There are times when an employee reports to more than one manager. The program recognizes one formal or solid line relationship, and if necessary can support additional reporting relationships. This article shows how dotted line relationships can be added in OrgChart Platinum.
Starting with the data add a column (or multiple columns) for the additional managers a person will be reporting to.
Importing data has been covered in a previous section. This article only refers to dotted line relationships
Dotted Line Manager: Excel data file
When setting up your excel file here is an example. Two columns have been added for dotted line managers. In this example only one person has dotted line managers, Joan Goldberg.
Since Joan will also be reporting to Emma and Ivan, their names will be placed in the appropriate cells. During the import process, at this dialog, click on the Dotted Line Hierarchy setup.
2. Select the fields setup.
3. Select Name from the dropdown for Position.
4. Select Dotted Line Manager 1 for ReportsTo
(Repeat these steps for the second dotted line field, assuming that is included in your import data)
5. Click Ok/Click Ok/Select Next.
Dotted Line Manager: Chart results
At the conclusion of the import process the chart will look as follows.
Note that Joan solid line reports to Jason, and dotted line reports to both Ivan and Emma. Also note that imported dotted lines cannot be rerouted; they are automatically plotted. If You want to color a dotted line: Hover over the dotted line until an arrow image is shown.
Right click to reveal a local menu with two options.
Select Connector Style and follow the options.
Dotted Line Manager: How they work with divisions
If boxes are showing on the same page the dotted lines will be visible. But if there are divisions, the dotted lines will only be seen inside the divisions.
For example, if Ted’s organization is turned into a division the blue dotted line will not show on the main page.
However if we drill into Ted’s division we see that Joan dotted line reports to Emma.
Keep in mind that dotted lines will never go off-page. There must always be two boxes showing if a line is to be shown.