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Org Chart -- Common Questions and Edge Cases

A quick reference for when the Org Chart behaves in a way you did not expect. If something looks off, your answer is likely here.

Written by Amogh Balikai
Updated this week

A contact is missing from the Org Chart. Why?

The Org Chart only displays contacts who have at least one reporting relationship set -- either they report to someone, or someone reports to them.

If a contact is not showing up, it means no "Reports To" relationship has been defined for them yet. To add them to the chart, open their contact profile and set the "Reports To" field. Once saved, they will appear in the chart automatically.


I changed a contact's company. What happens to their org chart relationships?

This depends on your CRM settings.

By default (setting is OFF): When a contact's company is changed, they are removed from the org chart of their previous company. Any contacts who reported to them will no longer show those relationships in the chart.

If the setting is turned ON: The contact stays in the org chart of their original company even after the company field is updated.

To find this setting: Go to Settings > CRM Settings and look for:

"Do not remove Contact from existing Org Chart if their company name changes"

Toggle this on if you want to preserve org chart relationships when reassigning contacts between companies. Toggle it off if you want the chart to always reflect the current company assignment only.

Recommendation: For most agencies, keeping this OFF is the safer default -- it keeps your charts clean and accurate. Turn it ON only if your team frequently updates company fields as part of a data migration or merge and wants to preserve the visual structure in the interim.


A contact I deleted was a manager with direct reports. What happened to those contacts?

When a contact is deleted, their node is removed from the Org Chart entirely. Their former direct reports do not become orphaned or disconnected -- they simply lose that upward relationship and will no longer appear in the chart unless they have other relationships defined.

The chart will never show a broken or empty node in place of a deleted contact. If you want the direct reports to stay visible, reassign their "Reports To" field to a different contact before deleting the original.


I tried to create a reporting relationship and got an error. What went wrong?

There are two validation rules that will block a relationship from being saved:

1. A contact cannot report to themselves. Selecting the same contact in the "Reports To" field as the contact you are editing will throw a validation error. This is expected behaviour.

2. Circular references are not allowed. A circular reference is when the reporting chain loops back on itself -- for example: Sarah reports to James, James reports to Priya, and Priya reports to Sarah. Recruiterflow detects this and blocks the save with the message:

"Cannot create circular reporting relationships."

To fix it: Review the existing chain before assigning the new relationship. Break the loop by editing one of the intermediate relationships first, then reassign.


Can a contact report to someone at a different company?

No. The "Reports To" field only shows contacts from the same company. You cannot create a cross-company reporting relationship.

If you need to reflect a reporting structure that spans companies (for example, a parent company and a subsidiary), you would need to consolidate those contacts under a single company record first.


Can a contact appear in more than one Org Chart?

No. A contact belongs to one company at a time, and the Org Chart is scoped to that company. If a contact's company changes, their org chart visibility follows the company change (or the CRM setting, as described above).


How do I remove a reporting relationship without deleting the contact?

Open the contact's profile, find the "Reports To" field, and clear the selection. Save the profile. The relationship is removed immediately, and the chart updates to reflect the change.

You cannot delete relationships from within the Org Chart view itself -- all edits happen at the contact profile level.

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