1. Activate

In the Setup tab → Activate panel, paste your license key and click Activate.

No license or only Basic? Turn on Demo Mode to explore every Professional feature on sample data.

2. Map your data

In the Setup tab → Map your data panel:

• Pick your worksheet.
• Set your header row.
• Map Employee ID, Name, Manager ID, and any other useful columns.
• Click Build Hierarchy.

3. Explore

• Pick a leader in the scope bar.
• Click any metric card to drill down.
• Click Edit & Export to customize and save your chart.

Activate panel

• License key — paste it and click Activate.
• Manage subscription — opens your customer portal to manage billing or change plans.
• Demo Mode — sample org with every Professional feature unlocked. Use it to evaluate Pro when you have Basic or no license.

Map your data panel

• Worksheet — the sheet that holds your employee data.
• Header row — the row number where your column names sit.
• Column mapping
  • Required — Employee ID, Employee Name, Manager ID. These build the hierarchy.
  • Optional — compensation, performance, potential, successors, and critical-role flags. These drive the metrics and the succession chart view. Unmapped means blank cards there.
  • All other columns in your data will be useable in your org chart (card content, color coding, icons, sorting, and filtering) without mapping.
• Build Hierarchy — processes your data and opens Org Planning.
• Reset — clears the mapping and starts over.

Scope bar

What you pick here drives everything below.

• Leader — pick any employee. Everything below scopes to their subtree.
• Scenario — switch between Current and any saved scenarios.
• Refine — popover with role-type filters and a positions tree.
• Compare (Pro) — pin extra scenarios or leaders as side-by-side columns. Drag chips to reorder.
• Edit (Pro) — Add Role or Edit Roles to model changes. Edits flow into the Scenario Changes drilldown, which lists every edit with before-and-after detail and exports as a change log.

Metrics (Pro)

12 cards split between Hierarchy and Succession views. Toggle the view in the section header.

• Hierarchy — Total Employees, Avg Span, Total Comp, Mgmt Layers, Mgmt Ratio, Scenario Changes.
• Succession — Bench Strength, Critical Coverage, Ready Now, No Successors, Readiness Mix, Duplicate Alert.
• Depth — limits metrics to N layers below the leader.
• Click any card to open a drilldown with charts, filters, and the employee list. Each drilldown has an Export button.

Org Chart

• View — Hierarchy or Succession. Independent from the metrics view.
• Depth — how many layers to show.
• Card Fields (Pro) — pick which columns appear on each card.
• Zoom — fit, +, −, reset.
• Edit & Export — opens the customization drawer (see next section).

View

The main panel shows curated employee details — manager, direct reports, and key fields. Expand the "All employee data" section to see every other column from your data file.

Edit

• Job title — change the position name
• Manager — reassign to a new reporting line
• Compensation — update salary
• Role type — classify the position (see below)
• Level — adjust the hierarchy level
• Successors — add or remove named successors for this role
• Notes — free-text, scenario-specific. Use them for why changes were made, outstanding questions, development plans, anything you want to track.

All edits save to the active scenario. Your source worksheet is never modified.

Role types

• Existing — current employee, role isn't changing in this scenario
• Modified — the role itself has changed
• Future — new position to be created or filled
• Redundant — flagged as potentially redundant or duplicative
• Eliminated — removed from the structure

Role types power the role-type filter in the scope bar and drive Scenario Changes drilldown counts.

Header

• Preset — apply a saved configuration. Built-in presets ship with the app; your saved presets appear below them.
• Save as / ⋯ menu (Pro) — save the current setup as a new preset, or update / rename / delete the active one.
• Save chart — saves the org chart to a new tab named after the leader. Each save creates a new tab.
• Export to PowerPoint — exports the org chart to a PowerPoint presentation.

Customization sections (all Pro)

• Card Content — control which fields appear on each card and where they sit. Up to 14 fields per card.
• Chart Options — show or hide reporting lines and the legend, choose a card layout style, add a description above the chart, and exclude the top levels from your customizations (handy when you want to keep executive boxes plain while color-coding everyone below).
• Color Coding — color the inside of each card (fill) and the outline (border) by any column in your data. Make borders thicker to draw attention to specific groups. Apply built-in color schemes or save your own.
• Icons & Indicators — control how individual values display:
  • Replace text with any of 75 icons
  • Group values into custom labels (e.g., performance 4-5 → "High Performer")
  • Apply different font colors to grouped values
  • Set numeric ranges (e.g., tenure > 3 years shows a caution icon)
  • Hide specific values
• Sort — choose the order direct reports appear under each manager. Sort by any field, ascending, descending, or in a custom order. Sort by multiple fields at once.

