Org chart template
An org chart (organisation chart) shows how your company is structured: every role, who reports to whom, and how the teams fit together. This free Excel template gives you a ready-drawn chart to type over, a reporting-lines list that's quick to keep up to date, and a worked example for a fictional 64-person company.
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The chart is what people look at; the list is what keeps it right. Update the list whenever someone joins, leaves or changes manager, and redraw the chart from it on a fixed schedule.
What's in the template
The chart above is drawn from the template's example data: the managing director and nine managers of a fictional distribution company with 64 staff, split between a Leeds office and a Wakefield site. The workbook has four sheets:
- Org chart: a chart built from Excel cells, ready to type over, with a top role, four department heads (operations, finance, sales, and people and HR) and two role boxes under each head. To add someone, copy a box together with the line above it.
- Reporting lines: the same structure as a list, with 60 rows for name, role, who they report to, team, location and notes.
- Example - reporting lines: the ten people in the chart above, filled in.
- Read me: how the sheets fit together.
In the list, "reports to" holds the manager's role rather than their name. When a manager leaves, you change one row, not every row that points to them.
How to make an org chart
- Start from payroll, not memory. Fill in the Reporting lines sheet with a row for every person on the payroll, plus any contractors who work like staff, and the role each one reports to.
- Settle the awkward cases first: people with two managers, shared or part-time roles, and vacancies you're recruiting for. Decide how each will appear (a dotted line, a note, a box marked "vacant") before you draw.
- Draw the top two levels, then each head's team. If a department won't fit legibly, give it a chart of its own and leave a single box for it on the main one.
- Have each manager check their branch. They know about last month's move and the informal line everyone actually uses, which a central list can miss.
- Date it and put it where people look, such as the intranet or your operations manual. The title line on the chart sheet has room for the date.
Hierarchical, functional and matrix structures
Most charts show one of three shapes, and a company can mix them:
- Hierarchical: authority runs down in layers and each person has a single manager. Everyone knows who decides, though information can be slow to travel between branches.
- Functional: people are grouped by specialism, such as sales, finance or operations, each under one head. It's a way of arranging a hierarchy rather than an alternative to one, and it's how the example company is organised.
- Matrix: some people answer to two managers at once, usually a functional head and a project, product or client lead. Draw the second line dotted, and agree who sets priorities and who carries out the person's reviews.
Span of control
Span of control is the number of people who report directly to one manager. There's no correct figure. A manager can lead more people when the work is similar and well documented, the team is experienced, and managing is most of their job. The span needs to be smaller when the work varies a lot, the team is new, or the manager carries a heavy workload of their own.
The chart shows spans at a glance. In the example, the managing director has four direct reports; the operations and sales directors have two managers each, the finance director one, and the people and HR manager none. Watch for two patterns: managers with so many reports that one-to-ones stop happening, and chains of managers who each manage just one person, which add layers without adding capacity.
Example: reading the chart
Five rows from the Example sheet:
| Name | Role | Reports to (role) | Team | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sam Patel | Managing director | Leadership | Leeds | |
| Ruth Okafor | Operations director | Managing director | Operations | Leeds |
| Jo Hart | Warehouse manager | Operations director | Operations | Wakefield |
| Ben Shaw | Transport manager | Operations director | Operations | Wakefield |
| Priya Nair | Customer service lead | Sales director | Sales | Leeds |
Drawn out, the structure raises two questions the list hides. Both Wakefield managers report to a director based in Leeds, so nobody senior is on site day to day. And customer service sits under sales rather than operations, so a delivery complaint crosses two departments before it's fixed. Neither is wrong, but each should be a decision rather than an accident. Once the shape is right, a succession plan asks the next question: who could step into each of these boxes?
Common mistakes
- No date on the chart, so nobody can tell whether it's current.
- Leaving vacancies off. An open role is part of the structure; show it as a box marked vacant.
- Drawing status instead of reporting lines. Box sizes and positions should follow who manages whom, not seniority or length of service.
- Showing only the formal lines when work really flows through a project lead. Add a dotted line for it.
- One enormous chart printed so small nobody can read it. Split it by department.
- Editing the drawing and forgetting the list. Change the list first; the chart follows.
Frequently asked questions
How do I make an org chart in Excel?
Type over the boxes on this template's Org chart sheet. Each box is a group of merged cells with a border, so you can copy one to add a person. For a small chart, Excel's SmartArt also has ready-made hierarchy layouts (Insert, then SmartArt, then Hierarchy).
Should an org chart show names or just job titles?
For internal use, show both: the title explains the job and the name tells people who to ask. A version for outsiders, such as a tender or a buyer's due diligence, can show roles only.
How often should an org chart be updated?
Change the reporting-lines list whenever someone joins, leaves or changes manager, and redraw the chart from it on a schedule. The template's read-me suggests once a quarter.
What's the difference between an org chart and a RACI matrix?
An org chart shows who manages whom. A RACI matrix shows who is responsible, accountable, consulted and informed for particular tasks or decisions, which often cuts across the lines on the chart.