Dotted line reporting
- What the dotted lines cost a month in check-ins
- $2,429.09
- Managers the solid lines imply
- 18
- People with a second manager
- 31
- Dotted lines on the chart
- 43
These sheets have no constants. Every number is worked from the figures you enter: the headcount, the span of control, the people at the top, the contractors, the redraws and the minutes each takes, the profile fields and how complete they are, the lookups a week, the minutes a lookup takes, the hourly costs, the joiners and leavers, and the dotted-line share, count, check-in length and interval. The defaults are one 120-person company's worked example, not a benchmark this site publishes.
The figures are a worked example for a company of 120 people: $2,429.09. Put your own headcount in and the answer changes.
Download the Dotted line reporting worked example (CSV)
This is the dotted line reporting sheet, and it counts the half of the chart most companies never draw. Enter the people on the chart, the direct reports the average manager carries, the share of people who also answer to somebody outside their own department, how many dotted lines each of those people has, how long the standing check-in takes, how many weeks apart those check-ins are and what an hour of a manager costs. It returns the managers the solid lines imply, the people with a second manager, the dotted lines on the chart, the total reporting lines, the dotted lines the average manager carries, and what the matrix costs a month and a year in check-ins alone.
The lines nobody drew
A 140-person company where 22% of people have a second manager, at 1.4 lines each, carries 43 dotted lines. Added to 140 solid ones that is 183 reporting relationships on a chart that looks like it has 140, which is why the chart and the experience of working there disagree.
What each manager is carrying
18 managers and 43 dotted lines is 2.4 dotted reports each on top of their own team. That number, not the org design theory, is what decides whether the matrix works: a manager with seven directs and two dotted lines has nine conversations to hold.
What the matrix costs in check-ins
43 dotted lines with a fortnightly thirty-minute check-in is 46 hours a month of standing meetings, about $2,428 at a $52 manager hourly cost, or $29,149 a year. That is the price of the second line, and it is worth knowing before adding a third.
Questions people ask about the Dotted line reporting
What counts as a dotted line? Anyone who directs somebody's work without writing their review or approving their leave: a shared service, a project lead, a regional manager. If two people can both change what somebody does this week, there are two lines.
Should dotted lines be on the published chart? Yes, or new joiners learn them by getting it wrong. Drawing them also makes the count above visible, which is the first honest conversation about whether the matrix is working.
Where do the check-in figures come from? From you: how long the standing conversation actually takes and how many weeks apart it is. The worked example uses thirty minutes fortnightly because that is what the example company runs.
Orgbix Pro
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The sheet works the chart out this afternoon. Pro keeps it: the people, the lines and the version before this one, so the next reorganisation starts from the current chart instead of from last quarter's export.
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- Come back to this chart with every figure still in it
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- Tell a manager their part of the directory has gone stale
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Where the constants in this tool come from
U.S. Government Accountability Office: Organizational Transformation, key practices (GAO-03-669).