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Departments Setup

Departments allow your shop to track internal, non-billable time such as shop cleanup, building maintenance, parts pickup, paid breaks, other internal activity.

Updated over a month ago


Departments Setup in ShopView

Departments allow your shop to track internal, non-billable time such as shop cleanup, building maintenance, parts pickup, paid breaks, or any other internal activity. Adding departments helps you understand where your technicians spend time outside of active work orders and keeps time tracking clean and organized.


Purpose of Departments

Departments are used for internal time tracking. Technicians can clock into a department when they are performing tasks that are not tied to a customer work order. This keeps reporting accurate and ensures shop labor is accounted for separately from billable work. Common examples include shop cleanup, building maintenance, equipment setup, inventory tasks, and administrative time.


Creating a Department

To add a new department, go to Settings in the left menu and select Departments. Use the New Department option to create an internal category. Enter a descriptive name such as Shop Cleanup, Maintenance, Parts Run, Inventory, or Break Time. Enable the Time Clock option if technicians should be able to clock into that department. If you want this department to appear on your scheduling calendar, enable the Display on Schedule option. Save the department when finished.


Using Departments in Scheduling

If a department is marked to display on the schedule, it becomes available when creating scheduled events. This is useful for assigning technicians to internal work blocks, planned maintenance, or structured cleanup times. Using scheduling with departments gives technicians visibility into what they’re expected to do at specific times and keeps internal work organized.

Assigning Staff to Departments

After creating a department, assign technicians who should have access to it. Go to Staff, hover over the staff member on the listing in the column named Department to view current enrollments or click on where it shows the number of departments. A modal will open up. Use the dropdown to select a Workplace and Department and enroll the staff member. Enrolled staff can clock into that department at any time, allowing them to properly log internal time.

How Technicians Use Departments

Once a staff member is assigned to a department, it appears as an available option when clocking in. Technicians select the department instead of a work order when performing internal tasks. This ensures internal time is accurately separated from billable labor, which improves reporting, payroll visibility, and productivity tracking.


Best Practices

Create departments only for internal tasks you actively want to measure. Keep department names simple and clear. Assign each technician only to the departments they realistically use to reduce menu clutter. If technicians perform multiple types of internal work, consider grouping similar tasks together under one department to keep reporting clean. Use the scheduler integration for any planned internal work to help manage workload and reduce downtime.

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