A dotted line manager guides an employee's day-to-day work without being
their formal manager. In most organizations the formal manager, the solid line manager, owns pay, promotion, and the written performance review. Dotted line relationships are common in matrix organizations, cross-functional projects, and mentorship programs.
In Teamflect, this relationship can be set up through custom relationship types with optional managerial access without altering the employee’s direct reporting line.
Dotted Line vs Solid Line Manager: Who Owns What
In most organizations the solid line manager owns pay, promotion, and the written
performance review, while the dotted line manager owns day-to-day direction.
Aspect | Solid Line Manager | Dotted Line Manager |
Objectives and priorities | Owns | Provides input |
Day-to-day direction and task-level guidance | No | Owns |
Time off, workload, and capacity decisions | Owns | No |
Written performance review | Owns | No |
In Teamflect, a dotted line manager is a relationship type. Admins decide whether that relationship grants access to private performance data. It does not make the person a reviewer: Teamflect does not support two reviewers on the same review, so a dotted line manager contributes through the Invite others for comments flow or through a feedback request.
Need to set this up in Teamflect?
Visit: How can I match users using relationship types as an administrator?
When to Use a Dotted Line Manager
Matrix Organizations
Assign project or functional leaders as dotted line managers to support cross-functional oversight.Mentorship Programs
Allow senior employees to monitor and support mentees while preserving the primary reporting structure.Temporary Project Leadership
Give temporary access and visibility to team members working under short-term project leads or consultants.
Why a Dotted Line Does Not Appear on the Org Chart
On an org chart a solid line shows the formal reporting relationship, and a dashed line shows an advisory or secondary one.
One employee can have a single solid line and several dashed lines. A dashed line never replaces the solid line; it sits alongside it.
Teamflect's org chart renders the formal reporting structure only. Dotted line connections are stored as relationship types instead, so they stay visible in My Team and in the settings that control access to performance data, without changing the reporting hierarchy.
Final Thoughts
Teamflect's flexibility allows HR and department leaders to mirror real-life working structures by setting up dotted line managers using custom relationship types. This promotes collaboration, mentorship, and agile project leadership—all while keeping formal reporting structures intact.
By granting or limiting managerial access, admins can control visibility into private feedback, goals, and reviews—ensuring proper data governance in matrixed or dynamic environments.