👥 Department Structure Management · Build Your Org Structure

The first step in foreign trade team management: set up departments first, then add employees. Three core actions: create / rename / delete.

🎯 Department + Members + Permissions: the trio

• 👥 Departments — slice the team by business unit (Sales / Marketing / Customer Service)
• 👨‍💼 Members — assign employees to the right department
• 🔑 Permissions — configure permissions per department / role

→ The trio works together to enable full team collaboration.

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1. Create a Department

Only admins can create departments.

Steps:

Step	Action
1️⃣	Left sidebar → [Enterprise] → [Org Structure]
2️⃣	Top right → [Create Department]
3️⃣	Enter the department name → save

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2. Edit / Delete a Department

1. Find the action icons

Steps:

Step	Action
1️⃣	Left sidebar → [Enterprise] → [Org Structure]
2️⃣	Hover over the right side of the department name
3️⃣	The ✏️ edit and 🗑️ delete icons appear

2. Rename a department

Click the ✏️ edit icon → enter the new name in the modal → save.

3. Delete a department

Click the 🗑️ delete icon → confirm in the second-step modal → confirm delete.

⚠️ Deleting a department ≠ deleting its employees

• After deletion: the department is gone from the org chart
• Employees inside the department: their accounts remain, but they become "Unassigned"
• You need to manually reassign them to other departments (see Member Management)

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📋 Pitfalls Roundup

Pitfall	Consequence	How to avoid
🔴 Creating departments without planning	Constant rename / restructure → wasted time	Discuss first: Sales / Marketing / Customer Service / Finance
🔴 Assuming sub-departments are supported	Laifaxin only supports one-level departments	Encode sub-units in the name: e.g. "Sales-South China"
🟡 Names too long	Crowded list display	Keep ≤ 20 Chinese chars / 40 English chars
🟡 Deleting a department without reassigning	Employees become "Unassigned" — invisible and unreachable	Reassign first, then delete the empty department
🟡 Inconsistent naming	"Sales / Sales Team / Sales Dept" mixed together	Standardize: all "XX Dept" or all "XX Center"

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❓ FAQ

Q1 · Is there a length limit on department names?

Recommended: ≤ 20 Chinese characters / 40 English characters. See the input field hint for the exact limit — names too long get truncated in the list.

Q2 · What happens to employees when a department is deleted?

Status	Notes
Employee accounts	✅ Not deleted, still in the enterprise
Department assignment	Becomes "Unassigned"
Follow-up	Reassign them to other departments in Member Management

Q3 · Can I create sub-departments (e.g. "Sales → South / North")?

❌ Only one-level departments are supported for now. Two workarounds:

Approach	How
Encode hierarchy in the name	Create "Sales-South", "Sales-North" directly
Combine with role permissions	Use different roles within the same department for finer segmentation (Permission Control)

Q4 · How are departments related to "roles"?

Dimension	👥 Department	🎭 Role
Answers	Which org the employee belongs to	What the employee can do
Examples	Sales / Marketing	Salesperson / Sales Manager / Intern
Relationship	Each employee belongs to 1 department + holds 1 role

See Permission Control.

Q5 · How are departments related to "sharing & sync"?

Departments are the middle layer for Data Sync & Sharing. In the 3-tier sharing scope, "My Department" means all members of the same department can share views / templates.

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💡 Learning Tips

Stage	Tip
📐 Plan first	Before creating departments, plan with the team: which departments / their responsibilities / rough headcount
📝 Unified naming	All "XX Dept" or all "XX Center" — don't mix
🔄 Keep it current	Org changes (new business lines / team splits & merges) → update departments in sync
👥 Assign members right after	Use Member Management to assign employees, don't leave them "Unassigned" long-term
🎚️ Pair with permissions and sharing	Departments are the building blocks for Permission Control and Data Sync & Sharing
📊 Quarterly review	Each quarter, review headcount and performance per department — adjust what's off

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📚 Related Features

Topic	Link	Notes
👨‍💼 Team Members	member-management	Assign employees to departments
🔑 Permission Control	permissions-management	Configure permissions per department / role
🔄 Data Sync & Sharing	sync-management	"My Department" is the middle layer of 3-tier sharing
🏢 Enterprise Basics	business-management	Enterprise overview + account creation
🤝 Customer Ownership	ownership-management	How customers within a department are assigned to individual employees

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