Using monday.com Boards

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monday.com logo.

Touted as a work and project management software solution with an emphasis on collaboration and productivity, monday.com is a cloud-based service that’s been helping small, medium, and large businesses manage data for well over a decade. Much of this longevity can be attributed to its versatility and customizability, which is delivered through built-in features like kanban boards, Gantt charts, dashboard widgets, third-party integrations, and automation. But, the monday.com experience is customizable in other ways, too—particularly through the use of individual boards.

Let’s take a deeper look at the advantages of using monday.com boards.


What Is a monday.com Board? 

A monday.com board is akin to a virtualized chalkboard or whiteboard. Boards can be used by project managers to track and manage nearly any kind of data you can think of, including employees, customers, due dates, day-to-day tasks, and even multiple projects simultaneously.

While the user who creates a board is considered the owner, those with viewing access are considered admins, members, viewers, guests, or subscribers:

  • Admin: Considered a type of super user, the admin has the ability to manage and oversee the entire account. They also have all of the abilities as a normal member.
  • Member: Direct teammates are considered board members. They can create and edit boards, items, or folders, and they can invite other members, add attachments to items, and receive invitations to shareable and private boards.
  • Viewer: These users have the ability to see the data on a board, but they do not have the ability to create or edit any boards, items, or folders. By default, viewers do have the ability to invite other viewers, but this setting can be changed by the admin.
  • Guest: Users outside of a team or organization are considered guests. They must be invited to view or interact with monday boards.
  • Subscriber: Members that have subscribed or followed a board are considered subscribers. This includes admins, members, viewers, and guests. Automatic emails are sent to subscribers whenever a board receives a data update.

These classifications are enough to handle most boards within monday.com, but users who subscribe to monday’s Enterprise plan can create and define custom roles if needed.


How to Create a New Board in monday.com

Every monday.com plan supports unlimited boards, including the free plan. New boards can be added to your monday.com workspace in a matter of seconds. Click the + Add button on monday.com’s user interface (UI), and select New Board.

monday.com create a new board 1.

You can also choose to import a board with the Import data option, which supports Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, and more. Once a new board is created, you can customize it as needed.

Alternatively, you can use one of monday.com’s premade board templates. Instead of clicking New Board, simply click Choose from templates to view the available templates. Any templates that have been previously created by you or your team will be found here, too.

There are four main elements to every monday.com board. These include:

  • Groups: Combine board items into color-coded groups or sections to organize your monday.com board.
  • Columns: Use monday.com’s various columns to assign tasks to people, establish due dates, and more. The status column, for example, lets you track the progress of specific tasks or projects.
  • Items: Store and track data using the items, or primary components, of your board.
  • Subitems: Provide deeper, low-level insight into individual items via subitems.

Whether you’re working from a template or a blank slate, there are really only three different board types in monday.com. They include main boards, shareable boards, and private boards.

Main boards

Main boards are the most common type of board used in monday.com. Since they’re visible to any user who is designated as a team member through your monday.com account, they’re a popular method of sharing information with your entire team.

Main boards, sometimes known as main tables, are available with all of monday.com’s subscription plans, including the free plan, and users can create as many main boards as they need. With the free plan, however, you’re limited to the number of items you can add to any given board.

a monday.com main board.

Every account starts out with the ability to add 200 items to each board, and you can earn up to 100 additional items by referring new users to the monday platform. Subscribing to any of their paid plans, including their basic plan, removes this limitation.

All main boards support an unlimited number of viewers. However, the number of members is dependent on your monday.com subscription plan. The Standard pricing plan for 10 users, for example, will accommodate a maximum of 10 members.

Shareable boards

While main boards are shared internally and exclusively with members of your company or team, shareable boards are meant to be distributed externally. They’re ideal when working with freelancers, interns, partners, clients, and others.

Guests have many privileges on shareable boards. Not only can they create new items on the board, but they can edit and add columns, create new comments and add attachments, and add monday.com’s various board views, automations, and integrations as necessary. They cannot see any other boards unless they’ve been specifically invited, and they cannot create new boards.

Unfortunately, shareable boards aren’t available in monday.com’s free plan. They’re only available with their Standard, Pro, and Enterprise subscriptions.

Private boards

Available only with monday.com’s Pro and Enterprise subscriptions, private boards are only viewable by the board’s creator and those who have been specifically invited. Moreover, only admins, members, and viewers can receive invitations to monday’s private boards—no outside guests are allowed.

Modifying Boards in monday.com

Regardless of the specific board type, all boards in monday can be customized, modified, and manipulated in various ways. Many of these options are restricted to certain user types, but others can be implemented by any monday.com user. Some of the most common modifications include:

  • Changing the Board Description: Click on the i icon next to your board’s name to modify its description with helpful tips, instructions, or any other kind of information that might be helpful to the board’s members and viewers.
  • Setting Board Permissions: While individual users have their own permissions, you can apply or remove permissions for individual boards by clicking on the button in the upper right-hand corner of the monday.com interface and selecting Board permissions from the dropdown menu.
  • Changing Board Types: Select between the different board types by clicking the button in the upper right hand corner of the monday.com interface, selecting Board settings, and navigating to Change board type.
  • Deleting and Archiving Boards: Entire boards can be archived or deleted by clicking the button in the upper right hand corner of the monday interface and selecting Archive board or Delete board.
  • Connecting Boards: Individual boards can be linked and connected to one another by clicking on the + icon in the upper right hand corner of a board, adding the Connect Boards Column, and then selecting the board (or multiple boards) you want to link to. Any data deleted from a linked board will also be removed from its connected board.
  • Modifying Columns: Columns can be added or deleted as necessary. They can also be given their own permissions that restrict visibility or editing capabilities to specific users.

Most boards can be modified in other ways, too. To find out more information, or to view related articles, visit the monday.com online support center.

Emailing Boards in monday.com

Boards in monday.com can also receive updates straight from your inbox. Account and board members can send emails directly to main, shareable, and private boards. Guests can only send emails to shareable boards they’ve been invited to, but other viewers and partners can send emails directly to items or boards by using the standard email address.

Note that the unique email addresses generated for monday boards contain your account’s application programming interface (API) key, so these addresses should only be shared with trusted colleagues.

To find the unique email address of any given board, load the board in monday.com, and click the ellipses (…) button in the upper righthand corner. From here, select Board settings from the dropdown menu, and click Create items via email.

Once the pop-up window appears, copy the board’s unique email address from the dialog, or create your own. Now that you have the email address, you can use any email client to send emails directly to the monday.com platform and sync the data automatically.

When creating new items, enter the unique board email address into the recipient line, and use the email’s subject to name the new item in your monday board. The email’s body is then used to create updates and add data to the new item as needed.

If you want to email updates to items that already exist on your board, find the unique email address within the item’s Updates Section, copy the address, and make sure to check the box next to Write updates via email. Now you can create updates and add data simply by emailing the address you copied in the previous step.

Making the Most of Your monday.com Experience

When used effectively alongside the software’s other features, boards really help you make the most of the monday.com app. They can be used to track and manage nearly anything, from long-term projects to checklists for human resources, and they can be modified by teammates to maximize collaboration.

Although the default monday.com installation is good enough to get you started, most teams will benefit immensely by using monday.com boards for all of their data and project management needs.



Read More: Top 10 Project Management Software


Learn More About Project Management Software

monday.com’s boards are an intuitive way to visualize work. And their flexibility allows project managers to tailor Boards and Views to meet the needs of every team member. If you’re interested in the approaches other visual project management systems take to displaying upcoming work and project progress, here are some other PM software options to consider.

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