Do you have boards on monday.com that organize separate projects and tasks but still contain information directly related to each other? 

Cross-board automation recipes offer the ability for boards to interact by allowing an action in one board to trigger an action in a completely separate board. Many of these recipes will also link connected items across boards.

These automation recipes add a new layer to team collaboration and allow your team to manage interrelated projects seamlessly and cohesively.

How to add a custom automation

Custom automations allow you to create new automation combinations tailored to your team's needs and make them fit perfectly into your specific workflow.

To add a custom cross-board recipe to your workflow, you will first need to visit our automation store at the top of your board:

There you will be able to choose the option to "Create Custom Automation":

Choose your trigger. A trigger can involve a column from your board (i.e. Status, Person, Date, etc.) or an action that happens on your board (i.e. item created, item moved to group, etc.). For this example, we'll choose "When a Status changes to Something". On our board, we'll use the "Tried It?" column and the "Yes" label.

Then we'll choose the actions that will occur as a result of the chosen trigger. To create a cross-board automation recipe, we'll first choose the recipe block "create item in board & connect boards":

Now, let's set up the "create item in board & connect boards" block!

The steps to set up this block are:

1. Choose the board where you want to create the new item. In this case, we want to create a new item on "Cassandra Tried It!" to keep track of the restaurants we've tried.

2. We'll map the information from the item (or restaurant) we've tried on the Local Lunch Spots board to the new item we'll create on the Cassandra Tried It! board.

3. We'll choose the board where we want to display the connection between these two items.

4. Then we'll choose the column where we'll display this connection. If you don't already have a Connect Boards Column on your board, you can create one during the setup of this recipe by clicking "Add new column".

5. Click "Create Automation" to finish.

That's it! Here's what this custom automation looks like in action:

How to add a standard automation

To add the relevant cross-board recipe to your workflow, you will first need to visit our automation store at the top of your board:

There you will be able to choose from our different recipes and set up the cross-board automation that supports your workflow. Try searching "in board" or "in another board" to easily locate relevant recipes: 

Be sure to scroll down to view more cross-board recipes:

There are many options to choose from!

Note: In order to map across boards, the column you want to map must exist on both boards. Additionally, the information in the updates section will only move over when using "move item" automations but not when using automations that create new items. 

Mapping columns

If the recipe you choose creates an item or moves an item, you'll have the opportunity to map out what information carries over to the selected board and where that information will go within the selected board's structure. This is called mapping. Check out the mapping section of the Automations article to learn more.

Subitems do move over when using a "move item to board" automation. However, you will not have an opportunity to map the subitem when setting up this type of automation. If your item has a subitem, the subitem mapping will happen automatically for you. As long as the type of column on the subitem and the title of the column on the subitem are the same on both the board where you set up the automation (origin board) and the board where you intend to move the item to (receiving board), the values in your subitem columns will carry over.

Regardless of whether it's an item or subitem that is being moved, some information will not carry over. The below column types are considered "static" and are not currently supported in mapping:  

• Mirror
• Dependency
• Link to Item
• Files
• Time Tracking

When mapping an item, static columns will not have a blue + sign next to them:

Note: In order to map column values, the mapped columns will need to be on the origin board and the receiving board. 

Cross-Board Examples 

Example #1

A Project Management team has a high-level iteration board. Everyone's tasks are listed on this board so that the whole team has a clear picture of each iteration.

The team also needs identical tasks to be created on low-level team member boards. They'll use the following standard automation recipe:

When person is assigned to someone, create an item in another board and connect them in the selected board

With this recipe, when the selected person is assigned to an item, a new item will be created in the board selected under "another board". This will allow the team member to have a separate board with a complete list of their tasks!

Note: When you click on the "connect them" field, you will have the option to add a Connect Boards Column on the selected board in the "another board" field. 

Example #2

A marketing company is using an embedded monday.com form for their mailing list. Once the form is completed, an item is sent to a monday.com board. If approved, the item needs to be automatically moved to the next board in the pipeline. This is what the origin board looks like:

To complete their workflow, they'll use the following recipe:

When status changes to something, move item to board

Note: For automation purposes, moving an item to a board isn't considered a new item. So if on the receiving board you have an automation set to notify when a new item is added then it will not trigger.

Want to learn more about our variety of automations? Please check out this article!

If you have any questions, please reach out to our team by using our contact form. We're available 24/7 and happy to help!