# Starting from the Employee Directory

**Category:** [Org Charts](https://help.totalctrl.app/hc/totalctrl/totalctrl-help-center/en-US/categories/org-charts-1)
**Updated:** 2026-10-04

## What it does

If your workspace has the Employee Directory, its org chart page offers **Export to Org Charts**. That takes the reporting lines recorded there — who reports to whom — and writes them into a new chart here.
## It is a snapshot, taken once

The new chart is an ordinary chart from that moment on. It does not track the Directory: somebody changing manager next week changes the Directory's own chart and leaves this one alone.

That is the point of exporting. The Directory shows what is true now; a chart here is something you can edit, annotate with people who are not in the Directory, and keep as a record of how things looked.
## It arrives private

The new chart is visible only to you until you change it. Re-running the export makes another new chart rather than updating the first — so nothing you have edited is ever overwritten.
## The Directory's own chart is still there

The Employee Directory keeps its own live chart, drawn from current reporting lines. Use that one for "who reports to whom today", and Org Charts for anything you want to shape by hand.

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## Related Articles

- [Sharing a chart](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/org-charts-sharing)
- [Building a chart](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/org-charts-builder)
- [Getting started with Org Charts](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/org-charts-getting-started)
- [Who can see a chart](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/org-charts-visibility)

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