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 templates 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 templates will also link connected items across boards. These automation templates 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 template 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 template, we'll first choose the template 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 custom automation are:

1. Choose the board where you want to create the new item. In this case, we want to create a new item on "Tried It! Board" 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 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 template 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 an automation template

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

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

 

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

There are many options to choose from!

 

 

 

Mapping columns

If the template you choose creates an item or moves an item, you'll have the opportunity to define what information carries over to the selected board and where that information will go within the selected board's structure. This is called mapping. 

 

 

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:  

• Dependency
• Link to Item
• Time Tracking

When mapping an item, static columns will not have a blue + sign in the empty field:

 

Understanding "match" templates

As part of our cross-board automations, we have a few templates that involve matching the same data between items on two different boards in order to connect them. To locate these templates, simply type "match" into the search bar in the automations center!

These templates work by identifying the same data points from two separate boards, as defined in the template that you choose, and then linking the items together where the data matches using a Connect Boards Column. 

Let's learn how to set this up below!

 

Configuring a "match" template

To learn how to set up a "Match" template, let's consider the following template:

When column changes, connect the item where the new value matched this column in another board.

Using this template, we want to connect items between one board and another when the assignees match. To do this, we've first selected the "Assignee" column from the current board that we are on. Then, we selected the second board "High Level Projects", the Connect Boards Column that we have on the current board, and finally the "Project manager" column from the High Level Projects board where the data will be matched from.

Now, if an assignee on the current board changes to the same assignee that is already located on the High Level Projects board, the two items will be connected right away in the selected Connect Boards Column!

 

 

"Match" template best practices

Because match automations are in beta, there are some best practices and limitations that you should be aware of. These templates can be very powerful, but they're still experimental! Based on the experience of our customers, consider the following:

 

Best practices

• It's best not to use more than two of the same match automation template on the same board.
• We recommend adding the match automation on the board that is updated most often rather than the board that remains more static.
• "Match" automations will only connect the first matching item on the designated board.
• "Match" automations can only support one condition for matching at a time.
• Column values need to be identical to match; this is case-sensitive! So "Smith" won't match with "smith"
• The automation that uses "connected columns change" does not trigger when the connected board is connected using a "match" automation rather than manually.

 

Limitations:

• Match automations do not support:

• • Dropdown column 
  • Subitems

• Match automations do support the following columns:

  • People Column

  • Date Column

  • Status Column

  • Numbers Column

  • Timeline Column

  • Link Column

  • Phone Column

  • Email Column

  • Text Column

  • Priority Column

  • Label Column

• If a "match" automation is triggered for 500 or more items, you may experience some indeterminate functionality. This is normal for a beta automation.

• If there was not an initial match, the automation will attempt to run 5 more times at 50 second intervals. Once 5 minutes have passed, if a match wasn't made, the automation will not attempt to run again.
  • In this case, you can try to trigger the automation again. There is no guarantee that the second attempt will be successful either.

We're open to hearing your feedback about our "match" templates! We're always working to improve.

 

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 template:

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

With this template, 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!

 

 

 

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 template:

When status changes to something, move item to board

 

 

 

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 right here. We’re available 24/7 and happy to help.