Create Department

POST /departments

Group: People Management › Departments · Operation ID: createDepartment

Creates a department. The response is only the new department's id, so read the full record with GET departments/:id.

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Parameters

Name In Type Required Description
Api-Version header "v1" yes The API version this request targets, named by its public identifier. Required on every request; omitting it, or naming a version this company does not have, is answered with 400. This document describes version v1.
Idempotency-Key header string no An opaque caller-chosen string (1-255 characters) that makes this request safe to retry. Repeating the same key with an identical request body replays the original response instead of re-executing - but only once that original request succeeded; a failed attempt re-executes on retry. Repeating the key with a different body is answered with 422. A key still in flight is answered with 409 - as is a key whose original request was interrupted before it finished, for a few minutes afterwards, until that attempt is presumed dead. A completed response stays replayable for 24 hours. The key is scoped to the caller, not to the action: reusing it for a different action is answered with 409 or 422 rather than treated independently. On read actions this header is ignored. On write actions that cannot offer the guarantee it is answered with 400 IDEMPOTENCY_NOT_SUPPORTED rather than silently ignored.

Request body

Required, application/json: createDepartmentInput.

Field Type Required Description
name string yes The display name of the department.
departmentCode string no A short code for the department, for example 'IT', 'HR' or 'FIN'. Must be unique across departments. When omitted, the system-generated department number is used as the code.
description string no A free-form description of the department's purpose and responsibilities.
managerId string no The identifier of the employee who manages the department. See id on GET people/:id.
parentId string no The identifier of the parent department. Omit for a top-level department. See id on GET departments/:id.
startDate string yes The date the department becomes active. Use format YYYY-MM-DD.
endDate string no The date the department becomes inactive. Use format YYYY-MM-DD. Omit for an open-ended department.
externalIdentifiers array of object no The department's identifiers in other systems, one per configured field name. A field name not configured for your tenant fails with UNKNOWN_EXTERNAL_IDENTIFIER.
externalIdentifiers[].fieldName string yes The configured field name of the identifier, for example 'netsuiteDepartmentId'.
externalIdentifiers[].value string yes The identifier in the other system.
externalIdentifiers[].externalUrl string no A link to the record in the other system.

Example:

{
  "name": "<name>",
  "departmentCode": "<departmentCode>",
  "description": "<description>",
  "managerId": "3fa85f64-5717-4562-b3fc-2c963f66afa6",
  "parentId": "3fa85f64-5717-4562-b3fc-2c963f66afa6",
  "startDate": "<startDate>",
  "endDate": "<endDate>",
  "externalIdentifiers": [
    {
      "fieldName": "<fieldName>",
      "value": "<value>",
      "externalUrl": "<externalUrl>"
    }
  ]
}

Response

200 Success

Under data (createDepartmentOutput):

Field Type Required Description
id string yes The unique identifier for the created department.

Response headers

Errors

Code Status
MANAGER_NOT_FOUND 400
PARENT_DEPARTMENT_NOT_FOUND 400
DUPLICATE_DEPARTMENT_CODE 400
UNKNOWN_EXTERNAL_IDENTIFIER 400
DUPLICATE_EXTERNAL_IDENTIFIER 400
IDEMPOTENCY_KEY_CONFLICT 409
IDEMPOTENCY_PAYLOAD_MISMATCH 422

Statuses