Setting up departments.

Departments are how DEF knows which group of people handles which kind of task. A guest complaint about a noisy room goes to housekeeping. A bank reconciliation request goes to accounting. A broken AC goes to maintenance. The classification happens automatically, but only if your departments are set up first.

Where to go

Go to My Business (or Settings, depending on your DEF version), then find the Departments section. You'll see whatever's already there.

If you're brand new, you'll see four suggested defaults for hospitality:

• Front Desk
• Housekeeping
• Kitchen
• Maintenance

You can keep them, rename them, or delete them. To add your own, click + Add department and type a name. Common additions: bar, spa, gardens, accounting, reception night, valet.

The lead

Each department has one lead, the employee in charge of that group. Pick the lead from the dropdown (you set the contacts up in Lesson 05). When a task gets routed to that department, DEF tries the on-shift person first; if no one's on shift, the lead gets the ping.

How many is right?

Most operations land at 4 to 6 departments. Below 2 and you lose the routing benefit (everyone gets everything). Above 10 and your team starts crossing wires (was that a kitchen issue or a bar issue?). The right number is the smallest set that has clear boundaries.

Don't agonize. Start with the defaults, run a week, then adjust. Departments are easy to rename or merge later.