Is there anyway to create a central calendar view that pulls from different boards that is just the calendar? I have people in my organization that need to see just a central calendar, but apparently I have to subscribe them to all the boards that is feeding that dashboard? That is so not feasible! Anyone run across this issue?
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Hi Kristi,
You can create a Dashboard with a Calendar widget. This can pull in data from multiple boards. I think this is the core of what you’re trying to do.
However, if the data is private (i.e. the viewers don’t have access), they won’t be able to see that data even when they look at the Calendar Dashboard. Their view will be limited by their lack of permissions
Even if the data isn’t private, they will have access to all the boards that feed the dashboard calendar. That is what I am trying to prevent - because they are viewers of the account, they can see all the boards. I was told that it had to be this way because they are internal to the organization ( same email domain). I need a very high level board where AVPs of areas can see one centralized calendar without wading through a bunch of stuff, clicking on a bunch of links and having access to other departments boards. Anyone with the same issue ? Resolution?
Hi Kristi,
You could create a separate workspace for certain users to hold those dashboards. Or perhaps make use of folders in the navigation panel on the left?
Is your concern that they will see a lot of boards on the left hand side?
My concern is that they will have access to all of the boards in the account and don’t really need to. They just need to see the live calendar, that is all. I would like to make the process as easy as possible for this particular group to see the calendar and it is very convoluted and cluttered. I created a dashboard with the calendar widget - connected 7 boards. In order for viewers to see the calendar, I have to make all the boards viewable or they have to be subscribed to all the boards. Which, defeats the purpose of making them private.
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I agree that that the monday.com permissions settings can definitely seem confusing.
The key thing is that if data is set to “private”, monday.com honors that. It means that you can’t mirror that data to other boards or use it in formulas. This is really crucial if you have sensitive data—it means there are no workarounds to access the data that you have marked as private. That’s really the purpose of this feature, and it’s super handy if you want to make sure your sensitive data is protected.
It isn’t really the best way of just creating a cleaner view for certain users.
My recommendation in your case would be to set the boards to “Main”, making the data accessible, but don’t specifically add those users to the boards. That way, they won’t receive irrelevant notifications etc.
Does that work?
Other options are, as I suggested above, using folders and workspaces to help focus the views and experience of different users.
It can be overwhelming trying to conceive and execute on delivering a tailored experience for each user, but there are tools available to make it work. Part of that is your system architecture and part of that is training—never forget that it’s important to have your staff feel navigating and working in monday.com. So consider producing guide videos and focusing views and dashboards around activities. There’s lots you can do to help.
When I added them to the dashboard for calendar view ( even when the boards were not set to private) it made me subscribe them to those boards. How would you suggest using Workspace to tailor views. I have that dashboard wet up in its own workspace and that doesn’t seem to change anything.
Hi Kristi,
I should qualify that I wouldn’t want to assume anything about your monday.com board structure and organization. In order to give really high quality, detailed advice, we’d need to set up a consultation. All I can do here is give superficial advice based partly on assumption and the information you’ve provided. But let’s have a think.
What is your logic behind adding them to this dashboard? Is that necessary? Do these users work in monday.com usually or do they just need to check in on this calendar view once in a while? Do they conduct any other activities in monday.com at all?
Do they need to interact with this calendar view or just view it?
It might be enough to just create the dashboard and send them a link, for instance.
Francis - thank you - I understand - this has been very frustrating. No, they don’t interact or do work in Monday at all. They just need a link to see the calendar and I was told by monday.com support that is not possible. Which in all honesty blows my mind if that is true. All I need is for them to see a calendar ( that pulls from 7 other boards) via a link. I don’t need them to join, they don’t do any work etc. They just need to see the calendar live. I was told it couldn’t be done and to send a pdf.
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@Kristi there is an easy work around for this that we have used before.
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Create a board that has the same structure as your other boards.
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Set up an automation to copy the item you want to show on the calendar to the new board through a status trigger. You can even do a one way connection for reference as well.
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Once created, this will be static but you can use a MATCH automation to match and replace information as needed. Or just delete the item and then rerun the add item.
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I would also add an auto archive item in the calendar board so that every 30 days it looks for the items created 30 days ago and auto archives to avoid having to clear that board constantly.
This is not ideal but for the limiting requirements you have this is your best bet.
If you need help, you can always contact us!
Mike B
Automation Architect
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I have had a very similar issue with calendars and dashboards limited to only 20 boards connected with a fussy setup, when we have at least 100. It’s been disappointing to not have any high level dashboards for managing the business.
Hi Linda,
I think that monday.com encourages you to create a lot of boards, when in reality that can cause you issues, especially as your solution/organization expand.
There are usually ways to manage processes and data with fewer boards, which in your case is what I’d recommend.
Here are some pointers:
- If data is “like” such as “October tasks” and “November tasks”, try to store them in a single “Tasks” board rather than in separate boards, where possible. This will really simplify your maintenance and help you to avoid hitting monday.com’s limits.
- Working in a single board, particularly for different teams, can be made possible by using filtered views. It’s often better to add a column such as “Team” (this can be text, status, dropdown etc. depending on requirements) and then create a view that only shows “Team A” which that team can work from, for instance.
- monday.com doesn’t have a system that recognizes different boards as being “similar”. Even though your 100 boards may contain the same columns and that may be obvious to you, it’s not necessarily obvious to monday.com. This is why you need to assign a column to use for every board when creating dashboards etc. However, working in a single board ensures that your data is centralized and follows a common definition. Then monday.com really does see that data as “like”.
There are definitely challenges in all of this. As a monday.com consultant, these types of issues are bread and butter to me, but I can really see the pain of new users (particularly those who are used to Excel and expect monday.com to behave in the same way).
If you’d like help structuring your solution in a more monday.com-friendly way, please feel free to reach out.
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