How to link individual project boards to high level board and vice-versa

New user here in trial mode. Since Monday is so flexible, certain things are not obvious so if anyone can point me in the right direction, thanks in advance.

I’d like to have multiple boards for individual projects with tasks organized into groups. When all of the tasks in a group are complete, I’d like that to trigger a status change on the high level board.

Similarly, is it possible to establish a due date for a group of tasks located on the project board and display that due date on the high level board? If so, can it be changed in either board?

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Hi - just following this thread, as this has been the most confusing thing for me too as we got started. I ended up going with something different - cheating the system (prior to it having subtasks which they now have) to use a group as what you are describing as as singular low-level board. Then creating a high-level view for that same board, so I can roll up all the tasks within a group and check on the overall status of a group (project) at a glance.

Now, they have since launched subtasks which I want to switch over to using BUT there are a couple more pieces missing that I’m waiting for in development… namely to include sub tasks on calendar view. Until that comes out I can’t use subtasks, as while they are SUB tasks within a parent, they we still all need to see the dates on a calendar so the team knows whats coming up. Progress!! But I hear on it not being obvious. It took me a few weeks to get going, still not there.

Keen to see other responses to this question!

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I also think there is an urgent need for more detailed guides and examples of how to use the system.
As the post writer describes for example …

We are using monday very well but Im sure we can improve…

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Hi @ebatte,
I’m Pedro, I am a monday.com referral partner and project manager who supports companies implementing monday.com and providing consultation and training.

I share hereafter the standard implementation I use to connect low level boards to high level boards using the link and mirror columns.

These are the steps:

  1. You create you low level project ordered in groups and including the relevant columns for the project and the ones you want to appear in the high level board.

  2. You create the high level board and create a column link to the low level board.

  3. You link all the tasks from the low level project to the high level item.

  4. You incorporate the rest of the columns as mirrors, linking then to their low level column.

  5. You will have a summary of the status of each low level project with its due dates and timeline.

To create automations, to know when the whole low level project has been completed, you’ll have to do it from the low level board.

One consideration to take into account is that if you want to create a dashboard, you’ll have to obtain the information from the low level boards since mirroring columns do not appear in dashboard.

I hope it helps. Tell me if you need any additional support.

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@PedroM Thanks so much for your response. Your method seems like it would work well if all of my projects and tasks are separate groups on a single board. However, in my situation each project will have 100+ tasks (pulses) so I believe I need to have a separate board for each project.

I guess what I’m envisioning is that I’d like to display the status and timeline totals for each project board to be displayed on the high level board, so that as the project level tasks are completed and the status is updated, that gets reflected on the high level board.

Any thoughts on this?

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Hi, yes you can use “my method” to link the 100 tasks for the project in the same board. For instance, the groups can be different phases of the project or you may not use groups, but all the tasks of the low level project must be in the same board. The only difficulty is that you have to manually link the 100 task to the high level board, but once they are linked, the general status and timeline will be displayed in the high level board for the whole project.

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I don’t actually want to link all 100+ tasks. I just want to link the summary of the status of those tasks. Does that make sense?

In that case I think the simplest way would be to create a dashboard and incorporate the Overview widget. It provides the general status of a whole board and its timeline or date range. The only constraint is that it works at board level but you can filter the groups if needed.
You can also add several projects to the widget to show their status.
Tell me if it solves your needs.

Ah-ha! I just figured that out 30 seconds before I read your recommendation. I think the overview widget will work for what I need. I’ll be testing and let you know if it doesn’t.
Thanks for your help.

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Hi @ebatte - any updates or screen shots of how you got this to work??

Hi Stacey,
This is the information about the overview widget I was referred to:

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Hi @PedroM – thanks for this! I’ve been trying to do something similar, but have noticed that the mirrored columns don’t pass data and therefore are unable to pull into dashboards. Is this something you have a workaround for?

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Hi @jill.onofrietti,
I normally aggregate the data to the high level dashboard from the low level boards, combining several of them if needed. Currently only up to 10 boards can be incorporated in a dashboard.

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Thanks for this - it is helpful. But can I just confirm that every time I add a task to a low level board, I have to go into the high level board to add it as a linked item? There doesn’t seem to be a way to link a group and have it automatically update?

Hi @handsup and @jill.onofrietti I have an additional suggestion: add a group of “milestones” in a top group on your low level board. Their due dates and statuses can even be dependent on your 100+ tasks. Link only those milestones to your high level board. In that way, your high level board keeps a good overview of the status in the low level board, but you don’t have to add each new item you add to your low level board in the linked column as discussed in the initial suggestion.

Hope this helps!

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Hi @freek-gcompany That sounds worth trying thanks - how do i make due dates and statuses in that top group dependent on other tasks in that same board?

Hi @handsup You use the dependency column, make each of your milestones dependent on one relevant item among the 100+ tasks (preferably 1 item in each group that is added just as a check when everything is done) and, if needed, use an automation to sync due dates on dependent items.

I am trying to do a similiar thing.

I want to show Milestones in my project.

If I am following correctly what you are saying above, I needed to create a new Milestone group?

What is the best way to do this?

I was thinking I need to

  1. Create a new milestone group
  2. Label each task beneath this title as per the group name (test) below that I am setting as a milestone
  3. Add in an automation to say when the three items from my (test) group name have been marked off I have hit the milestone?
  4. Then can I report on the completion status of the milstones? WHich report would be best to do that?

Is this correct? If so what is the automation I would use to generate this status change in my Milestone group?

Secondly, what is the best way to show a milestone on my Overview timeline on my dashboard? Should I set a ‘task’ as a milestone date and then opt to display that on my dashboard timeline?

Thank you , I apprecaite any guidance here. I am about to start using this for a very large project and need to be certain I can do these functions before I advise the company to purchase this product.

Hello @slash,

To use the milestones in your board, I would approach them as in a standard waterfall project:

  • First, you create several tasks that end in a milestone.
  • You link the tasks and the milestone using the dependency column.
  • You should use at least the automation “Adjust the date of an item to reflect the changes made in the date of its dependency item”. You can also use “When a status changes to something, change the status of its dependency to something”.
  • Then you move the milestone to the Milestone group.
  • Once the project is started you will regularly change the statuses of each task according to the progress of the project. Once you complete the milestone you can mark it as completed.
  • To see the milestones, you can use the timeline view or timeline widget filtering by the Milestone
    group. You can also group them by status.

Tell me if you need any additional explanation,
Hope it helps,

I’m having trouble doing this, because the Link Column option on the High Level Board only lets me link the entire column (all the rows) to a single Low Level Board. The thing is, each of the rows on the High Level Board represents a Low Level Board. Since each Low Level Board is a single project, I would have to be able to link each row to each Low Level Board.

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