Display dotted-line managers in Org Chart for SharePoint and Microsoft Teams (Excel/CSV)

In this article, we’ll review how to display dotted-line reports in the Plumsail Org Chart with Excel/CSV data source. It is quite a common scenario for companies with a matrix organization structure when there are direct managers and dotted-line managers.

As Plumsail Org Chart displays hierarchy, but not matrix, it is important to understand how dotted-line reports appear in the visualization. Please take a look at the example below.

If a solid line employee has a dotted-line manager, there will be displayed a small button next to the solid line box. It allows you to quickly navigate from the solid box to a dotted-line manager. If the employee has more than one dotted-line manager, you will navigate to the first one specified in the corresponding field.

Dotted-line managers for Excel/CSV data source

If you choose the Excel/CSV data source, specify mappings of the Excel/csv source file columns in the Data source - Field mappings section of the configuration wizard:

In my case, the source CSV file has a column named DottedLineManagerEmail, which stores information about an employee’s dotted-line manager.

You can see the configuration for the column below:

Thus, I created a column for a dotted-line manager email in the source CSV and specified it in the mapping of the configuration wizard. After that, clear the Org Chart cache to load the fresh data.

Excel/CSV data source doesn’t support multiple assistants and dotted line subordinates.

Note

Check out how to display dotted-line managers for the SharePoint list, User profiles, and Entra ID data sources. You can also refer to the blog article that covers all these options in one place with examples and visuals.