Guides
Everything on the site written to be read: how the importer works, what the structures and industries look like drawn properly, and the org chart as a tool for particular jobs — an assistant's, a reorg, a merger, a consulting engagement.
- How to make an org chartSix steps in the order that works: the list first, the picture last, a check in between. What to put on it, what to keep off, and the honest word on every tool.
- What is an org chart?A definition that holds, what a chart shows and does not, the parts of one, what it is for, and what a good one looks like.
- Make an org chart from a spreadsheetThe exact columns the importer reads, what it fixes in messy manager names without asking, and a template to start from.
- Org chart examplesFour structures and forty-two industries, each drawn properly, each explaining when it works and where it breaks, each downloadable as a spreadsheet.
- Types of org chartsNine structures drawn and compared: hierarchical, functional, divisional, matrix, flat, line and staff, team-based, network and circular, with a table to find yours.
- Dotted-line reportingWhat a second line means, who owns pay and review and who owns the work, when a dotted line is right and when it is a solid line in denial, and how to draw and write one down.
- Span of controlWhat is typical for each kind of work, why two is a title and eleven is a queue, how spans trade against layers, and how to read every span off a chart in a minute.
- For executive assistantsWhat the exec's chart is for, what belongs on it, what must never be on it, and how to keep it current without waiting for HR.
- Planning a reorgDraft on a chart nobody can see, test spans, layers and dotted lines, draw the transition, and announce with one chart that is already right.
- A merger or acquisitionTwo charts that don't line up, the Day 1 structure with transition lines and open roles, and keeping the integration chart true for a hundred days.
- For consultantsA client's current state in a day, the findings a chart shows before any interview, drawing the options, and a deliverable that survives the handover.
- A startup, by stageThe same company at ten, twenty-five, fifty and a hundred people: what changed at each stage, the hire that forced it, and a template for each.
- A hiring planA company drawn today and as planned, every approved role an open card with its quarter, the managers before the reports, six checks, and a headcount table read off the chart.
- Org chart templatesFifty-six templates that are data rather than drawings: a blank one, four structures, forty-two industries and nine guide charts, each as Excel and CSV.
- Org chart software, sortedThe three kinds — diagramming tools, HR platforms, tools built only for org charts — the five questions that decide which you need, and what each option costs according to its own pages.
- An org chart in ExcelSmartArt step by step from Microsoft's own instructions, where it stops, why the Excel add-in is gone, and the list-driven way that scales.
- An org chart in Google SheetsThe built-in chart from three columns, its limits (no dotted lines, no wrapping), and what to do with the same sheet when it runs out.
- An org chart in PowerPointSmartArt on a slide, or a chart built from a spreadsheet and exported where every card is an editable shape, with a span-of-control slide.
- Visio, and the alternativeHow Visio's Organization Chart Wizard works, what Plan 1 and Plan 2 cost, when Visio is the right tool, and a free chart from the same spreadsheet.
- Lucidchart, and the alternativeHow Lucidchart imports an org chart from a spreadsheet, what its free plan's 60-object limit means, what the Individual plan costs, and a free chart from the same file.
- An org chart in CanvaCanva's own steps for a whiteboard org chart, where a drawing stops, and the list-driven alternative.