Creating and managing Departments

Departments are used to categorise staff and subject records to allow the selection of a subgroup of staff members when sending correspondence, viewing or printing information to staff. 

Department data can be synced from the schools Administration system (MAZE, Synergetic etc), or created and managed directly in SEQTA through the 'Data management' page.

Before making changes in the Data management page please check to ensure the information is not synced or the changes made may be overwritten by the overnight sync (see below for steps).

Table 1. Department information and the sync

Record	Can be synced?
'Departments'	Yes
'Subject' - Field: Department	No
'Staff' - Field: Department	Yes

Assigning subjects to departments

Subject department information cannot be synced from another system.  Rather, they will need to be assigned directly in SEQTA using the below steps:

1. Go to the Administration workspace > Data management > Subjects
2. Search for the subject name by typing part of the name in the search box in the top-right corner.
3. Click on the "subject record" to open up the edit window
4. Set the department as required.
5. Click Save.

Assigning staff to departments

If staff are assigned to departments in the school's Admin system, the information can be synced into SEQTA. If not, staff departments need to be managed directly in SEQTA using the following steps:

1. Go to the Administration workspace > Data management > Staff
2. Search for the staff member by typing the last name in the search box in the top-right corner.
3. Click on the staff member's record to open up the edit window.
4. Set the 'Departments' as required (one teacher can be assigned to multiple departments).
5. Click Save to keep the changes.

Department field definitions

• Department: The name of the department (eg: Mathematics, English, Library).
• Department 'Code': The naming convention here can be made up to suit the school's requirements however, it is best to keep the code short (less the 9 characters). Enter the information in uppercase for it to display and no spaces (eg: MATH, ENG, LIB etc..).
• Subject: Each subject can only be assigned to "one department".
• Staff: Staff members may belong to "multiple departments". 

Checking if Departments are included in the sync process

Before making changes in the Data management page please check to ensure the information is not synced or the changes made may be overwritten by the overnight sync. This can be done by going to the Administration workspace > Timetable management > Manage sync, select the Sync profile, search for 'Departments' in the list of items synced. If it shows and is selected this indicates it is being synced. Alternately, email or submit a ticket to the SEQTA Service desk for confirmation.