance.

They help you understand which parts of the organisation are:

• generating revenue
• consuming project budget
• carrying labour costs
• receiving internal support from other teams
• contributing to overall profit and loss

You must configure at least one department before creating projects or user accounts. Even if your business only has one service area, setting up a department keeps your account structured consistently and makes it easier to expand later.

Departments are used in two important places:

• User accounts: each staff member belongs to one primary department.
• Project work: project tasks can belong to a department through the Work Schedule.

These two values can be different, and that difference is important for reporting.

When Not to Use Departments

Departments work best when they represent business units that own work, costs, or revenue.

For example, if your business only provides surveying services, a single Surveying department may be enough. You can still use Project Types to distinguish between work such as residential surveys, development projects, infrastructure projects, or commercial projects.

Departments are also not the right place for staff roles such as “graduate”, “surveyor”, “team leader”, or “associate”. Positions are better suited to roles and seniority.

A useful test is: would this group need its own column in a Profit & Loss report? If yes, it may be a department. If no, another Hiro feature may be a better fit.

Departments and Timesheets

A timesheet’s department represents where the work belongs, not simply which department the staff member belongs to.

For example, Sally may belong to Planning, but record time against a Surveying task. In that case, the timesheet is assigned to Surveying because the work belongs to Surveying.

The department assigned to a timesheet depends on how the time is recorded:

• Time recorded against a Work Schedule task uses the department assigned to that task.
• Time recorded directly against a job, without a Work Schedule task, uses the selected job department. This commonly applies to items such as disbursements or other time/cost entries that are not linked to a Work Schedule task.
• Time recorded against an enquiry or tender may not have a department immediately.

If enquiry or tender time is later converted into job work, Hiro assigns a department only when the timesheet does not already have one.

Departments and Work Schedules

A job can have one or more job departments. These are the departments formally set up on the job. They control department-level job details such as the project captain, branch, invoice attention contact, scope of works, deliverables, and related setup information.

A Work Schedule can also include tasks for one or more departments. These task departments show which business unit is responsible for delivering each part of the project.

For example, a job might be set up first with Surveying as the job department, but its Work Schedule might also include Planning and Engineering tasks. That lets the project stay as one job, while still showing how the work is split between departments.

Task departments are also used when tracking project budgets, WIP, invoicing, and department-level delivery. They help Hiro understand not just who is managing the job, but which departments are responsible for the work inside it.

If the Work Schedule includes chargeable tasks for departments that have not yet been set up on the job, Hiro can prompt you to assign department setup To-dos. These To-dos help the project team add the missing job departments before that work becomes active WIP or billing.

👉 For more detail, see What is a Work Schedule?

Departments and Invoicing

Departments also support invoicing and revenue reporting.

Because Work Schedule tasks are assigned to departments, invoice line items can be connected back to the department responsible for that work. This helps reports show not only where labour costs were recorded, but also where revenue was generated.

For example, if a project includes both Surveying and Planning tasks, the invoice can reflect work across both departments while still remaining part of the same project.

Departments and Internal Cost Transfers

Internal cost transfers help account for work performed across departments.

For example:

1. Sally belongs to the Planning department.
2. A project has a Work Schedule task assigned to Surveying.
3. Sally records time against that Surveying task.
4. Hiro records the timesheet cost against Surveying.
5. Profit & Loss reporting can identify that Planning supplied the labour, while Surveying received the benefit of the work.

This allows department-level reporting to reflect how work is actually delivered, rather than only where each staff member belongs.

Setting Up Departments

Departments are configured in Settings > Departments. You must be a Hiro Global Administrator to add or edit departments.

To create a new department, click "New department".

To edit an existing department, click the edit icon next to the department you want to update.

Department Details

• Name – the display name of the department, such as Surveying or Landscape Architecture.
• Status – whether the department is active.
• Sort Order – controls how departments appear in lists.
• Label (up to 3 letters) – abbreviation of up to 3 letters, used in some reports and visualisations.
• Colour – an optional colour used in dashboards and charts.