Department manager: access to team reports and statistics

The "Department manager" role is useful when an employee needs to monitor their team's learning, testing and statistics, but should not receive administrator rights.

This is view-only access. A manager can analyse data for employees in their departments, but cannot manage courses, tests, files, company settings or other users' access rights.

When should this role be used?

Assign the "Department manager" role when an employee is responsible for a group of people and needs to see their performance data in Smart Way.

Typical examples:

• a retail network manager monitors training for store employees;

• a regional manager reviews statistics for several departments;

• a sales department manager checks their team's test results;

• a mentor or training owner monitors progress for specific departments.

Do not use this role as a replacement for an administrator. If a user needs to create courses, edit employees, configure tests or change access rights, they need the LMS platform administrator role.

What does a department manager see?

A user with this role has the standard employee access to the Academy plus additional view-only access to reports for their departments.

Their menu includes:

• "Testing reports";

• "Hall of Achievements";

• "All courses";

• "User".

In "All courses", the manager works like a regular employee on the LMS platform: they can view available courses and complete learning. They do not see actions for creating, editing or deleting courses.

In "Testing reports", the manager sees reports for employees in their departments, can use filters, open PDF reports and download consolidated Excel reports. Deleting reports and administrative actions are not available to them.

In the "Hall of Achievements", the manager sees:

• their own learning metrics;

• their own test results;

• the "Performance ratings" table;

• the "Employees who did not complete assigned tests" report;

• the "Course test results" report.

In the "Performance ratings" table, the manager sees general company employee metrics, as a regular employee does. In addition, they can open metric details only for employees in their departments. For those employees, the table shows "i" icons. The "Employees who did not complete assigned tests" and "Course test results" reports are generated only for employees in the manager's departments.

How does Smart Way define "their departments"?

Manager access is granted based on the values in the "Department" field in the employee card.

If the manager and the employee share at least one department, the manager can view detailed reports and statistics for that employee.

If the manager is responsible for several areas, add all required departments to their employee card. The same applies to employees: if a person belongs to several departments, add all current values.

It is important to keep department names consistent. For example, "Retail network", "Retail" and "Роздрібна мережа" are different values for the system.

What does the "Department manager" role not allow?

The "Department manager" role does not give administrative rights.

A manager cannot:

• create, edit or delete courses;

• manage lessons, tests or files;

• add, edit or delete employees;

• assign roles to other users;

• change company settings;

• view detailed data for employees without a shared department;

• delete testing reports.

What should be checked before enabling the role?

Before assigning the role, check that the "Department" field contains all departments the employee is responsible for.

If the "Department" field is empty, the "Department manager" option will be unavailable. After at least one department is added, the option can be enabled.

A department manager needs to sign in to the personal account, so when this role is enabled, Smart Way also enables Academy access. If Academy access is later disabled, the department manager role is also removed.

How to enable the role in the employee card

1. Sign in to Smart Way with an administrator account.

2. Go to "Employees".

3. Find the required employee in the list.

4. Open their card.

5. Check the "Department" field and add all departments this employee is responsible for.

6. Enable "Department manager".

7. Make sure "Grant access to the Academy" is also enabled.

8. Click "Save".

After saving, the employee will be able to sign in and will see the menu available to a department manager.

If the employee is an administrator, the "Department manager" block is not shown in their card. Administrators already have broader rights, so this role does not need to be enabled separately for them.

How do you enable the role via XLSX import?

For bulk employee creation, use the current XLSX template in "Employees".

The template contains a manager column. It is optional.

Fill it in as follows:

The manager column does not replace the "Department" field. For the manager to see the right employees, departments must be filled in correctly in the file.

If one employee belongs to several departments, enter them in one cell separated by commas. For example: Retail network, Training.

How to disable the role

To disable the role for a specific employee:

1. Go to "Employees".

2. Open the employee card.

3. Disable "Department manager".

4. Click "Save".

If the employee should continue learning in the Academy, leave "Grant access to the Academy" enabled. In that case, they remain a regular Academy user but lose extended access to department reports.

If the employee no longer needs a personal account, you can disable "Grant access to the Academy". In this case, department manager access will also be removed.

What typical issues can occur?

What should administrators keep in mind?

• Use consistent department names and avoid duplicate variants.

• Fill in the department field in every employee card.

• For managers responsible for several areas, add all required departments at once.

• After changes to the company structure, check whether the departments in manager cards need to be updated.

• Periodically review who has this role so access remains up to date.

FAQ

Can a manager see employees from several departments?

Yes. If several departments are specified for the manager, they get access to statistics for employees who have at least one of those departments.

Can an employee have several departments?

Yes. Several departments can be specified in an employee card. For manager access, one match with the manager's departments is enough.

Does the manager receive administrator rights?

No. The role only gives access to view reports and statistics within their departments. Administrative actions remain unavailable.

Can a manager edit courses or tests?

No. They work as a regular Academy employee and do not have content management rights.

Why is Academy access enabled when the role is enabled?

The manager needs to sign in to the personal account to view reports and statistics. This role therefore requires active Academy access.

What happens if Academy access is disabled?

The employee loses access to the personal account, and the department manager role is also removed.

Should this role be assigned to administrators?

No. Administrators already have broader rights, and the "Department manager" block is not shown for them.