FAQ
What is the difference between a position and an employee?
A position is the seat on the org chart — a budgeted role. An employee is the person sitting in it. Splitting them lets you plan headcount, see vacancies and run honest budget reports.
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Position is the seat, employee is the person
A position is the planned role — a job title, department, who it reports to, what it pays, and a lifecycle state (open, filled, frozen or closed). Positions exist whether or not anyone is currently sitting in them.
An employee is the person — the human you've hired into a position via an employment contract.
Why split them
| Question | Without positions | With positions |
|---|---|---|
| "How many vacant seats do we have?" | Hard — guess from open jobs vs current headcount | One click — the Vacancies view |
| "What's our 2026 headcount budget?" | Spreadsheet | Budget rollup page |
| "Who replaces Alice when she leaves?" | Manual handover | The position stays open, recruitment refills it |
| "Show me empty seats on the org chart" | Can't | Org chart with vacancies visible |
Lifecycle
- Open — budgeted, vacant, recruitable
- Filled — has an active contract pointing at it
- Frozen — temporarily not recruiting (cost-control)
- Closed — gone. If it had child positions reporting to it, they cascade up to the grandparent so there are no orphans
When you hire someone through Recruitment, accepting the offer fills the position. When you terminate someone, you choose whether to keep the position open (so recruitment can backfill) or close it (a real headcount reduction).
Do I need to use positions?
For small teams (under 20 people), they're optional but useful for planning.
For bigger teams or anyone doing serious budget work, they're essentially mandatory — vacancy reporting, budget vs actual, and the org chart with empty seats all rely on them.