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Prepare your Excel file for an org chart update

Prepare your Excel file for an org chart update

This guide walks you through preparing your HR data file, cleaning up duplicate entries, and ensuring consistency before import.

Published on March 11, 2025
Who this is for: Admins
Before you update your org chart, clean your HR data in Excel so the import doesn't fail on duplicate or mismatched group names. This guide uses the org chart template, where Org level 1 to Org level 11 are columns A to K.

Step 1: Put your data in the org chart template

  1. Go to Settings in the left menu, open Org chart and download the org chart template.
  1. Enter your updated org chart data:
      • Column A: Org level 1 (top-level division)
      • Column B: Org level 2
      • Columns C to K: further levels as needed
  1. Keep a backup of your raw data on a separate sheet before you make changes.
If you're working from an individuals file instead, the org levels are in columns E to O. Copy them into columns A to K of the org chart template first.

Step 2: Find and remove duplicate names in a row

ChangePlan doesn't accept the same group name at different levels of one path, for example a parent and child group with the same name.
  1. Select columns A to K, from row 2 to the last row.
  1. Go to Home > Conditional Formatting > New Rule.
  1. Choose Use a formula to determine which cells to format.
  1. Enter this formula:
      2. notion image
  1. Click Format > Fill > Orange, then click OK. Duplicate names are now highlighted.
  1. Where there's a duplicate, delete the most junior child group (the one furthest to the right), or rename the groups so each is unique. For example: Business Services (Org level 1) › Business Services Department (Org level 2) › Business Services Team (Org level 3).

Step 3: Sort and remove duplicate rows

  1. Copy columns A to K into a new sheet named Updated Org Chart.
  1. Select all the data, go to Data > Sort and sort A to Z.
      2. notion image
  1. Select all columns, including column A, and go to Data > Remove Duplicates.
  1. Tick My data has headers, make sure all columns are selected, then confirm.
      2. notion image

Step 4: Compare your existing and updated org charts

Join each path into one cell

  1. On the Updated Org Chart sheet, join the levels into column L with:
    1. Copy column L and paste it as values into column M.
    1. Create a sheet named Updated Org Chart Concat and paste column M into column A.
    1. Export your current org chart from ChangePlan: go to Audiences in the left menu, open Org groups and click Export.
    1. Copy columns A to K of the export into a new sheet named Existing Org Chart.
    1. Repeat steps 1 to 3 for the existing org chart, and put the joined paths in a sheet named Existing Org Chart Concat.

    Highlight missing and new groups

    1. To find groups that are missing from your update, select column A of Existing Org Chart Concat and add a conditional formatting rule with this formula, filled orange:
        2. Filter by the orange colour to list the missing groups.
    1. To find new groups, select column A of Updated Org Chart Concat and add a rule with this formula, filled green:
        2. Filter by the green colour to list the new groups.

    Step 5: Import the updated org chart

    1. Go to Settings > Org chart and choose Update org chart.
    1. Upload your cleaned file and use the preview to spot missing or mismatched groups.
    1. Fix issues by transferring groups or deleting outdated groups.
    1. Confirm the import.
    For the full update, including what happens to groups that no longer exist and how to import individuals afterwards, see Update your org chart and employee data.

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    Still stuck?

    Email support@changeplan.co with a screenshot of what you see, and we'll help.
    Last updated: 20 October 2026
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