How to make an org chart in Google Sheets
Google Sheets can draw an org chart from three columns in about a minute, and for a first look at a hierarchy it is hard to beat. It also cannot draw a dotted line, wrap a wide team, or mark an open role, and the questions on Google's own help forum are the same three every month. Here is how to use it, where it stops, and what to do with the same sheet when it does.
The same twelve rows, drawn here
The built-in chart
Google's own steps. The whole thing takes a minute if the data is already in the sheet.
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Three columns
First column: the names of everyone in the group. Second column: each person's manager, written exactly as it appears in the first column. Third column, optional: a note that shows when you point at that person's box. One row per person; the person at the top has an empty second cell.
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Insert the chart
Select the cells and choose Insert, then Chart. In the chart editor's Setup tab, open the Chart type list and choose Organizational chart. Sheets draws it immediately.
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Adjust the boxes
Double-click the chart, open Customize, and under Org you can change the size and colour of the boxes. That is the extent of the styling, which is honest of it.
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Download it
Click the chart, open the menu at its top right, and choose Download as. PNG, PDF or SVG.
What it's good for
Seeing a hierarchy for the first time. A list of forty people and their managers, pasted from an email, becomes a tree in a minute, and the tree tells you at once whether the list is right: the person with no manager who should have one, the two people who spelled the same manager differently and now appear under two bosses. For a sanity check before a meeting, it is the right tool.
It is also live in the sheet. Fix a cell and the chart updates, which is exactly the property a drawing in PowerPoint lacks.
Where it stops
Google's help forum for this chart asks the same things over and over, and each one is a limit rather than a bug. Multiple bosses: there is one manager column, so one line per box, and no dotted lines. Too wide: every set of siblings goes in one row and nothing wraps, so a manager with fifteen reports is fifteen boxes across, and there is no way to stack them vertically. People missing: a manager's name that doesn't match its row exactly drops that person off the chart. And a box holds one cell of text, so titles, departments, open roles and assistants are either crammed into the name or left off.
None of those has a setting. When you hit one, the sheet is still fine; it is the chart that has run out.
The same sheet, past the limits
Nothing about the data has to change. The three columns are already what the importer wants, and any others you have come along.
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Get the rows out
File, Download, as CSV or Excel. Or select the cells, copy, and paste them straight into the import dialog. Either way the header row is read, and matched loosely: "Manager", "Reports to" and "Line manager" are the same column.
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Add the columns Sheets couldn't draw
Title and Department become the card and its colour. A Dotted line column becomes the second manager. A Staff column puts an assistant beside their manager. An Employment type of "open" draws a vacancy. The spreadsheet guide has every header.
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Import, and check the guesses
Manager names are matched properly: "Last, First", surnames on their own, and typos, with each guess listed before it is applied, so the two spellings of one manager become one manager rather than two.
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Get a chart that fits a page
Wide teams stack under their manager, departments fold away, and the layout stays legible for a company of several hundred. Export as PNG for free, or as PDF, SVG or an editable PowerPoint with a pass or a plan.
Side by side
| Google Sheets org chart | Here, from the same sheet | |
|---|---|---|
| The data | Three columns: name, manager, an optional note | A spreadsheet: name, manager, and whatever else you have |
| Titles and departments | Only what fits in the name cell | Their own columns, with department colours |
| Someone with two managers | One manager column | A dotted line |
| A wide company | One row of boxes, however wide | Teams stack and fold; the chart stays a page |
| Assistants and open roles | Ordinary boxes | Staff cards beside the manager; vacancies drawn as such |
| Getting it out | PNG, PDF or SVG from the chart menu | PNG free; PDF, SVG and PowerPoint on a pass or plan |
| Working together | Sheets sharing | Live editing with cursors; view links need no account |
| Cost | Part of Sheets | Free to build at any size |
Sheets facts from Google's help pages and its help forum, read on 5 September 2026. If Google adds a second manager column, this page is wrong until it is updated, and we would be glad of it.
Questions people ask
- Does Google Sheets have an org chart?
- Yes, as a chart type. Put names in one column and each person’s manager in the next, select the cells, choose Insert then Chart, and in the chart editor’s Setup tab set the chart type to Organizational chart. A third column, if you add one, appears as a note when you hover over a box.
- Can the Google Sheets org chart show dotted lines?
- No. Each row has one manager column, so each box has one line up. "Multiple bosses" is one of the standing questions on Google’s help forum for this chart, and the answer there is the same: it draws a tree. A person with a second manager needs a chart that has a second column for it.
- Why is my Google Sheets org chart so wide?
- Because it lays every set of siblings out in one row and never wraps. Ten direct reports are ten boxes across; forty are forty. The Customize tab lets you shrink the boxes, which delays the problem rather than solving it. A chart that stacks a manager’s reports into a column, and folds teams away, is what keeps a bigger company on one page.
- How do I export the org chart from Google Sheets?
- Click the chart, open its menu at the top right, and choose Download as: PNG, PDF or SVG. That is the picture at whatever size the sheet drew it. For a chart you can keep editing in a deck, export to PowerPoint from a chart built from the same sheet.
- Can I import my Google Sheet into orgchart.live?
- Yes. Download the sheet as CSV or Excel (File, Download), or simply copy the cells and paste them. The header row is matched loosely, so Name, Manager and Title are enough, and Spanish headers work too.
Same sheet, better chart
Keep the people in Google Sheets. When the built-in chart runs out, download the sheet as CSV or paste the cells here, and get a chart with dotted lines, stacked teams and open roles, drawn by a layout engine. Building is free at any size.