Managing Locations and Organizational Structure

Learn how to create and manage your organization’s location hierarchy in the Shifts platform to effectively organize teams, track operations, and implement appropriate access controls across your business.

Overview

The Shifts platform uses a hierarchical location structure to represent your organization’s operational units. This structure serves as the foundation for scheduling, staffing, permissions, and reporting. By properly configuring your locations and their relationships, you can accurately model your business’s organizational structure, from corporate headquarters down to individual locations. This article explains how to create, manage, and optimize your location hierarchy.

Understanding Location Hierarchy

The Shifts platform organizes locations in a hierarchical tree structure:

Location Levels

Your organization’s locations are categorized into levels, typically following this pattern:

1. Corporate (Level 0): The top level of your organization
2. Region (Level 1): Geographic or functional divisions
3. District (Level 2): Groups of locations managed together
4. Location (Level 3): Individual stores, branches, or operational units

These levels create a clear reporting structure and determine how permissions cascade through your organization.

Parent-Child Relationships

Locations form a tree structure through parent-child relationships:

• Each location (except the top level) has one parent location
• A location can have multiple child locations
• Permissions and reporting can flow from parent to child locations
• Users assigned to parent locations can access child location information

Accessing Location Management

To manage your location structure:

1. Log in with administrator credentials
2. Navigate to Admin > Business Setup
3. Select Locations from the menu
4. The location management interface will display:
   • A tree view of your location hierarchy
   • A list view of all locations
   • Tools for creating and managing locations

Creating a New Location

To add a new location to your organization:

1. From the Locations page, click Add New Location
2. Fill in the location details:
   • Name: The location’s display name
   • Location Code: Optional unique identifier
   • Location Level: Select the appropriate level in the hierarchy
   • Parent Location: Choose the parent (if not a top-level location)
   • Address: Physical address information
   • Contact Information: Phone, email, and other contact details
3. Configure additional settings:
   • Geofencing: Optional coordinates and radius for attendance verification
   • Labor Budget: Monthly budget allocation for this location
   • Shift Templates: Default shift templates for this location
4. Click Create Location to add it to your hierarchy

Organizing Your Location Hierarchy

To build an effective location structure:

1. Start with your top-level corporate location
2. Add regions or major divisions as children of the corporate location
3. Create districts or area groupings under each region
4. Add individual locations (stores, branches, etc.) under their respective districts

This top-down approach ensures a clean, logical hierarchy.

Moving Locations Within the Hierarchy

To reorganize your structure:

1. Navigate to the location’s detail page
2. Click Edit Location
3. Change the Parent Location selection
4. Click Save Changes

The location and all its children will move to the new position in the hierarchy.

Assigning Employees to Locations

To assign users to specific locations:

1. You can assign users to locations in two ways:
   • From the location page: Location Details > Employees > Add Employees
   • From the user profile: User Profile > Locations > Add Location
2. For location-based assignment:
   • Navigate to the location’s detail page
   • Click the Employees tab
   • Click Add Employees
   • Select users from the list or search by name/email
   • Click Assign Selected Users
3. For user-based assignment:
   • Navigate to the user’s profile
   • Select the Locations tab
   • Click Add Location
   • Select locations from the dropdown
   • Click Assign Selected Locations

Users can be assigned to multiple locations based on their work responsibilities.

Managing Location Settings

Each location has specific settings that affect operations:

Basic Settings

To configure basic location settings:

1. Navigate to the location’s detail page
2. Click Edit Location
3. Update any of the following:
   • Name and identifying information
   • Address and contact details
   • Status (Active/Inactive)
   • Parent location assignment
4. Click Save Changes

Advanced Settings

Additional location-specific settings include:

1. Geofencing:
   • Set latitude and longitude coordinates
   • Define radius for location-based check-ins
   • Enable/disable strict geofence enforcement
2. Labor Budget:
   • Set monthly labor budget allocation
   • Configure budget alerts and thresholds
   • Track actual vs. budgeted labor costs
3. Shift Rules:
   • Assign shift rule templates to the location
   • Set location-specific scheduling requirements
   • Configure role requirements for shifts
4. Security Settings:
   • Set IP access restrictions for the location
   • Configure location-specific security policies
   • Set access control requirements

Location-Based Permission Control

The location hierarchy determines permission scope:

How Permissions Work with Locations

1. Users with higher-level location assignments typically have access to data from lower-level locations
2. Permission inheritance has several modes:
   • Self Only: Access only to the specific location
   • Direct Reports: Access to the location and its immediate children
   • Full Hierarchy: Access to the location and all descendants
   • Custom Depth: Access to locations up to a specified depth in the hierarchy
3. Organizational roles align with location levels to create a consistent permission structure

Location Managers

To assign location managers:

1. Navigate to the location’s detail page
2. Select the Managers tab
3. Click Add Manager
4. Select users to assign as managers
5. Choose the manager’s permission scope:
   • Location only
   • Location and direct sublocation
   • Full hierarchy beneath this location
6. Click Assign as Managers

Location managers receive special permissions for their assigned locations.

Deactivating Locations

If a location is no longer operational:

1. Navigate to the location’s detail page
2. Click Edit Location
3. Change the status to Inactive
4. Choose how to handle:
   • Existing employees assigned to this location
   • Scheduled shifts at this location
   • Child locations (retain or reassign)
5. Click Save Changes

Inactive locations remain in the system for historical reporting but aren’t available for new schedules.

Using Locations for Scheduling

Locations are central to the scheduling process:

1. Shift Creation: Every shift is associated with a specific location
2. Staff Assignment: The system prioritizes users assigned to the location
3. Scheduling Rules: Location-specific templates affect shift requirements
4. Geographic Compliance: Check-ins can be verified against location coordinates
5. Budget Tracking: Labor costs are monitored against location budgets

Location-Based Reporting

The location hierarchy provides powerful reporting capabilities:

1. Navigate to Reports > Location Analytics
2. Select the location level to analyze:
   • Corporate: All locations combined
   • Region: Aggregate of all locations in a region
   • District: Group of related locations
   • Location: Individual site metrics
3. View reports including:
   • Staffing levels and coverage
   • Labor costs and budget compliance
   • Attendance metrics and patterns
   • Performance comparisons between locations

Reports can drill down or roll up through the hierarchy for different levels of detail.

Best Practices

For optimal results when managing locations:

1. Match Your Structure: Align the location hierarchy with your actual organizational structure
2. Use Consistent Naming: Adopt clear naming conventions for locations at each level
3. Limit Hierarchy Depth: Keep the structure to 3-4 levels for manageable permissions
4. Assign Correctly: Ensure users are assigned to all relevant locations
5. Review Regularly: Audit location structure quarterly and update as your organization changes
6. Start Simple: Begin with a basic structure and add complexity as needed
7. Document Changes: Keep records of significant structural changes for historical reporting
8. Validate Permissions: Test access controls when making hierarchy changes

Related Resources

• Work Rules
• Setup Locations
• Location Managers
• Location Settings

This article should be updated when:

1. New location hierarchy levels are added
2. The location management interface changes
3. Additional location settings or properties are introduced
4. Location-related permission controls are modified
5. New reporting features based on location hierarchy are added