Do you have a workflow with multiple boards 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 that will act as a "master template" and all new workspaces created from this template (known as "child templates") will receive updates made to the managed template to keep all related workflows aligned.

 

 

 

How it works

Creating a Managed template with standardized child templates goes as follows:

• Define a Workspace as the Managed Template: Choose or create 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 child boards: Add the new templated content to any workspace throughout your account. The boards created from this template will then receive updates to the templated workspace once they have been published.
• Publish updates made: Workspace owners will be able to publish changes made to a board to the connected child boards by using the "Publish" button.

 

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 board to its child boards once clicking the "Publish changes" button:

• New columns added
• New groups added
• New items and subitems added
• Status column settings changes
• Dropdown column settings changes

 

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 child boards.

 

New groups added

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

 

New items and subitems added

When adding new items and subitems to your Managed template, they will be transferred over to your child boards 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 the further use of a status label on all child boards 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 child boards.

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

 

 

Set up a Managed template

To set up a Managed template, start by opening up a workspace of choice from the left pane. From the three-dot menu next to workspace name, select "Save as template". From the screen that appears, select "Managed template" and then click on the blue "Save as template" button to proceed.

 

You can identify any workspace that was set as a Managed template by the crown symbol at the bottom right of the workspace icon as shown below:

 

Create child boards 

To create child boards from the templated workspace, 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 templated workspace, 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 templated workspace 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 child boards 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. When hovering over the first "Publish changes" button, you'll see who last published changes to the workspace template and when.

 

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 child boards will reflect the updates, and their members will receive a notification to align with the latest modifications.

 

View all child boards

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

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

 

Need to focus on child boards 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 a new child board from one of your Managed templates. The automation will run when the set condition has been met, and a child board 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.

 

Set up board permissions 

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

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

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

 

Remove a workspace template

If you'd like to remove a workspace from your templates, start by opening up the templated workspace from the left pane. Next, from the three-dot menu next to workspace name, select "Remove from templates":

 

Supported columns

While most columns are supported when transferring newly added columns from a Managed template to a child board, there are a few which are not supported, and some that are 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 at time
• In case you publish changes with an unsupported column, the child board will still receive any supported columns that were published, however, the unsupported column(s) will not be added to the child board
• You can include up to 30 components (boards, docs, dashboards) and up to 2500 items in a template
• You can include up to 100 child boards per template and 1000 child boards per account.

 

 

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