Build Org Charts From Data Automatically

SmartDraw's organizational chart data visualizer lets you build an org chart automatically by importing a data file of your organization's employee list, connecting to Microsoft Entra (previously known as Azure Active Directory), or importing a list from SharePoint. You will be able to display photos, include hyperlinks, skip data you don't want included, and show some data in a tool tip without cluttering up the visual.

It's a powerful way to create an org chart without any drawing at all.

After launching the org chart data visualizer, you'll see that you have three options for your data source: Microsoft Entra, SharePoint, or importing a local file.

If you're going to import a file instead of connecting to an existing directory, you'll want to make sure your data is formatted correctly. The list must be formatted with the fields you want to show for each employee as columns and the values for an employee as rows.

One of the columns must identify the supervisor of the employee in the row. All of the rows must have a supervisor except for the top position in the org chart.

You can match employees with supervisors using numerical IDs or just names. You can find more detailed instructions here.

SmartDraw accepts files in CSV or XLSX format. Find the file on your system and drag and drop it to the dialog.

Choose What to Visualize

SmartDraw will parse your imported data file.

The first step after your data is parsed is to choose the top-level manager for your organizational chart. This lets you control what part of your organization is visualized. You can create an org chart of just a single team or department or your entire company.

Preview Data

The parser also identifies the matching columns and labels. SmartDraw will give you a preview of how we see your data so you can make some changes if necessary.

Each row in the table will add a shape to the org chart.

When you're ready, click the Import button to generate your org chart.

Once you imported your data, you can edit your org chart diagram like any other diagram created in SmartDraw. You can move employees, change reporting structure, modify titles, or change the appearance of your chart using different colors and fonts.

Once SmartDraw can see your directory, you will be prompted to select which part of the organization to make the org chart for by selecting the manager or supervisor from a drop-down list.

Once a manager is selected, you'll be shown some sample data to give you a preview of how SmartDraw sees your organization.

For each data type, you choose its visibility in the resulting organizational chart.

When you're ready, click Import to generate your organizational chart.

After logging in, you will be asked to choose a SharePoint site.

Next, select the SharePoint list you want to use from the drop-down.

Once the list is loaded, you'll be able to select the top-level manager to use as the starting point for your org chart.

Once a manager is selected, you'll be shown some sample data to give you a preview of how SmartDraw sees your organization.

SmartDraw styles and builds your org chart using rules given to each data type. Data identified as Name will be shown centered inside a single org chart shape, while anything identified as a Hyperlink will trigger a hyperlink icon with a link to be added to the shape, and so forth.

The data type is displayed in the first menu above each column. You can change this type by selecting another option from the drop-down menu.

For each data type, you can choose its visibility in the resulting organizational chart. You can have the data show in the shape, show in a data tool tip, or leave the data completely off the final chart.

When you're ready, click Import to generate your organizational chart.