Organize teams and work with departments and roles

Group your teams, locations, and their workflows into departments that stay private within your organization — then assign steps to reusable roles instead of individuals, so every run reaches the right person automatically.

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Acme Corp Organization
Sales
14 people · 6 workflows
Private
Field Ops — West
31 people · 12 workflows
Private
Customer Support
9 people · 4 workflows
Private
Each department's workflows, runs, and activity stay within that department.

Two ways to keep large teams organized

As your account grows, the same two questions come up again and again: who should see this work? and who should do it? Departments answer the first, roles answer the second — and together they keep the right people on the right workflows without micromanaging every run.

Departments

Separate workspaces for teams, locations, or business units. Each has its own people, workflows, runs, and time zone — kept private from the rest of the organization.

Roles

Named stand-ins like “Approver” or “Shift Lead.” Assign a step to a role once, and every run routes it to whoever fills that role — no editing the workflow each time.

Structure your account in three steps

1

Create your departments

Add a department for each team, location, or business unit under your organization. Give it a name and time zone, then invite the people who belong there — each with their own access level.

2

Define your roles

Within a department, create named roles like Manager, Reviewer, or Initiator and attach the people who can fill them — one person, several, or leave it open to anyone.

3

Assign work to roles

Build a workflow once and assign each step to a role rather than a person. Every run picks the right individual automatically, so the same template works across shifts, sites, and staffing changes.

A private workspace for every team

A department is its own space inside your organization. Its workflows, runs, and activity feed are visible only to the people who belong to that department — so Sales never wades through Field Ops' work, and one location's operations stay separate from the next.

  • Workflows, runs, and activity stay contained within the department that owns them.
  • Each department carries its own time zone, so business-day due dates land correctly for that team.
  • A person can belong to several departments, with a different access level in each.
  • Give a department its own invitation link and signup message to onboard the right people.
Field Ops — West Private
31
People
12
Workflows
PST
Time zone
Recent activity — visible only inside this department
Jordan completed Site Safety Inspection
Priya started New Site Onboarding
Dana joined the department

Assign to a role, not a person

A role is a named stand-in for whoever should do the work — an Approver, a Shift Lead, a QA Reviewer. Assign a step to that role once and Manifestly figures out the person on each run:

  • One person attached — the step is assigned to them automatically.
  • Several people attached — the run picks which of them takes it.
  • No one attached — anyone in the account can be chosen for that role.
  • Reuse the same role across many workflows — change who fills it, and every future run follows suit.
Purchase ApprovalWorkflow
Submit purchase request SLShift Lead
Manager approval Approver
File the receipt QAReviewer
on each run, the Approver role resolves to
DR PS AK 3 people can fill this role — the run picks one

Every member has an access level

Inside each department, a person's access level decides what they can do — from building workflows to simply participating on the runs they're invited to.

Admin

Can create and edit anything in the department.

User

Can use any workflow in the account, but can't create or edit workflows.

Member

Participates on the runs they're invited to, with no usage limits.

Limited

Can only participate on the runs they're invited to.

Want the full breakdown? See user permissions.

Share a workflow across departments

Privacy doesn't mean isolation. When one team perfects a workflow — an onboarding process, a compliance procedure — share it to other departments. Each receives its own synced copy, so a location can run it with their own people while the source stays the single source of truth.

  • Shared copies stay linked to the original as it's refined.
  • Roll out one standard process to many teams without rebuilding it.
  • Each department runs it with its own roles and people.
Standard Onboarding
Owned by HQ · source of truth
Source
shared & synced to
West RegionSynced copy
East RegionSynced copy

How teams use departments and roles

Multi-location operations

A department per store, branch, or site — each with its own team and time zone.

Roll out one opening workflow to every location; each runs it with its own Shift Lead role.

Separate business units

Sales, Support, and Operations each get a private workspace under one organization.

Each team's runs and activity stay their own, while admins keep the whole picture.

Coverage that changes

Rotating shifts, on-call schedules, and staff turnover across the same workflows.

Assign steps to an Approver role; update who fills it and every future run follows.

Departments and roles, answered

A department is a private workspace — a group of people, workflows, and runs kept separate from the rest of your organization. A role is a named stand-in for whoever should do a piece of work, so you can assign a step to “Approver” instead of a specific person. Departments control who sees the work; roles control who does it.

Yes. A person can be a member of several departments and have a different access level in each — for example, an admin in one department and a regular user in another.

Yes. A department's workflows, runs, and activity feed are visible only to people who belong to that department. If you want to reuse a process elsewhere, you can deliberately share a workflow to other departments, which gives each a synced copy.

If exactly one person is attached to a role, steps assigned to it go to them automatically. If several people are attached, the run picks which of them takes the step. If no one is attached, anyone in the account can be chosen for that role.

Yes — that's the point of roles. Assign a step to a role like Manager or Reviewer once, and every run resolves it to the right individual. Update who fills the role and future runs follow along, with no need to edit the workflow.

Yes. Each department has its own time zone, and business-day due dates for its workflows and runs are calculated in that time zone — useful when teams and locations span different regions.

Other Features

Design your process

Workflow Customization

Shape exactly how each workflow behaves — logic, data, timing, and documentation.

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Departments and Roles to Control Workflow Access

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