Set managers and reporting lines

What this guide helps you do

A reporting line connects one employee record to the person who manages them. HRStuff uses it to build My Team, limit managers to their own direct reports and, when manager approval is enabled, route leave and claim decisions.

Set the reporting manager on the employee who reports to somebody, not on the manager’s own record. Repeat this for each direct report. If no manager is selected, HR handles work that would otherwise go to a manager.

Before you set a reporting line

• Create the manager’s employee record first. The manager must belong to the same company.

• Check that both names identify the right people, especially when employees have similar names. Job titles appear beside names in the manager list when available.

• Decide whether the employee should have a named manager or Default - HR. Default - HR is not a person; it means no reporting manager is stored and HR handles manager-routed approval work.

• Remember that a manager needs a login to use My Team or approve requests. The reporting line can be stored before that login is created, but the manager cannot act in HRStuff until they can sign in.

Set the reporting manager

1. Open the employee who will report to the manager

   Open ADMINISTRATION, then Employees. Search for the employee and choose their name. You are editing the direct report’s record.

2. Open Job Details for editing

   Find the Job Details card and choose Edit. Reporting manager sits with Job title, Department, Employment type and the employment dates because it describes where the person sits in the company.

3. Choose Reporting manager

   Select the correct person. Choose nobody (HR approves) when approvals should remain with HR or the employee has no manager. HRStuff will not allow an employee to report to themselves.

4. Save and check the result

   Choose Save on the Job Details card. Return to Employees and use the Reporting manager filter to check the team. A manager who can sign in should see the employee under My Team.

Understand what the manager can see and do

A reporting line gives the manager a relationship to that direct report; it does not turn the manager into an HR administrator. The exact pages available also depend on the person’s login role and the features enabled for the company.

• Managers can use My Team, Team Calendar and permitted Team Reports for their direct reports.

• When the company sends eligible leave or claim decisions to managers, the reporting line decides which manager receives the work.

• If approval delegation is enabled, a request may go to the direct manager’s own manager while the direct manager is on approved leave. Only the request is reassigned; the absent manager’s team does not become the covering manager’s direct reports.

• Managers cannot use the HR employee record to see salary, payroll, bank details, private identity details, employment documents or company settings.

• A manager sees direct reports, not everybody in the company. Do not use the Manager role as a substitute for HR administrator access.

• If Automatically approve leave or Automatically approve claims is switched on for the employee, that request can bypass the normal manager decision step. Check those employee settings when approval behaviour looks unexpected.

Change a manager or reorganise a team

1. Change one employee

   Open the employee record, edit Job Details and choose the new Reporting manager. Saving changes the reporting line without changing either person’s login role.

2. Change several visible employees

   On ADMINISTRATION, Employees, choose Edit above the table. Change Reporting manager for the employees on that page, then Save before moving to another page. Use filters first when you want to work through one department or one manager’s team.

3. Replace a manager who has left

   An inactive manager can remain beside an employee as “no longer here” so HRStuff does not silently erase the stored relationship. Reassign each direct report to a current manager or to nobody (HR approves). Making the old manager inactive does not perform this reorganisation for you.

If the team or approval route looks wrong

• Check the direct report’s Job Details, not only the manager’s Role.

• Check that the manager has an active login and can sign in.

• Check whether the employee has automatic leave or claim approval enabled.

• Check the company’s leave and claim approval settings; a reporting line does not by itself switch manager approval on.

• Use the Reporting manager filter on Employees to confirm exactly which records point to that manager.

• If a former manager is marked “no longer here,” replace that stored manager instead of deleting the employee record.

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