Setting Up Your Organization

By Monirul Islam · 2026-03-13 · Organization

Organization Settings is where Admins configure the structure and policies of their company in OpenHR. This is typically the first thing you do after registering your organization. Access it from the sidebar by clicking "Organization."

The settings page has 9 tabs covering everything from departments to notification preferences.

1. Structure — Departments and Designations

Departments:

• Add departments like "Engineering," "Sales," "HR," "Finance"
• Departments are used for employee assignment, leave workflow routing, and report filtering

Designations:

• Add job titles like "Software Engineer," "HR Manager," "Accountant"
• Designations appear on employee profiles and reports

Click "Add" to create, or use the edit/delete icons on existing items.

2. Teams — Creating and Managing Teams

Create teams within departments:

1. Click "Add Team"
2. Enter a team name (e.g., "Frontend Team")
3. Select the department it belongs to
4. Choose a Team Lead from your employees
5. Select team members using the multi-select checkboxes
6. Save

Team assignment is important because:

• It determines which manager approves leave requests
• Managers can only see attendance/leave for their team
• Dashboard shows team-based statistics

3. Placement — Office Locations with GPS Geofencing

Define your physical office locations for GPS-based attendance verification:

1. Click "Add Location"
2. Enter the location name (e.g., "Head Office")
3. Enter GPS coordinates (latitude and longitude)
4. Set the geofence radius in meters (how far from the coordinates an employee can be and still match this location)

Finding GPS coordinates: Use Google Maps — right-click on your office location and copy the coordinates.

When employees clock in, their GPS is matched against these locations. If they're within the radius, the location name is recorded. Otherwise, they're marked as "Remote Area."

4. Shifts — Work Schedule Configuration

Configure work schedules for your organization:

1. Click "Add Shift"
2. Set the shift name (e.g., "Morning Shift," "Night Shift")
3. Define start time and end time
4. Set late grace period (minutes after start time before marking as LATE in attendance)
5. Set early out grace period (minutes before end time for acceptable early departure)
6. Set earliest check-in time (when employees can start clocking in)
7. Set auto session close time (when to automatically end sessions — default 11:59 PM)
8. Select working days (e.g., Monday through Friday)
9. Mark as default shift if it should be auto-assigned to new employees

Shift Overrides for Temporary Schedule Changes: Need to temporarily change an employee's shift? (e.g., Ramadan hours, project deadlines)

• Go to the shift section
• Click "Add Override"
• Select the employee, date range, and the temporary shift
• Add a reason
• The override takes precedence during that date range, then reverts automatically

5. Workflow — Leave Approval Routing

Configure how leave requests are routed per department:

1. Select a department
2. Choose the approver role: Manager, Team Lead, Admin, or HR
3. Save

This determines whether leave requests go through the manager first or directly to HR. See the Leave Policies guide for more details.

6. Leaves — Leave Policy and Allocations

Global Defaults: Set the standard leave allocation for all employees:

• Annual Leave: e.g., 15 days
• Casual Leave: e.g., 10 days
• Sick Leave: e.g., 14 days

Employee Overrides: Give specific employees different allocations:

1. Click "Add Override"
2. Select the employee
3. Set custom values for Annual, Casual, and Sick leave
4. Save

The override takes priority over the global default for that employee.

7. Holidays — Company Holiday Calendar

Manage your organization's holiday calendar:

1. Click "Add Holiday"
2. Enter the date and holiday name
3. Select the type: National, Festival, or Islamic
4. Mark if it's a government holiday
5. Save

Holidays are:

• Excluded from leave day calculations
• Excluded from absence reports (employees aren't marked absent on holidays)
• Displayed on the holiday calendar

8. Notifications — Notification Settings

Configure how notifications are handled in your organization:

• Enabled Notification Types — Choose which events trigger bell and email notifications (Leave, Attendance, Review, Announcement, System).
• Digest Frequency — Set how often notification digests are sent (Immediate or batched).
• Quiet Hours — Optionally disable notifications during off-hours.
• Retention — Notifications are automatically cleaned up after 30 days.

9. System — Application-Level Settings

Configure application-level settings like your company name, office/factory labels, and other global preferences.

Related Guides

• Welcome to OpenHR — Overview of all features.
• How to Clock In and Out — How shifts and locations affect attendance.
• How to Apply for Leave — How leave policies affect employees.
• Managing Employees — Adding and assigning employees to teams and shifts.
• Configuring Notification Settings — Detailed notification configuration.