Running the Organization

Contacting Ops

For ALL ops (office/finance/admin) related inquiries, please email Office Requests and include [email protected] in CC.

To set up the above-mentioned Office Requests email address as a contact, please follow the steps below:

1. Go to your Gmail inbox

2. Go to Contacts → Create a new contact.

   First Name: Office
   Second Name: Requests
   Email: incoming+datopian-office-office-requests-14747497-5cl6vuzhmxhbsbmy20tqb8lak-issue@incoming.gitlab.com

This automatically generates a GitLab issue for the Ops team and allows us to keep track of your requests and deal with them promptly.

Getting Paid

By clicking on the attached link, you will access our step-by-step guide that explains how to submit your monthly invoice correctly. If you have any questions related to the process, feel free to contact the Finance team at the following address: [email protected].

Expenses and Travel

If you have any company expenses to be reimbursed for, please follow the steps below:

1. Use the Expense claims feature in Xero to upload your expenses/receipts.
   • Open Xero and log into your account
   • Click on "Business"
   • Scroll down to "Expense claims" and click on the button
   • Fill out "New Expense" with the following details
     • Purchase amount - The amount on the receipt
     • Description - A short description of the expense type
     • Spent at - Where did you spend it, _(could be a particular institution/restaurant/station, etc.) _
     • Spent on - Date on the receipt
     • Account - Choose from the following options:
       • 6411 - Travel expenses
       • 6412 - Travel meals expenses
       • 6451 - Entertainment expenses (clients)
       • 6452 - Entertainment expenses (internal)
       • XXXX - Any other expense type account suitable for the expense in question
   • Receipt - Attach a copy of the receipt (expense) by clicking on the A4 paper next to Reference, please ensure that the amount, date, and merchant are readable
   • Currency - If you have expenses in different currencies, convert the expense in XE.com into the currency you are paid in

2. Make sure to submit your expenses for approval (or else they won’t be visible for any other person but yourself).
3. Send an email to Office Requests and CC [email protected] confirming that the expenses have been submitted.

Travel Arrangements

All business-related travel arrangements must be approved by a member of the Leadership team.

• The first thing to do is to research for the flights and the accommodation you want to book according to the budget agreed with your project manager.
• Send an email with the links to Office Requests and CC [email protected].
• Remember to include all information needed for the booking:
  • Preferences in terms of flights and accommodation (late check-ins, breakfast, window seats, pre-order cabs, etc.).
  • Full name, birth date, phone number; airline miles account number if they are using frequent flier programme.
• The ops team will book the requested hotel & flight and forward the confirmations to you.

Note: Remember to store all receipts from the trip or else they can’t get reimbursed. See Company Expenses section.

Team, Hours, and Office

Timezone

The usual timezone we use in Datopian is aligned with the current standard timezone in UK (unless otherwise agreed within your team).

Also, in this Link you can check the location of all Datopian members in case you need to know in which time zone a colleague is located.

Core Hours

Our general working hours are 8am UK – 5pm UK. Not necessarily when you work but when it is permissible to schedule meetings.

Phone book

You can find team members' phone numbers, usernames, phone numbers in Team Phonebook.

Please email [email protected] if there are any changes in your personal details.

Email Groups

The following are the key email groups used by Datopians. This is not an exhaustive list but a list of the main ones in use.

Time-off

Remember, we're not a traditional organization and we practice self-management and self-organizing. Thus, time off is not something approved by your "boss" (who is your boss?). Rather it is something to discuss and negotiate with your peers and overall resourcing coordination team as they are the ones affected.

In short, we ask that you be mindful of business priorities when choosing which days to take off and that you liaise with your colleagues and team, especially with the scrum master and product owner on any projects you are involved in.

The steps you should follow before taking non-working days

1. Discuss the date(s) you would like to rest with your team and Project Lead / Scrum Master.

2. Send an email to [email protected] and [email protected] informing them about the exact days you will not be working.

3. Update your calendar and the All-Team calendar accordingly. If you do not know how to do this, please watch this short loom tutorial.

   There are 4 different non-working days:

   • days taken as a holiday (please check the information included in this presentation to learn more about process around taking non-working paid days)
   • Out of the office day (non-working unpaid day, for which you will not catch up the hours later during the month)
   • Non-working day (for which you will catch up the hours later in the same month, could be even during the weekend)
   • Sick leave days (please review the section below for information on sick leave)

4. Set up your vacation reply (below are the instructions on how to do it)

   • Open Gmail
   • In the top right, click Settings ⚙ > See all Settings
   • Scroll down to the "Vacation responder" section
   • Select Vacation responder on
   • Fill in the date range, subject, and message (template message that you can use):

• At the bottom of the page, click Save Changes.
• Important Note: ensure you have agreed with a teammate before including them as the alternative contact in your “vacation responder” email

If You're Ill

If you’re not feeling well and you’re unable to work, notify your Scrum Master / Product Owner as soon as possible. The notified person will then let teammates know.

Please add an "Out of office" and include an alternative contact.

Password Management

All Datopian credentials are stored in Bitwarden. Please reach out to the Ops team ([email protected]) if you need access to any accounts. Once confirmed, an account in Bitwarden or relevant application (e.g. Twilio) will be created for you with the appropriate access.

Registering for New Services/ Portals

We use [email protected] to register for most services/portals and configure the billing settings to ensure all invoices are directed to [email protected] for paid services. If you are creating a shared account, please email the Ops team ([email protected]) with the following information:

• Name of Platform/ URL (ie Zoom)
• Username: [email protected]
• Password: paste the password in privnote and include the URL
• A short description of the purpose for this account and who should have access to it (ie Zoom is a video communications tool we use for meetings; Ops and management should have access to it)

Access to documents/ Folders

Updating Datopian's Skillbook Database

When reviewing/utilising the information in the Skills Database, we would love to see up-to-date and accurate information, so that Datopian has a clear indication of its soft & hard skills pool in order to accurately complete RFPs, project staffing and general resourcing.

For this reason, we created this short form that Datopians should fill out when they obtain any new skill.

Displaying proudly your Datopianness

Firstly, if you like us (we know you do!), please like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn!

If you would like to post an article, tweet, share something or simply have an idea about a new post, please send an email to Office Requests (CC [email protected]) and describe your idea. They will either post it for you or give you access so you can do it by yourself. Feel free to reach out to our Comms team for any further related requests.