# Departments

Group people into departments such as Front of House and Kitchen, then use them to give checklists to the right people, filter the dashboard and compare labor costs.

For: Admins, Managers · On: Web · [Help Center](https://www.mays.app/help) › [Team & roles](https://www.mays.app/help/team-roles) · Last updated October 3, 2026 · Mays Team

A department groups people by the part of the business they work in, such as *Front of House* or *Kitchen*. Use departments to give checklists to the right people and to compare labor costs.

Departments are set up on the web by admins. They apply to your whole organization, so *Kitchen* is the same department at every location.

## Add a department

1. Go to **Locations & Users → Departments**.
2. Click **Add Department**. A new row appears at the top of the list.
3. Type the name, for example *Front of House*, and, if you like, a short description.
4. Click **Create**.

![The Departments page with a new row being added: the name Bakery, the description Early bake and pastry case and the Create button, above the Front of House and Kitchen departments with their descriptions and number of users](https://mays-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/site/help__departments__01-add-department.8a7868111d.png)

Each name can be used only once. If it's taken, Mays says *A department with that name already exists.*

## Put people in a department

1. Go to **Locations & Users → Users** and open the person.
2. On the **Locations & pay** tab, pick their **Department**. Choose **No department** to take them out of one.
3. Click **Save Changes**.

You can also pick the department when you add someone on the web. A person belongs to one department at most.

To see who's in a department, click its name, or the people icon on its row. That opens **Team members** filtered to that department. The **Users** column counts active and pending people, not deactivated ones.

## Where departments are used

| Where | What the department does |
| --- | --- |
| **Checklist templates**, **Assignments** tab | Under **Who does it?**, choose **A role or department**, then pick departments under **…or which departments?** Employees in those departments see the checklist. Managers and admins at the location see it too. See [Scheduling and assigning checklists](https://www.mays.app/help/tasks-checklists/schedule-and-assign-checklists). |
| **Dashboard** | The **All Departments** filter next to **Filter task lists:** shows only the checklists assigned to one department. |
| **Team members** | The **All Departments** filter lists the people in one department. |
| **Task Templates** | The **All departments** filter shows the templates assigned to one department. |
| **Insights → Labor Cost** | The **Departments** filter and the breakdown by department on the **Labor Variance** tab. People without a department are counted as **Unassigned**. See [Labor cost insights](https://www.mays.app/help/reports-insights/labor-cost-insights). |
| **Learning** | You can assign a training module to a whole department. See [Assigning training](https://www.mays.app/help/knowledge-training/assign-training). |
| **The app** | Your department is shown on your **Profile**, and on a coworker's profile when you tap their picture in **History**. |

When a checklist is given to both roles and departments, anyone in one of the chosen roles **or** one of the chosen departments gets it.

## Rename or delete a department

- **Rename:** click the pencil on its row, change the name or description, then press **Enter** or click **Save**. Press **Esc** to cancel.
- **Delete:** click the trash icon and confirm. You can't delete a department while people are in it. Mays tells you how many, for example *Kitchen has 2 users assigned. Reassign them first.* You also can't delete one that a checklist template is assigned to. Remove it from those templates first.

## Who can do what

- **Admins** create, rename and delete departments.
- **Managers** see the list, but it's read-only for them. They can set the department of the people they edit, such as employees at their locations.
- For a **custom role**, the permission is **Create / edit / delete departments**. It's an admin-level permission, so managers can't give it to anyone. See [Roles and permissions](https://www.mays.app/help/team-roles/roles-and-permissions).

## Good to know

- **Departments aren't roles or positions.** A role decides what someone can do in Mays. A position is the job they work on the schedule. A department is the part of the business they belong to.
- **The app has no department field.** People added from the app or with **Import employees** start with no department. Set it on the web afterwards.
- **If you use 7shifts,** Mays creates departments from your 7shifts roles. A person with no department gets one from their main 7shifts position. Mays never changes a department someone already has.
- **The schedule's department filter** uses the department of each shift's position. Only positions brought in from 7shifts have a department, so for positions you create in Mays the filter doesn't appear.

## Related articles

- Team & roles: [Roles and permissions](https://www.mays.app/help/team-roles/roles-and-permissions) — What the built-in Admin, Manager and Employee roles can do, how location access works, and how to build a custom role from individual permissions.
- Team & roles: [Add and invite team members](https://www.mays.app/help/team-roles/add-team-members) — Add people on the web or from the app. Employees get a text with a link to the app; managers and admins get an email to set a password. Plus resending invites and checking delivery.
- Tasks & checklists: [Scheduling and assigning checklists](https://www.mays.app/help/tasks-checklists/schedule-and-assign-checklists) — Choose which days a checklist runs, the hours staff can see it, whether unfinished tasks carry over, and who does it — a role, a department, specific people or one person per task.
- Getting started: [The operations dashboard](https://www.mays.app/help/getting-started/your-dashboard) — The Operations Dashboard is the web app's home page — today's checklists at every location and how far along they are, what your team just completed, and today's Square sales.
- Team & roles: [Location access for managers and multi-location staff](https://www.mays.app/help/team-roles/location-access-for-managers) — Everyone except admins sees only the locations they're assigned to. How that works for managers and multi-location staff, and how to switch location on the web and in the app.
- Reports & insights: [Labor cost insights](https://www.mays.app/help/reports-insights/labor-cost-insights) — Labor Cost compares staffing with sales hour by hour, scheduled hours with hours worked, and tracks labor cost as a share of sales over time. Web app, admins by default.
- Knowledge & training: [Assigning training](https://www.mays.app/help/knowledge-training/assign-training) — Send a published training module to whole locations, roles, departments or single people, with an optional due date, then see who has taken it, their best score and every answer.

## Still need help?

Send us a support request and a real person on the Mays team will get back to you.

[Contact support](https://www.mays.app/contact?topic=support) · [Call +1 (561) 286-3939](tel:+15612863939)

Canonical: https://www.mays.app/help/team-roles/departments