1.5.1 Part 1: Understanding the structure of Planday
In this part we’ll introduce the structure of Planday, and help you get an understanding of the main building blocks of Planday and what they are used for.
1.5.1.1 Expectations
What is expected of you?
On completion of this part we expect you to be well underway with your own demo portal. In doing so, you will know what Departments, Employee groups, Sections, and Positions are, and how to use Planday’s main building block to set up a sensible structure for a smaller customer’s Planday account.
We also expect that you have a basic understanding of how the structure in Planday can affect the calculations and export of data to be used in other systems, such as payroll systems.
What is expected of your mentor?
Your mentor will:
- assist you when necessary, and help you with your Planday demo account so you have the basic structure in place
- go through what questions he usually ask a customer in order to understand how to structure their Planday account
- be available to discuss pros and cons with different Planday setups
- answer any questions you have
- explain anything that’s unclear
1.5.1.2 Introduction
The main building blocks of Planday schedules are:
- Departments
- Employee groups
- Sections
- Positions
- Shift types
Each Department in Planday comes with its own schedule. The schedule is built out by creating shifts for the different Employee groups. The Employee groups can be subdivided into Sections and Positions, and each shift can be labeled using Shift types.
Employees are assigned to Departments and Employee groups. The combination of what Departments and Employee groups an employee is assigned to determines what shifts he can cover on the Schedule.
Familiarize yourself with The Structure of Planday and the Getting started guide before moving on.
1.5.1.3 How to create Departments
To learn how to create Departments, see:
Creating Departments is easy, but deciding on the right Department structure can be a bit tricky.
Things to keep in mind when deciding on Department structure:
Will the customer import revenue from a POS system to Planday?
If yes, this might affect the Department structure in Planday. In POS systems, revenue might be connected to units, and these units will often translate to Departments in Planday
Does the customer have a specific Department structure linked to different cost centers in the Payroll system?
If yes, Departments in Planday will often reflect the setup from the payroll system. From People > Departments > Edit department, we can assign a department ID that can also be included in payroll exports. This is used to register payroll cost on the correct cost center in the payroll system.
Do different line managers (e.g. head chef or restaurant manager) manage their own schedule?
When setting up Departments it’s important to consider the different manager roles in the business. Let’s do an example from a restaurant where we have a restaurant owner, a floor manager, and a head chef. Here’s a breakdown of what their roles could be, and how we’d set it up for them:
Restaurant owner:
- Overall responsibility for the restaurant, including monitoring financial performance, keeping track of costs, payroll, and revenue for the business.
- Pulls payroll reports from Planday, and has final approval before passing the data on to the payroll provider
- When reviewing timesheets, the owner will check in with the Floor manager or Head chef if anything is unclear or looks wrong
- Depending on how hands-on the owner is, he might work on the Schedule if one of his managers are absent
- Security groups / permissions: The owner is the only Administrator of the restaurant’s Planday account, giving him full access to all data, settings, and features in Planday
- Has final say in hiring new staff, and will typically create Planday accounts for new employees, including registering their hourly wage
Floor manager and Head chef:
- Manages staff in their respective departments: Restaurant floor and Kitchen
- Schedules staff in their own department, and approves their Punch Clock entries
- Monitors costs and forecast, and adjusts the Schedule
- Communicates with staff in their departments, and will also cover shifts on the restaurant floor
- Security groups / permissions: If the managers doesn’t need access to employee data, then Schedule admin for their own Department is enough. They can also be added as HR manager if they need access to employee data, excluding wage information
We will cover Security groups in greater detail later, but for now it can be useful to make a note of the following:
- To add an employee to a security group, go to the quick edit view of an employee from People > Employees, and add them under Permissions
- After an employee is added, you can limit the Departments he has permissions for under People > Departments
1.5.1.4 How to create employee groups?
To learn how to create Employee groups, see:
Creating Employee groups is easy, but deciding on the right structure can be a bit tricky.
Here are a few things to keep in mind when creating Employee groups:
- Employee groups help structure the Schedule, and controls which employees can cover what shifts
- One Employee can belong to multiple Employee groups
- Employee groups are often closely connected to tasks, roles, or skills, making it possible to build a Schedule around who can fill what positions in the business
- Example: In a restaurant you might start out as a Runner (Employee group), and after a while you might be ready to cover shifts as a Bartender (Employee group) as well.
- Adding an Employee to a second Employee group will increase the number of shifts they are available for
- Employee groups can also be used as communication groups, without necessarily being used in the Schedule
- In some cases, you might want to register salary codes on an Employee group in order to get more finely granulated data in your payroll system
- In Planday, we can set up payroll supplements and any type of extra allowance, to shifts for specific Employee groups. This can play a role in how the structure should be.
1.5.1.5 How to create an employee?
To learn how to create employees, see:
Creating employees is easy. At least for the purpose of basic training. There are three things you want to focus on:
- Register contact information, so you can invite the employee via email, SMS, or both
- Assign the employee to the Department(s) he should cover shifts in
- Assign the employee to the Employee groups matching his roles/skills, and setting his individual wage for each Employee group
That’s it. If you got this information in place, you’re ready to start scheduling. We’ll dig into more detail later, and as the complexity increase we might have to come back to make adjustments to Departments, Employee groups, and employees.
1.5.1.6 How to create positions?
You might not need Positions right from the start, but it is important to understand what Positions are, and the value they add to our customers.
Sections and Positions live, as opposed to Employee groups, within a single Department. Positions are a subdivision of an Employee group, and can provide managers and employees with relevant information about shifts and costs for parts of the business.
Smaller customers might not need the Positions view in the Schedule.
To learn more about Sections and Positions, see:
1.5.1.7 Test
When you have gone through all the material you are ready for the test:
1.5.1.8 Key takeaways
- How you structure Planday from the beginning, is important to how the end product will look like.
