Department Settings

Department Settings is the central configuration hub for your Resgrid department. These settings control department-wide behavior including time display, personnel sorting, map configuration, status/staffing resets, dispatch behavior, module visibility, and more. Changes made here affect every user in your department.

Why Department Settings Matter

Department Settings define the global behavior and defaults for your entire organization. They control how data is displayed, how automated resets work, how dispatch interacts with shifts and groups, and which modules are available to your users. Misconfigured settings can lead to incorrect time displays, missed notifications, mapping issues, or features being unavailable to your team.

Accessing Department Settings

Navigate to the Department menu and select Settings. Only department administrators can access and modify these settings.

Core Settings

The core settings section controls fundamental department configuration.

Setting	Required	Default	Description
Department Name	Yes	—	Your department name as shown across the system
Managing User	Yes	Creator	The primary administrator of the department
Time Zone	Yes	US Pacific	Time zone used for all timestamps, scheduling, and resets
Use 24-Hour Time	No	Off	Switches between 12-hour (AM/PM) and 24-hour time format
Disable Auto-Available	No	Off	Prevents the system from automatically setting personnel to Available

Time Zone Selection

All times displayed in the web application and mobile apps use the department time zone. Make sure this matches your operating time zone to avoid confusion with status timestamps, calendar events, and scheduled resets.

Department Address

The department address establishes the geographic reference point for your organization.

Field	Required	Description
Address	Yes	Street address of your headquarters or primary station
City	Yes	City
State	Yes	State or province
Postal Code	Yes	ZIP or postal code
Country	Yes	Country

This address is used as the default map center when no other center is specified in the Big Board/Map Settings.

Sort Orders

Sort orders control how personnel, units, and calls are displayed throughout the system.

Setting	Options	Description
Personnel Sort	Default, First Name, Last Name, Group	How personnel lists are ordered
Unit Sort	Default, Name, Type, Station	How unit lists are ordered
Call Sort	Default, Priority, Date, Name	How call lists are ordered

Big Board and Map Settings

These settings control the behavior of the Big Board and map views across the system.

Setting	Required	Default	Description
Map Zoom Level	No	10	Initial zoom level (0–15, where 0 is fully zoomed out)
Refresh Time	No	30	Auto-refresh interval in seconds (5–120)
Map Center Address	No	—	Override address for map centering (City and Country required)
Map Center GPS (Lat/Long)	No	—	Override GPS coordinates for map centering (decimal format)
Hide Unavailable on Map	No	Off	Hides personnel with unavailable staffing from the map

Map Center Configuration

If you specify a Map Center Address, you must provide at least the City and Country fields. GPS coordinates must be in decimal format (e.g., 38.8977 not 38°53'51.6"N). Invalid values will cause an error when saving.

Staffing Reset

The staffing reset feature automatically resets all personnel staffing levels to a baseline value at a specified time each day. This is useful for departments that want everyone to start each day at a known staffing state.

Setting	Required	Default	Description
Enable Staffing Reset	No	Off	Turns on the daily automatic staffing reset
Time to Reset	Yes (if enabled)	—	The time of day (in department time zone) to reset
Reset Staffing To	Yes (if enabled)	Unavailable	The staffing level to set all personnel to

Staffing Reset and Custom Staffing

When you update or remove custom staffing levels, make sure to also update the Reset Staffing To value here. If the configured reset staffing level no longer exists, the reset may not function as expected. Also notify your personnel to update any personal scheduled staffing changes they have configured.

Status Reset

Similar to staffing reset, the status reset automatically resets all personnel statuses at a specified time each day.

Setting	Required	Default	Description
Enable Status Reset	No	Off	Turns on the daily automatic status reset
Time to Reset	Yes (if enabled)	—	The time of day (in department time zone) to reset
Reset Status To	Yes (if enabled)	Standing By	The status to set all personnel to

Staffing Suppression

Staffing suppression allows you to prevent notifications from going to personnel who are in certain staffing levels. For example, if someone is marked as Unavailable, you may not want them to receive dispatch notifications.

Setting	Required	Description
Enable Staffing Suppress	No	Enables the suppression of notifications
Staffing Levels to Suppress	Yes (if enabled)	Select which staffing levels should be suppressed

Dispatch Settings

Dispatch settings control how the dispatch system interacts with shifts, groups, and units.

Setting	Default	Description
Dispatch Shift Instead of Group	Off	When dispatching to a group, use the shift signup list instead of group members
Auto Set Status for Shift Personnel	Off	Automatically sets a status when shift personnel are dispatched
Shift Dispatch Status	—	The status to automatically set when shift personnel are dispatched
Shift Clear Status	—	The status to set when shift personnel are cleared from a call
Unit Dispatch Also Dispatch to Assigned Personnel	Off	When dispatching a unit, also notify personnel assigned to unit roles
Unit Dispatch Also Dispatch to Group	Off	When dispatching a unit, also notify the unit's station group
Personnel On Unit Set Unit Status	Off	When personnel on a unit change status, update the unit status accordingly

Mapping Settings

These settings control how long personnel and unit location data remains visible on maps.

Setting	Default	Description
Personnel Location TTL	—	How long personnel location pins remain on the map
Unit Location TTL	—	How long unit location pins remain on the map
Personnel Allow No-Location Overwrite	Off	A status update without GPS can overwrite a previous status that had GPS
Unit Allow No-Location Overwrite	Off	A unit state without GPS can overwrite a previous state that had GPS

Module Settings

Module settings allow you to enable or disable entire sections of the Resgrid system. Disabling a module hides it from navigation and prevents access for all users.

Module	Default	Description
Messaging	On	Internal messaging system
Mapping	On	Maps and geolocation features
Shifts	On	Shift scheduling and management
Logs	On	Activity and narrative logging
Reports	On	Report generation
Documents	On	Document storage and management
Calendar	On	Calendar and event scheduling
Notes	On	Department notes
Training	On	Training records and management
Inventory	On	Inventory tracking
Maintenance	On	Equipment maintenance tracking

Shift Settings

Setting	Default	Description
Allow Signups for Multiple Shift Groups	Off	Allows personnel to sign up for shifts across multiple groups

API Settings

The API section displays your department's API key and Active Call RSS key. These are used for external integrations.

Setting	Description
API Key	Used to authenticate API requests to the Resgrid API
Active Call RSS Key	Used to generate an RSS feed of your active calls

You can provision (generate) a new API key or RSS key from this section. Generating a new key will invalidate the previous one.

Common Errors and Resolutions

Error	Resolution
"Map zoom level must be between 0 and 15"	Enter an integer between 0 and 15
"Refresh time must be between 5 and 120"	Enter a value between 5 and 120 seconds
"Need to specify a city and country"	When setting a Map Center Address, City and Country are required
"Need to supply a time to reset"	When enabling staffing or status reset, you must specify the time
"Latitude/Longitude value seems invalid"	GPS coordinates must be in decimal format (e.g., 38.8977, -77.0365)
Settings not taking effect	Clear the department cache and have users log out and back in to their mobile apps