A common setup in monday is to separate client visibility from internal delivery work.
Internal delivery board
Where your team manages execution, owners, QA, risks, blockers, private notes, and internal updates.
Client-facing board
Where the client sees progress, leaves comments, uploads files, approves work, and tracks high-level status.
The goal is simple:
Give the client a clean place to collaborate without exposing the internal delivery board.
Native monday setup
1. Create a Shareable Board
Create the client-facing board as a Shareable Board.
monday explains in its Shareable Boards article that Shareable Boards are used to share work with people outside your account, like clients, contractors, vendors, or freelancers.
Keep the board simple.
Good client-facing columns:
Client Status
Launch Date
Approval Status
Client Owner
Blocker
Files
Latest Update
Keep internal columns off the client board:
Internal QA
Risk level
Margin / cost info
Private notes
Resource planning
Internal priority
2. Invite the client as a guest
Invite the client to the Shareable Board as a guest.
Guests only see the Shareable Boards they are invited to, not your internal boards. monday explains this in its guest access article.
Plan note:
Guests are available on Standard and above
Pro and Enterprise allow unlimited guests
On Standard, up to three guests are free at the account level, and every fourth guest is considered a paid member
3. Set permissions
Decide what the client should be allowed to do.
For example:
Visibility only → view/comment access
Approvals → expose an Approval Status column
Client requests → allow item creation where needed
No structure changes → avoid full edit access
Board permissions are controlled by board owners. monday explains in its board permissions article that board owners can decide who can view or change board content, including items, columns, and structure.
Plan note:
Some board permission options depend on plan level
Column permissions are available on Pro and Enterprise, according to monday’s column permissions article
More granular board roles and permission controls are Enterprise-level, as explained in monday’s Enterprise board permissions article
Permissions control what the client can see or edit.
They do not keep the client board and internal board aligned by themselves.
4. Use Connect Boards + Mirror Columns for visibility
If the client board needs to show selected information from the internal board, use Connect Boards and Mirror Columns.
Example:
Internal board item: “Website Launch - Delivery”
Client board item: “Website Launch”
You can mirror selected internal values into the client board, such as:
Internal Status
Launch Date
Delivery Owner
Blocker
This works well when the client board is mainly a visibility layer.
The internal team updates the internal board.
The client sees selected information on the client-facing board.
Where this gets harder
The native setup can get harder when the client-facing board becomes a real working board too.
For example:
the client changes an approval status
the client leaves an update or reply
the client uploads a file
the client adds a blocker
the delivery team changes the internal status
the launch date changes internally
both boards need to stay accurate
At that point, someone usually has to keep track of both boards.
Common workarounds are:
manually updating the internal board after the client changes something
asking account managers to copy client updates into the delivery board
using helper columns
building Make, Zapier, or n8n workflows
creating extra automations to compensate for mirror limitations
Those options can work.
But the logic starts spreading across monday, manual process, and external automation tools.
That can become hard to maintain as more clients, boards, and projects are added.
So the real question is:
Is the client board just for visibility?
Then Shareable Boards + Connect Boards + Mirror Columns may be enough.
Is the client board also part of the workflow?
Then you need a cleaner way to keep the client-facing board and internal board aligned.
The Lynx setup
This is where Lynx can fit.
With Lynx, you can create client-facing items from internal items and keep selected values synced between the two boards.
The structure stays the same:
internal delivery board for private work
client-facing Shareable Board for the client
monday permissions to control access
Lynx to keep selected shared values aligned
1. Choose which internal items should appear on the client board
Not every internal item should be client-facing.
You might choose:
client projects
onboarding milestones
launch tasks
approval items
delivery phases
client requests
Internal-only work stays internal.
2. Choose which values should sync
Pick only the fields that represent shared truth.
Example:
Internal delivery board
Client-facing board
Internal Status
Client Status
Launch Date
Launch Date
Delivery Owner
Client Owner
Internal Blocker
Client-visible Blocker
Selected Updates
Client Updates
Private notes, internal risks, QA, margin, and resource planning stay private.
3. Use a reusable template
In Lynx, a reusable template defines:
which client-facing board to create items in
which columns should map
which values should sync
whether selected updates/replies should stay aligned
So instead of rebuilding the setup for every client or project, the structure is defined once.
4. Use monday automations for timing
A clean model is:
Template = structure
Automation = timing
For example:
When an internal item reaches “Client Ready,” the workflow can create the client-facing item and keep the selected values aligned going forward.
The automation decides when the item should become client-facing.
The Lynx template defines what gets created and what stays in sync.
What Lynx helps with
The main value is reducing the manual work between the client board and the internal board.
For example:
Client changes Approval Status to “Approved.”
Without sync, someone needs to notice it and update the delivery board manually.
With Lynx, if Approval Status is part of the sync structure, the internal board can stay aligned automatically.
Another example:
The delivery team changes the internal status to “Waiting on Client.”
Without sync, someone needs to update the client-facing board manually.
With Lynx, the client-facing status can stay aligned while private internal details stay hidden.
That is the practical difference.
Native monday works well for visibility.
Lynx helps when the client-facing board becomes part of the workflow and both boards need to stay aligned without constant manual follow-up.
How I’d choose
Use the native setup when:
the client board is mostly for visibility
the client only comments occasionally
mirrored values are enough
one person owns client communication
automations are simple
Use Lynx when:
client-facing items should be created from internal items
clients update fields or leave important updates
the internal team works from a separate board
statuses, dates, owners, blockers, or approvals need to stay aligned
manual copying is becoming part of the process
Nothing is broken here.
It is just two different workflow patterns:
Visibility only:
Shareable Boards + Connect Boards + Mirror Columns
Visibility + collaboration + alignment:
Client-facing items created from internal items, with selected values kept in sync
For teams that need client-facing boards and internal delivery boards to stay aligned, Lynx is available on the monday marketplace: Lynx