How to use

• Set up your chart the way you want it in Org Planning + Edit & Export.
• Click Export to PowerPoint in the drawer header.
• A .pptx file downloads. Open it in PowerPoint.

What gets exported

• The chart in its current view — leader, scenario, depth, and customizations.
• Each card as a separate, editable shape. Rearrange, resize, or restyle individual cards in PowerPoint without affecting the rest.

Build an org chart for a leader's team

1. Pick the leader in the scope bar.
2. Set the depth in the Org Chart section header.
3. Open Edit & Export and click Save chart. The chart writes to a new tab named after the leader.

Find span of control issues (Pro)

1. In the Metrics section, click the Avg Span card.
2. The drilldown shows the span distribution. Click bars to filter the employee list to managers with high or low spans.
3. Click Export to save the filtered list to a tab.

Spot succession gaps (Pro)

1. Switch the Metrics section to Succession view.
2. Click No Successors to see roles without a named successor, or Critical Coverage to see uncovered critical roles.
3. Click any employee name to open the panel and add successors directly.

Model a restructure scenario (Pro)

1. In the Scenario dropdown, click New scenario (or pick an existing saved scenario) so your changes stay separate from Current.
2. Open the Edit row in the scope bar. Add Role to create new positions, or Edit Roles to modify existing ones.
3. Open the Scenario Changes metric to review your edits and export a change log.

Compare current state to a proposed scenario (Pro)

1. Pick your baseline leader and scenario in the scope bar.
2. Open the Compare row and pin a second scenario or leader.
3. Metrics show side-by-side. Drill any card to see the diff.

Get a chart into PowerPoint

1. Set up the chart in Org Planning + Edit & Export.
2. Click Export to PowerPoint in the drawer header.
3. The .pptx downloads. Open it in PowerPoint to edit or paste into a deck.

Required columns

• Employee ID — unique for each person
• Employee Name — full name
• Manager ID — the Employee ID of their manager

Top-level employees

CEOs or top-level managers should have blank Manager ID fields.

Optional columns

Map any of these to unlock specific features:

• Job Title — shown on chart cards by default
• Compensation — Total Comp and Avg Comp metrics
• Successors — Bench Strength, Ready Now, and No Successors metrics
• Potential — succession views
• Critical Role flag — Critical Coverage metrics

All other columns in your data are usable in the org chart (color coding, sorting, filtering, card content) without mapping.

Data quality tips

• Employee IDs and Manager IDs must match exactly. Watch for case, spaces, and leading zeros.
• Strip leading and trailing spaces.
• Make sure every Employee ID is unique.
• Check for circular reporting (A reports to B, B reports to A). The build will warn you if found.

What this means

• Open the same file later and pick up where you left off.
• Send the file to a colleague and they see your mappings, presets, and scenarios. They'll need their own license to use Pro features.
• Each file is independent — switching to a different workbook loads its own settings.
• Deleting a preset or scenario only affects the current file.

Tip

Want a reusable starting point? Build a "template" file with your preferred presets, then use Save As to spin up new projects with the same setup ready to go.

Build Hierarchy fails or gives unexpected results

• Make sure Employee ID, Employee Name, and Manager ID columns are mapped.
• Confirm Employee IDs are unique — duplicates cause unpredictable results.
• Check the header row number is correct (if your data starts at row 3, your title rows are above).
• Watch for circular reporting (A reports to B, B reports to A). The build warns you.

Chart is missing people or showing the wrong group

• Verify the leader in the scope bar matches the org you want to see.
• Check Refine — role-type filters or position filters may be excluding people.
• Make sure no one's Manager ID points to a non-existent Employee ID.

Metrics are blank

• Each metric needs its corresponding column mapped (Compensation for comp metrics, Successors for Bench Strength, etc.). See Data requirements.
• Confirm you have a Professional license — metrics are Pro-only.

Save chart or PowerPoint isn't working

• Make sure you've picked a leader before saving.
• If the .pptx doesn't download, check your browser's download permissions.

License won't activate

• Activation requires an internet connection.
• If the page doesn't refresh after activation, close and reopen the add-in.

When in doubt

Use Reset in the Map your data panel to clear your setup. You can re-map and rebuild from scratch — your source data isn't touched.