How do I create and manage groups?
Groups are how you address a set of employees at once: to grant software, to target a request policy, or to scope an admin to part of the company.
Settings → General → Groups lists the flat ones — plain groups, roles and security groups. It deliberately leaves out the structural kinds (company, country, division, department, location, team), because those form your hierarchy and are managed on Organization instead. If a department you know exists is missing from this list, that is why.
This article covers creating and maintaining the groups themselves. For putting an individual employee into one, see How do I organise employees with groups?.
In this guide
Before you begin
You need Admin access.
Three kinds of group
The Kind column tells you how a group gets its members, and it decides what you can do to the group.
| Kind | Members come from | You can edit it |
|---|---|---|
| Static | Added by hand | Yes |
| Virtual | Criteria you define | Membership follows the criteria |
| Managed | Synced from an integration | No — change it at the source |
The All, Static and Virtual tabs filter the list.
Create a group
- Go to Settings → General → Groups.
- Select Create Group.
- Give it a name and an optional description.
- Leave Virtual Group off for a group you fill by hand. Turn it on for one that fills itself.
Turning on Virtual Group takes you to the criteria editor after creating, because a virtual group with no criteria has no members. See How do I make a group fill itself automatically?.
Group types
Nine types exist, and they split into two sets that live on two different pages:
| Types | Managed on | |
|---|---|---|
| Structural | Company, Country, Division, Department, Location, Team | Organization |
| Flat | Group, Role, Security Group | This page |
The split is enforced, not a convention: this list filters structural types out of its query. So the two pages never show the same group, and there is no page that shows all nine at once.
Delete a group
Deleting a group removes its members from it and revokes any licences auto-assigned through it. It cannot be undone.
Deletion is refused for:
- the company root group
- any group with child groups, which would otherwise be orphaned to the top of the hierarchy
- managed groups, which must be removed at their source
- any group used as an admin's data scope — reassign that admin first
A group with members does delete, taking its memberships with it. A structural unit does not: those must be emptied first, and are managed from Organization.
Good to know
What does the Members count include for a virtual group?
Everyone matching the criteria as of the last recalculation. Membership is stored rather than worked out on every read, and refreshed when employee records change, so a brand-new match can take a few minutes to appear. That lag is also why licences granted through a group follow a few minutes behind.
Can an employee be in more than one group?
Yes, in as many as apply, with one marked as their primary group. See How do I organise employees with groups?.
Why can I not edit this group's name?
It is managed — synced from an HR system or directory. Rename it there and the change arrives with the next sync. See How does HR syncing work?.
Do groups do anything on their own?
No. A group is a handle. What makes it useful is what you point at it: software plans (auto-assignment), request policies, or an admin's scope.
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