How to Make an Org Chart in Excel From an Employee List

You already have the data. Somewhere there’s a spreadsheet with everyone’s name and job title, and maybe a column saying who they report to. This guide shows how to make an org chart in Excel from that sheet, so you’re not retyping 40 names into boxes.

There are two ways in. SmartArt is built into Excel and fine for a team you can count on your fingers. The Visio Data Visualizer add-in reads your rows and draws the tree for you, which is what you want once the list gets long or changes often.

Both start from the same four columns. Get those right first and the drawing part takes minutes.

Set up the sheet before you draw anything

An org chart is just one relationship repeated: this person reports to that person. Your sheet needs to store it in a way a machine can follow, which means IDs, not names.

These are the same column names the Microsoft Support guide to the Visio Data Visualizer add-in uses, so the sheet drops straight into it later. Employee ID must be unique and never blank. Manager ID holds the boss’s ID, and stays empty for whoever sits at the top.

Why IDs? Because you’ll have two people called Chris eventually, and a name typo silently breaks the chain. Two quick checks catch most mistakes:

• Show the manager’s name. In a helper column, =XLOOKUP(D2, A:A, B:B, "not found") turns each Manager ID back into a name. Scan it. “not found” means a broken link.
• Flag duplicate IDs. =COUNTIF(A:A, A2)>1 returns TRUE for any ID used twice.

Already keeping a staff list? The free employee directory template on this blog has a manager column built in, so you can add an ID column and skip the setup.

How to make an org chart in Excel with SmartArt

SmartArt is the drawing option. It ships with Excel, needs no add-in, and follows the same steps as the Microsoft Support guide to SmartArt organization charts.

1. Insert the graphic. On the Insert tab, click SmartArt (it sits in the Illustrations group).
2. Pick the layout. Choose Hierarchy, then Organization Chart, then OK.
3. Open the Text pane using the small arrow on the left edge of the graphic.
4. Paste your names. Sort your sheet so each manager is followed by their reports, copy the Name column, and paste it into the Text pane. Each line becomes a box.
5. Set the levels. Tab moves a line down one level. Shift+Tab moves it back up.

Here’s the catch. SmartArt doesn’t read cells. Once the names are in the Text pane, the graphic has no link to your sheet. Change a title in column C and the chart doesn’t notice.

That’s fine for a leadership team of eight. It’s painful for 60 people, and SmartArt’s horizontal layout runs out of room well before that. The PowerPoint version of this guide covers hanging layouts, assistant boxes and dotted lines, and every trick there works the same way in Excel.

Let the Visio Data Visualizer build the tree

This is the option most “Excel org chart” guides skip, and it’s the one that actually uses your data. The add-in reads Employee ID and Manager ID and draws the hierarchy itself.

1. On the Insert tab, open Add-ins, search the Store for Data Visualizer, and add Microsoft Visio Data Visualizer.
2. Pick the org chart diagram type and a template. Excel inserts a sample chart and a linked data table.
3. Paste your rows over the sample data. Add or delete rows to add or remove people.
4. Select Refresh in the diagram area. The chart redraws from the table.

Two details from Microsoft’s documentation are worth knowing. You can put more than one ID in a Manager ID cell, separated by a comma, for someone with two bosses. And the Role type column changes a box’s colour, which is handy for marking contractors or open roles.

The add-in is designed for Microsoft 365 work or school accounts. With only a personal account, Microsoft says you can still use parts of Data Visualizer: create a diagram from worksheet data, update it, print it, and open it in Visio to save as an image or PDF. Theme and layout changes and photos in org chart boxes need a Visio license.

SmartArt vs. Data Visualizer: which one to use

Pick SmartArt when the chart is a one-off, under 15 or so boxes, and going into a slide or a printout. It’s quicker to style and needs nothing installed.

Pick Data Visualizer when the sheet is the source of truth and the chart has to keep up with it. Editing a row and clicking Refresh beats finding a box and retyping it.

The deciding question is how often the chart will change. More often than you’d guess. Total separations ran at 3.2 percent of US employment in August 2026, according to the BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. At that rate, a 100-person company loses about three people a month, before promotions, new hires and team moves. Each one is a manual redraw in SmartArt, or a row edit and a refresh in Data Visualizer.

Either way, someone still has to edit the sheet. Excel can’t tell you that Priya moved to the sales team last Tuesday. Whatever you build is only as current as the last person who remembered to update it, which is the real limit of any spreadsheet org chart.

FAQ

Does Excel have an org chart template?

Excel has the SmartArt Organization Chart layout, which works as a blank template you fill in by typing names. The Visio Data Visualizer add-in also inserts a sample org chart with a linked data table that you overwrite with your own rows.

Can Excel make an org chart automatically from data?

SmartArt can’t. It doesn’t read cells, so you type or paste names and set levels by hand. The Visio Data Visualizer add-in does: it draws the chart from an Employee ID and Manager ID column and redraws it when you select Refresh.

Do I need a Visio license to make an org chart in Excel?

Not for the basics. Microsoft says people without a work or school sign-in can still create a diagram from worksheet data, update it, and print it. Layout and theme changes and adding photos to org chart boxes need a Visio license.

How do I show someone with two managers?

In the Data Visualizer table, put both managers’ IDs in the Manager ID cell, separated by a comma. SmartArt only draws one parent per box, so a second reporting line there has to be drawn by hand with a connector shape.

An org chart nobody has to redraw

The spreadsheet is the weak link, not the chart. InstaCheckin People, our employee directory and org chart app, is coming soon to fix that. It’s planned to include a browsable org chart where you move up to a manager or down to direct reports (coming soon), built from profiles that show each person’s manager, direct reports and assistants (coming soon).

The list itself is the part we care most about. Sync with Google Workspace and Microsoft Entra ID is coming soon, so when someone changes teams in your identity system, the chart follows without anyone opening a workbook.

Compare the options on our org chart software page, see how People (coming soon) stacks up against other employee directory software, then join the waitlist and we’ll email you when it opens.