Do you have a workflow that you'd like to recreate across your account? Are you looking to keep all boards created from this template aligned once changes are made? Our managed template feature enables workflow builders to better manage standardized workflows at scale.

Create a template out of a workspace or a board that will act as a "master template." All new workflows created from this template (known as "template instances") will receive updates made to the managed template to keep all related workflows aligned.

 

 

 

How it works

Creating a Managed template with standardized template instances goes as follows:

• Define a workspace or a single board as the Managed template: Choose or create a board or a workspace full of your content of choice (boards, dashboards, workdocs, and more) to use as a template. The boards within this workspace template will then be able to send updates to all boards created from it.
• Create template instances: Add the new templated content to any workspace across your account. When a Managed template includes multiple components (e.g., boards, docs, and dashboards), these elements combine into a single template instance when used together from the same template. Once created, these instances automatically receive updates from the Managed template whenever changes are published.
• Publish updates made: Workspace owners will be able to publish changes made to a board to the connected instances by using the "Publish" button.

To turn a single board into a Managed template, click the 3-dot menu beside the board's name and click "Save as template".

 

From there, you can choose whether to move the origin board straight into a template center and have it appear only there or duplicate it so that it appears both in the template center and in the left panel: 

 

Once you choose whether to move or duplicate the origin board, you will get the following pop-up asking you to choose between a Standard template or a Managed template:

 

After selecting the template type, the final step allows you to name your template and choose to make it either public or private, giving you control over who can use (install) the template.

Private templates are visible to all account members but can only be used by specific team members invited by the template owner on the template members page.

Team members who aren’t added as template members will see a greyed-out "Edit in a new tab" button along with a "Request to join" option when finding a private template in the template center. Clicking "Request to join" will notify the template owner for approval. Once access is granted, team members will be able to use the template!

 

To turn a workspace into a Managed template, click the 3-dot menu beside the workspace's name and click "Save as template".

 

 

Your entire workspace will now be transferred to the Template Center. 

 

Continue reading the article below to dive in deeper into the Managed templates feature on monday.com!

 

 

Which changes transfer over?

While we're constantly working on adding additional capabilities for the Managed templates feature, at the moment the following board updates or changes will be transferred over from a Managed template to its instances once clicking the "Publish changes" button:

Changes made to a Managed template won’t always apply to existing instances but will apply to any new instances you create.

 

New columns added

Any time that you add a new column to your board and then publish the changes, the newly added columns will transfer over to the template instances.

 

New groups added

When you add new groups to your Managed template and publish the changes, the new group will be added to the template instances as well.

 

New items and subitems added

When adding new items and subitems to your Managed template, they will be transferred over to your instances after clicking "Publish changes".

 

Status and dropdown column settings changes

Any change that you make to the status column settings within a Managed template board will be synced after publish, including:

• Adding new labels
• Changing the text and color of the labels
• Definition of the "Done" status
• Column description and name
• Deactivating labels

 

Within the status column settings, we offer the option to deactivate status labels. With this capability, a Managed template owner can prevent further use of a status label on all instances while still keeping that label in place wherever it was used beforehand! With this capability, the option to fully delete a label is not available in order to prevent the accidental deletion of data on template instances.

In addition, any changes made to your dropdown column settings will be transferred over as well after publishing changes on your template!

 

Board permissions 

To have complete control over your instances, board permissions are directly synced from a Managed template to all boards created from it.

By setting viewing and editing permissions on a Managed template, every board created from that template will inherit the same permission settings, allowing you to maintain consistency across your entire workflow.

 

Following this logic, here's is what you will see when trying to edit board permissions from any of the instances:

 

Identify a Managed template

You can identify any workspace (or a board) that was set as a Managed template by the crown symbol icon under the template name as shown below:

 

Create template instances

To create instances from the Managed template, open up the left pane, click on the blue plus sign and then "Choose from templates".

From the template center, either search up the name of the template, or look for it in the "Templates created in your account" section and click on it. After selecting the workspace template, click on the blue "Use managed template" button to add it to your account.

You can also click on the down-facing arrow to the right of the "Use managed template" button to add the template into an existing Workspace (as a folder full of the contents from your workspace template), or to create a new workspace altogether where this will be added!

 

After finishing this step, you'll then see a new workspace (or folder) added to your account full of the exact same boards, dashboards, workdocs, and more, that the original template has!

 

Publish changes to the template

Once updating your board, you can go ahead and publish the changes made! By doing this, the original template that was created will be updated with the changes made, and the instances will receive the relevant changes.

To publish changes, all you have to do is click on the "Publish changes" button at the top right of your board. 

 

You can then include detailed release notes explaining the updates made in this version:

These notes will automatically be added as a board discussion on the template itself and on all boards created from the template, keeping everyone informed.

Once the changes are published, all instances will reflect the updates, and their members will receive a notification to align with the latest modifications.

 

View all instances

From the top bar of any Managed template, you can easily view and access all template instances that were created from it with the click of a button! All you need to do is click on the "Instances" button at the top of your screen, and you'll then be able to see a list of all connected instances and the last publish status for each of them, including successes and errors:

Managing templates with dozens of instances has never been easier. Here, you can find instances that are created from the same template grouped together for a clear overview. You can also quickly track each component's location, including its product, workspace, and board.

 

Need to focus on instances with publishing errors? Use the status filter to sort and identify boards experiencing publishing issues, making it simple to resolve them efficiently. With the filter, you can also monitor the number of successfully synced or failed groups during and after publishing.

 

Create boards using automations

You can set up a custom automation to trigger the creation of a new instance from one of your Managed templates. The automation will run when the set condition is met, and an instance will be created from the chosen Managed template.

For example, let's say you are working in an HR team. You can set up an automation that triggers whenever a candidate is hired, the onboarding board will be created a week before the employee's start date.

 

Delete a template

If you'd like to delete your template, you can do so from the three-dot menu next to "Instances". Select "Delete template", and then either choose "Permanently delete" or "Move to workspace" to move it from the template center back to your workspace.

 

Alternatively, you can find the template you want to delete in the template center, click on the three dots next to "Edit in the new tab", and select "Delete template".

 

Supported columns

While most columns are supported when transferring newly added columns from a Managed template to an instance, some are only partially supported. 

 

Limitations

There are a few limitations that are important to keep in mind when using our Managed templates feature. They are as follows:

• You can only publish up to 20 newly added columns at a time
• In case you publish changes with an unsupported column, the instances will still receive any supported columns that were published, however, the unsupported column(s) will not be added to the instance
• You can include up to 30 components (boards, docs, dashboards) and up to 2500 items in a template
• You can include up to 100 instances per template and 1000 instances per account

 

 

If you have any questions, please reach out to our team right here. We’re available 24/7 and happy to help.