> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://human-resource-docs.ha-consultancy.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Master Data

> Set up your HR reference lists — departments, positions, nationalities, document types — that power every dropdown in the system.

The HR master lists — Departments, Positions, Nationalities, Document Types, and others — are the choices that appear in dropdowns throughout the system. Set them up once and you'll see them as options on every employee card, on every document upload, and when targeting announcements.

## What you can manage here

* **Departments** — your organisational units (Engineering, Finance, Sales, etc.).
* **Branches** — physical locations or sites.
* **Work Types** — Full-time, Part-time, Contractor.
* **Positions** — approved job titles.
* **Nationalities** — for visas, work permits, and air-ticket entitlement.
* **Religions** and **Genders** — required for HR letters and reporting.
* **Document Types** — the categories that show up when uploading a file to an employee record (Passport, ID, etc.).
* **HR Letter Types** — the letters employees can request (employment letter, salary certificate, NOC).

## When you'll touch this

Most of these lists are set up once and rarely changed. Open the relevant list when a new department is created, a new job title is approved by management, you need to track a new kind of document or letter, or you're hiring an employee from a country you haven't covered before.

<Tip>**Quick start for a new tenant:** if you're setting up a brand-new company, you can populate every list at once with starter values. See [Seed demo data](/getting-started/seed-demo-data) or Walkthrough 7 below.</Tip>

## Walkthroughs

Every master list follows the same pattern: open the list, click **New**, fill in the fields, go back. Your changes save automatically when you leave the card.

### Walkthrough 1 — Add a department

Set up a new organisational unit so employees can be assigned to it and so you can send announcements scoped to that team.

1. Search for **Departments**. The list opens.
2. Click **New** on the toolbar. A blank department card opens.
3. Fill in:
   * **Department Code** — a short identifier (e.g. `MKT`).
   * **Department Name** — the full name (e.g. `Marketing`).
   * **Parent Department** — leave blank, or pick another department if this is a sub-unit.
4. Click **Back** in the top-left, or press **Esc**. The system saves automatically.

The new department now appears on the Departments list and is available wherever a department is chosen — on the employee card, in announcement targeting, on reports.

<Tip>To add several at once, click **Edit List** on the toolbar — you can type rows directly in the grid.</Tip>

***

### Walkthrough 2 — Add a job position

Approve a new job title so it can be selected on employee cards.

1. Search for **Employee Position List**.
2. Click **New**. A blank row is added at the bottom of the grid.
3. In the **Name** column, type the position (e.g. `DevOps Engineer`).
4. Press **Esc** or click outside the row to save.

The new position is immediately selectable when editing an employee.

***

### Walkthrough 3 — Add a nationality

Onboarding an employee from a country that isn't in the list yet.

1. Search for **Employee Nationality List**.
2. Click **New**. A blank row appears.
3. Fill in:
   * **Code** — short identifier (e.g. `JO`).
   * **Country** — full country name (e.g. `Jordan`).
   * **Name** — the nationality (e.g. `Jordanian`). This is what employees see on their card.
4. Press **Esc** to save.

Used on the employee card and to drive air-ticket entitlement.

***

### Walkthrough 4 — Add a document type

A document type tells the system what kind of file an employee is uploading (Passport, ID, etc.).

1. Search for **Employee Doc Type List**.
2. Click **New**.
3. Type the label in the **Type** column (e.g. `Vehicle Registration`).
4. Press **Esc** to save.

The new type now appears in the dropdown when uploading a document for an employee.

***

### Walkthrough 5 — Add a letter type employees can request

Define a new type of HR letter (employment letter, salary certificate, etc.) that employees can request from their portal or that you can issue for them.

1. Search for **HR Document Type List**.
2. Click **New**.
3. Fill in:
   * **Code** — short identifier (e.g. `LOAN-LET`).
   * **Name** — what the employee sees in the request screen (e.g. `Bank Loan Support Letter`).
   * **Requires Approval** — tick if HR needs to approve before issuing. Leave unticked for letters HR generates on demand.
   * **Is Active** — leave ticked. Untick to retire a letter type without deleting it.
4. Press **Esc** to save.

***

### Walkthrough 6 — Add a branch

Branches are managed from the employee card rather than a dedicated list (this is intentional in the current version).

1. Open any employee.
2. On the **Branch** field, click the small dropdown arrow.
3. In the lookup that appears, click **+ New**.
4. Fill the branch code and name.
5. Save and pick the branch.

<Note>For bulk imports, ask your partner or BC administrator — they can load a list of branches via BC's configuration package import.</Note>

***

### Walkthrough 7 — Populate everything at once (evaluation tenants only)

If you're setting up a training or demo company from scratch, you can populate every master list in a single click.

1. Search for **HR Demo Data Generator**.
2. Click **Run Demo Seed**. A confirmation lists what was created.

<Warning>This is intended for evaluation environments, not for production tenants.</Warning>

See [Seed demo data](/getting-started/seed-demo-data) for what gets created.

## Related features

Master data appears throughout the system — on the [employee card](/features/employee-records), in [announcement](/features/announcements) targeting, in [payroll setup](/features/payroll-setup) for air-ticket entitlement by position and nationality, and in [employee document](/features/employee-records) uploads.