SOURCE: Vacation Tracker TITLE: How Do I Create a Department within Vacation Tracker? URL: https://vacationtracker.io/knowledge-base/how-do-i-create-a-department-within-vacation-tracker/ LANG: en PUBLISHED: 2025-08-19 UPDATED: 2025-10-10 READING: 2 min SUMMARY: Once you sign up with Vacation Tracker all of the active users will be set to one Department by default, the Default Department. However, if like us you have multiple departments, you can create additional departments to manage your requests and to assign different approvers. # How Do I Create a Department within Vacation Tracker? # How Do I Create a Department within Vacation Tracker? New hires, reorgs, a new product line — teams grow in shapes that don't always fit one bucket. Out of the box, Vacation Tracker drops every active user into a single Default Department. Creating extra Departments lets you route different teams to different Approvers, configure approval flow independently, and keep leave requests organized by the way your company actually works. ## Create a New Department The form opens on its own page, grouped into five sections. Name and at least one Approver are required — every Department needs an active Approver before it can be created. Users and the other fields can be left for later and edited in via the Edit Department flow. - Sign in at app.vacationtracker.io (https://app.vacationtracker.io/signin). - In the left-hand menu, under Team & Approval Flows, click Departments. - At the top of the Departments page, click Create New Department. - Work through the five sections of the Create Department form (covered below). - Click Create Department at the bottom. Use Cancel to back out without saving. ![Departments page with the Create New Department button highlighted at the top](https://cms.vacationtracker.io/uploads/helpdesk_artikal_how_do_i_create_a_department_within_vacation_tracker_first_image_place_01083eeec2.png) ## What to Fill Out ### 1. Department Settings The top of the form sets the basics — Department name and the initial roster of Users. - Name — required. Type the Department name. Users see this anywhere a Department is displayed. - Users (optional) — searchable multi-value chip field. Type to search for a person, click to add. Leave blank if you're still figuring out the roster — you can add people later through Edit Department. ### 2. Approval Flow Sets who approves leave requests and how those approvals flow. - Approval Flow Type — Single-level Approval (default, all plans) or Multi-level Approval (Complete plan only). Single-level means one approval moves the request forward. Multi-level routes requests through each configured level in sequence. - Approver(s) — required. Searchable chip field for the Users and/or Admins who'll approve or deny requests for this Department. You must assign at least one — the form won't let you save without an active Approver. The same person can be Approver on multiple Departments. - Notify Watcher(s) After Final Approval (optional) — email addresses that get a notification once a request is fully approved. Separate multiple addresses with commas or spaces. Useful for looping in HR or a shared payroll inbox. How the two flow types behave Single-level Approval needs one sign-off — any one of the Approvers you pick can approve or deny the request, and the leave moves forward as soon as one of them acts. Multi-level Approval (Complete plan) routes the request through every level you've configured in order; within each level, any one Approver can move it on to the next. ### 3. Leave Request Expiration Controls how long pending requests hang around before expiring. The field asks Keep future pending requests open? with a Yes/No toggle (defaults to No). #### Yes — keep them open Pending requests stay open until the leave end date. No auto-expiry along the way. #### No — auto-expire Pending requests expire after 7 working days or on the leave end date, whichever comes first. This keeps stale requests from piling up indefinitely. ### 4. Default Department Every workspace needs exactly one default Department — the one new users land in automatically. The Make This Department Default toggle lets you flag the one you're creating as the new default. Only one default at a time Setting this new Department as default automatically removes default status from whichever Department currently holds that role. Users already assigned stay where they are — only future imports are affected. ### 5. Subdepartment Settings Lets you nest the new Department under an existing one for structural grouping. The Choose Parent Department dropdown defaults to None. - Pick a parent Department to visually nest this one under it in the Departments list. - Nesting is purely organizational — a subdepartment keeps its own Users, Approvers, and approval flow. Nothing is inherited from the parent. - Leave set to None if this Department stands on its own. ## Save the Department Scroll to the bottom of the form and click Create Department. The new Department appears on the Departments page immediately, and any users you assigned to it are moved in. If you clicked Cancel instead, nothing is saved. After you create it You may want to configure custom notifications for the new Department — a different reminder schedule, a different notification channel in Slack or Teams, or a separate leave summary cadence. See the Guide: Notifications Within Vacation Tracker (https://vacationtracker.io/knowledge-base/guide-notifications-within-vacation-tracker/) for the full setup. ## Common Questions Who can create a Department? Admins. The Departments page and the Create New Department button sit under the Admin-only Team & Approval Flows section of the left menu, so regular Users and Approvers don't see them. Is there a limit on how many Departments I can create? Yes, the cap depends on your plan: Free includes 1 Department, Core includes 10, and Complete is unlimited. If you hit your plan's cap when trying to create one, Vacation Tracker will prompt you — and you can upgrade from the Billing page to unlock more. Do I have to assign users and approvers right away? Approvers — yes. Every Department needs at least one active Approver before it can be saved, so you'll have to assign one up front. If you don't yet know who the final Approver will be (for example, you're creating the Department as part of a bulk import and the real Approver hasn't been added yet), assign yourself or another Admin as a placeholder and swap it out later through Edit Department. Users are different — that field is optional, and you can leave it empty and add people any time afterwards. ### What's Next? How Do I Set an Approver within Vacation Tracker? (https://vacationtracker.io/knowledge-base/how-do-i-set-an-approver-within-vacation-tracker/) How To Set Up Multi-Level Approvals (https://vacationtracker.io/knowledge-base/how-to-set-up-multi-level-approvals/) How to Enable or Disable Leave Request Expiration? (https://vacationtracker.io/knowledge-base/how-to-enable-or-disable-leave-request-expiration/) Need help? Contact our Support team via email (mailto:hello@vacationtracker.io) or chat (#), Monday to Friday, 9 AM – 5 PM EST.