Managing Departments

MidiCRM Plus plan allows users to set detailed access permissions on their notes and other records. If you are on such a plan, organizing users into departments can make things easier.

Why Authorizing Departments Is Better Than Authorizing Individual Users

When saving a note or any other type of record in MidiCRM, you can specify who can read and edit it. While it’s possible to assign permissions to individual users, it’s more effective to authorize entire departments. Here’s why:

Over time, people often change roles within a company—they might get promoted, switch departments, or new team members might join to help share the workload. You don’t want to update permissions on thousands of notes and records every time these organizational changes happen.

By assigning permissions to departments instead of individual users, you can avoid these issues.

Consider a scenario where you have three people in the customer support department. If you want a note to be visible to all three, you could list each person as a reader in the note’s access rights. However, if one person transfers to the sales department and a new person joins the support team, the new member won’t be able to see the note, while the person who transferred will still have access.

In contrast, if you authorize the entire support department as readers instead of specific individuals, the system will automatically adjust access rights as people move in and out of the department. When a new member joins the support department, they’ll automatically gain access to relevant notes, and anyone who leaves the department will lose access immediately when their department assignment is updated.

Hierarchy and Access Rights

When restricting access rights on a record to specific users or departments, it's essential to also grant the same rights to their supervisors. Keeping managers uninformed is not a good practice. In organizations with multiple layers of hierarchy, managing these permissions manually can be complex.

MidiCRM simplifies this process by automatically handling hierarchical permissions. When you grant read or edit rights to a user or department, the system also extends those permissions to their supervisors up the organizational chain. For example, if you allow the customer support team to read a note, the customer support manager and the general manager above them will automatically be granted access, even if they are not specifically listed as readers.

For this automatic handling to work, you must accurately define your organization chart in MidiCRM.

Defining The Organization Chart

The organization chart in MidiCRM is a graphical representation of your company’s departmental hierarchy. This chart may closely resemble your company's official organizational chart or be a slightly modified version to suit specific needs.

Steps to Create or Edit Your Company’s Organization Chart:

1. Access Settings:
   • Click the Settings icon on the right side of the top menu bar.
2. Navigate to Department Settings:
   • Click Department Settings under the Departments and Access section.
3. Add a New Department:
   • Click the New Department button.
4. Fill in the New Department Form:
   • Department Name: Enter the name of the department (e.g., Account Executives).
   • Reports To: Specify the department or manager or other department this department reports to (e.g., Sales Manager).
   • Users: Select the members of this department from the user list.

Best Practices:

• Represent Managers as Separate Departments: In MidiCRM, it is often more practical to represent managers as separate departments (with a single member) above the departments they manage. This allows you to:some text
  • Grant different permissions to managers.
  • Automatically give managers all permissions granted to members of their departments.
  • Avoid reassigning permissions when a manager changes.
• Ensure a Single Top-Level Department: Ideally, your organization chart should have only one top-level department that does not report to any other department. This ensures that hierarchical permissions work correctly, as users in this top-level department will have access to all notes and records created by other departments.

By setting up an accurate and thoughtful organization chart in MidiCRM, you can ensure that permissions are managed efficiently and align with your company’s structure.