Org Structure

Define your organization’s employee hierarchy to enable dynamic manager-based approval routing

Org Structure lets you define the reporting hierarchy within your organization. By mapping employees to their managers, departments, and job titles, you establish the relationships that drive dynamic approval chains and other manager-based workflows.

Overview

The Org Structure page is accessible from Org Settings → Org Structure within the Platform Administration section. From here, you can review your organization’s hierarchy, search for individual employees, and add or update entries.

Adding Employees

In most organizations, the Org Structure is populated automatically by your identity provider via SCIM. Manual entry and Excel import are available for organizations that don’t use SCIM, or to make targeted adjustments alongside an automated sync.

SCIM Provisioning (Recommended)

If your organization uses SCIM provisioning with Microsoft Entra ID or Okta, the Org Structure page is populated automatically from your identity provider. Each user’s Department, Employee ID, Job Title, and Manager sync into Elementum, so the hierarchy stays current as people join, change roles, or leave the organization — without manual maintenance in Elementum.

To enable this:

Microsoft Entra ID

1. Set up SAML SSO with Microsoft Entra ID.
2. Configure SCIM provisioning for Entra ID and ensure each user’s Job Information in Entra ID includes at least one of Department, Employee ID, or Manager.
3. Start provisioning. Users and their reporting relationships will appear on the Org Structure page on the next sync.

Okta

1. Set up SAML SSO with Okta.
2. Configure SCIM provisioning for Okta and ensure the Employee ID field is populated for each user — this field is set via API from your identity system, not through the Okta admin UI.
3. Push the group and start provisioning. Users will appear on the Org Structure page on the next sync.

Other identity providers (Google Workspace, OneLogin, JumpCloud) can provision users and groups via SCIM, but Org Structure auto-population is currently supported only for Microsoft Entra ID and Okta. With other IdPs, populate Org Structure manually or via Excel import.

Manual Entry

To add an employee manually:

1. Click + Add in the top right corner of the Org Structure page.
2. If the employee already has a user account in Elementum, select them from the Add Existing User dropdown. This pre-fills their name and email.
3. Fill in the Employee Information fields:
   • First Name and Last Name
   • Email
   • Employee ID
   • Department
   • Job Title
   • Manager — Search for and select the employee’s direct manager
4. Click Save.

Excel Import

To add employees in bulk:

1. Click Import in the top right corner of the Org Structure page.
2. Click the cloud download icon to download the Excel template pre-populated with your current org structure data.
3. Fill in or update the template with your employee information.
4. Upload the completed Excel file.
5. Review the import preview and confirm.

Bulk import is useful for organizations that don’t use SCIM, or as a one-time way to load historical data before enabling automated provisioning.

Employee Fields

Each employee record in the org structure contains the following information:

• First Name / Last Name — The employee’s full name.
• Email — The employee’s email address. If linked to an existing Elementum user, this connects the org structure entry to their platform account.
• Employee ID — A unique identifier for the employee, typically matching your HR system’s ID.
• Department — The department or business unit the employee belongs to.
• Job Title — The employee’s role or position.
• Manager — The employee’s direct manager. This field establishes the reporting chain used by dynamic approval routing.

The Manager field is what defines the hierarchical relationships in your org structure. Make sure every employee has an accurate manager assignment to ensure approval chains route correctly.

Searching for Employees

Use the search bar at the top of the Org Structure page to find employees by name. This is helpful for verifying reporting relationships or updating individual records.

Using Org Structure with Approval Processes

The primary use case for org structure is enabling dynamic manager approval chains in Approval Processes. When configuring an approval chain, you can select the Dynamic Manager option for any step. This automatically assigns the approver based on the requester’s manager hierarchy as defined in the org structure.

For example, if an approval chain requires three levels of management sign-off:

1. Level 1 — The requester’s direct manager
2. Level 2 — The direct manager’s manager
3. Level 3 — The next manager up the chain

The system traverses the org structure automatically, so you don’t need to hard-code specific approvers for each step. This means approval routing stays accurate as employees change roles or managers without requiring updates to the approval process configuration.

Combine dynamic manager approvals with automated triggers to create fully automated approval workflows that route through the correct management chain based on your org structure.

Best Practices

• Automate with SCIM where possible — When using Microsoft Entra ID or Okta, configure SCIM provisioning so the Org Structure stays current automatically as employees join, change roles, or leave.
• Keep the hierarchy current — If maintaining Org Structure manually, update it promptly when employees change managers, departments, or roles. Stale data leads to misrouted approvals.
• Use Excel import for initial setup — When first building your org structure without SCIM, import from your HR system rather than adding employees one at a time.
• Verify manager chains — After importing or after a SCIM sync, spot-check a few employees to confirm their manager assignments are correct, especially for multi-level approval scenarios.
• Link to existing users — When adding employees manually who already have Elementum accounts, use the Add Existing User option to connect their org structure entry to their platform identity.