Each user can have one department. What that means is up to you. For example, the department could mean:

• an organizational subdivision to which the user belongs.
• a client company
• a client
• an arbitrary group of users.

The significance of belonging to a department is that products and custom fields can be restricted to certain departments. So you could allow clients to access only information relevant to them.

If you want finer access control, such as the ability for the client to perform certain operations then you need a user section. Sections are used to allow or deny users access by display and by action.

Suppose you have a department called Ronco that can only access issues related to the Dial-O-Matic Sponge Sharpener product. Then, suppose you create a user section that can submit new issues, as well as a user section that can only view existing issues.

Now you can create Ronco users and put them in one of the two sections. All of them will be able to view Dial-O-Matic Sponge Sharpener issues and faqs, and some of them will be able to submit new issues or faqs.

Additionally, if there are any custom fields related to Ronco then only these Ronco users will see them when reporting issues.