@CAMajewski
With just the information you provided, you could go about this a couple of different ways depending on what kind of information you are keeping track of in Monday.
Option 1)
Board = Case Type
Group(s) = Overall Status of Case: Active, Pending, Inactive, Complete etc.
Items = Specific Cases
Option 2)
Board = All Cases Master Board
Group(s) = Case Type
Items = Specific Cases
If you still need some help setting up your boards, feel free to DM me on here or email me directly at aalmand120@gmail.com
To help you understand the Monday structure better, here are the main terms going from top to bottom the order of how you view the data:
Workspace → Board → Group → Item → Subitem
Workspace: High level organization tool. Think of it like a big folder(you can have folders within workspaces but they don’t do much other than organize). A board can only be in 1 Workspace so if you want to separate your users or boards by departments, Workspaces are a good tool for this. They can be named and customized, but don’t interact much in regards to automations or items.
Board: If you can think of Monday as Excel or Google Sheets, then the board is the Workbook or Sheet. This is the first place where your data is represented via groups and items. Of the structures, boards do have some automation options such as creation and archiving, but are limited.
Group: Groups are the first way to organize your data within your board. Like the tabs at the bottom of excel and google sheets, the data is all still housed on the board, but broken into groups. All Columns are the same per group, but the line items can differ and be organized how ever you like. Groups are opened up to more automations, like copying, moving items between groups etc.
Items: Items are the core of your data. Information is added horizontally via Columns and while the column type stays the same per item per board, the information per item can be different. Items have the most to offer in regards to automations; moving groups or boards, duplicating, changing column values, creating new items, archiving, etc. You can also link information from items on one board to another and vice versa. You can add as many columns are you like but the more you add the long you need to scroll to the right in order to fill in or locate information. I find it best to limit the information required to that board and link items to master boards when possible.
Sub-Items: You can have 1 subitem column per board. This allow each item to have an optional list of sub-items. As you can imagine, Sub-items work just like items with data stored horizontally in columns. The columns types are the same for all sub items on the board, but again the data is different per item per subitem. I find Sub-Items most useful when you have dynamic data that varies per item. For example if your cases always have 1 judge, but can have anywhere from 2-10 attorneys, then you would want a Text Column(s) on your Item for the Judges Name and contact info, but you would want to have your subitems handle the contact information for the attorneys. This way you don’t need to have 10 horizontal columns for each case, you would instead only add the subitems on a case by case basis per # of attorneys.
Some other terms you asked about:
“Workflows” - this is determined by each user. Essentially, how does your data move from and between items, groups, boards etc.
“Templates” - Some features on Monday can be templated for easy reuse later. You don’t have to build boards or items from templates but you can if you find yourself building the same thing over and over.
“Projects” - Not a Monday specific term. But since Monday is often used for Project Management you see that term a lot. In your case, Cases would equal Projects.
Again, feel free to reach out to me directly if you have more questions. Hope this helps!