Edit Virtual Structure

Creating a new Virtual Structure – or loading an existing one – will open the editor window, as outlined below:

Exporting, Importing or Deleting the Contents of a Virtual Structure

See the Actual Structure's Organization Structure section (click here) for more on how to import or export a structure to Excel or PowerPoint, or how to delete a structure's contents.

Adding Business Units to a Virtual Structure

Business units can be added to a Virtual Structure in one of two ways:

• Creating one or more new (empty) business units; or
• Including existing business units from the actual organizational structure.

Note: the toolbox menu items in the side panel are context sensitive and will change depending on whether you have selected a (1) business unit or employee in the (2) Actual or Virtual Structure panels.

Creating a new Business Unit

Any number of business units can be created or added to a Virtual Structure, and can even be stacked or grouped together at different levels as part of a hierarchy of any complexity. Scroll down and see Adding a New Business Unit for more on this.

You can then include either – or both – business units and employees from your Actual Structure in any of these newly created business units (see the next section for more on this). In the example below, an individual employee has been included in Sub-unit A, and a complete business unit Ambient Foods (part of the Sales Division in the Actual Structure) has been included as a sub-unit under Sub-unit B.

Including Business Units via Drag-and-Drop

To include one of the original Actual Structure business units in a Virtual Structure by dragging and dropping it: (1) select the business unit in the Actual Structure by clicking on it (should be highlighted in burgundy), (2) drag it across to the target business unit in the Virtual Structure where you want to include it, and (3) drop it either on – or below – the target business unit.

The target business unit in the Virtual Structure will turn orange if you hover with your mouse over it (see example above); the business unit will be inserted as a sub-unit underneath the highlighted business unit. Hover with your mouse between two business units to insert the business unit at that exact position in the hierarchy, i.e. at the level of the business units above and below the thin orange line (see image below).

A dialogue will come up where you can specify how the unit should be included:

Including Business Units via the Toolbox Function in the Side Panel

Select the business unit in the Actual Structure by clicking on it (should be highlighted in burgundy), and then click on the Include Business Unit toolbox function in the side panel.

Specify the target (parent) business unit in the Virtual Structure under which the selected business should be inserted by (1) clicking on the business unit dropdown, and (2) selecting the business unit from the list. Click on the OK button to include the business unit.

A dialogue will come up where you can specify how the unit should be included - see the Including Business Units via Drag-and-Drop section above for more on this.

Adding Employees to a Virtual Structure

Employees can be added to a Virtual Structure in one of two ways:

• Selecting an employee in the Actual Structure and dragging-and-dropping the employee on a target business unit in the Virtual Structure; or
• Selecting an employee in the Actual Structure and clicking on the Include Employee toolbox function in the side panel.

Note: the toolbox menu items in the side panel are context sensitive and will change depending on whether you have selected a (1) business unit or employee in the (2) Actual or Virtual Structure panels.

Include an Employee via Drag-and-Drop

To include an employee in a Virtual Structure by dragging and dropping: (1) select the employee in the Actual Structure by clicking on the employee (should be highlighted in burgundy), (2) drag the employee across to the target business unit in the Virtual Structure where you want to include the employee, and (3) drop the employee either on or below the target business unit. See Including Business Units via Drag-and-Drop above for more on dropping a business unit or employee on or below a target business unit.

Include an Employee via the Toolbox Function in the Side Panel

Select an employee in the Actual Structure by clicking on the employee (should be highlighted in burgundy), or select more than one employee by checking their check boxes, and then click on the Include Employees toolbox function in the side panel.

Specify the target (parent) business unit in the Virtual Structure under which the selected employee(s) should be inserted by (1) clicking on the business unit dropdown, and (2) selecting the business unit from the list. Click on the OK button to include the employee(s).