Most org charts are drawn twice: once properly, and once six months later when nobody can remember which version was current. The six steps below get you to a chart that survives the next three hires, and they start with arithmetic rather than a canvas, because the shape of the chart is decided by your headcount and your span of control long before anybody chooses a box colour. On the worked example a company of 120 people at a span of seven needs 15 managers, leaves 105 people with nobody reporting to them, fits inside four layers and takes 128 boxes once contractors are counted. Work those four numbers out first and the drawing takes twenty minutes.
Start with the list, not the canvas
Open the staff list you already keep and make sure it has five columns: name, title, department, location and manager. Nothing else is needed to draw a chart, and anything else is a reason to delay. If the manager column is empty for a dozen people, that is the real task and it is worth an hour: a chart drawn from a list with holes in it will be wrong in exactly the places people care about, and those are the places somebody will notice first.
Work out the shape before you draw it
Headcount divided by the span of control plus one is the managers the structure implies. On the worked example 120 people at a span of seven is 15 managers and 105 individual contributors. The people reporting to the chief executive decide the depth: four leaders reach 28 people in two layers and 228 in three, so 120 people fit inside four layers. If your headcount is past what three layers reach, you either need another layer or a wider top, and it is better to know that now than after the boxes are placed.
Draw it, then price the redraw
Place the top layer, then each manager with their team, and stop. Do not add project lines yet. When the solid chart is right, count what keeping it will cost: four redraws a year at ninety minutes each is six hours, and at $38 an hour that is $228 a year across 128 boxes. That figure is the argument for keeping people rather than a picture, and it is the number to put in front of whoever asks why a directory is worth $24 a month.
Questions people ask about how to create an org chart
How many people should report to one manager?
Whatever your company actually runs. Divide your headcount by the number of people who have somebody reporting to them and use that. The worked example uses seven because that is the example company's own figure, not a target anybody should aim at.
Should contractors be on the org chart?
If somebody needs to know who they answer to, yes, and the chart should show they are contractors rather than employees. On the worked example eight of them take a 120-box chart to 128 boxes.
What tool should I draw it in?
Anything, for the first version. The question that matters is what happens at the twenty-eighth change of the year: a drawing gets redrawn, a directory redraws itself.