Multi Board Kanban Documentation

Introduction

Multi Board Kanban consolidates items from multiple monday.com boards into a single, interactive Kanban command center.

Instead of opening five separate board tabs to understand what work is in flight, you can pull cards across projects, departments, or clients into one prioritized view, organize them by status or any other column, and drag items between stages with changes immediately syncing back to monday.com.

Why Multi Board Kanban?

Agencies, engineering squads, and operations teams often split work across dedicated boards:

• Client or project boards isolating distinct deliverables
• Functional queues (e.g. Design, Development, QA)
• Sprint or cycle boards rolling up quarterly roadmaps

While isolated boards keep data organized, seeing the entire picture usually requires hopping between tabs, hoping nothing moved in the background. Standard monday.com dashboard widgets provide read-only rollups, but cannot replace a full interactive Kanban.

Multi Board Kanban gives you:

• Bi-directional live updates: drag a card in the Kanban, and its status, group, or custom column changes on the underlying source board.
• Cross-board aggregation: connect 2 to 50+ boards into one unified board surface.
• Deep customization: group by any column type (Status, People, Dropdown, Date, etc.) and stack a second dimension using Swimlanes.
• Flexible placement: add it as a Board View, a Dashboard Widget, or an Item / Custom Object View.

Getting Started

Follow these steps to install Multi Board Kanban and create your first consolidated board view.

Installing from the monday.com Marketplace

1. Open the Marketplace: In monday.com, click the Apps icon in the left navigation or open the Marketplace from your profile menu.
2. Search for Multi Board Kanban: Search for Multi Board Kanban (published by ThoughtFlow Technologies) and click Add to your account.
3. Authorize permissions: Review and grant the required OAuth scopes (boards:read, boards:write, users:read, account:read, me:read). These allow the app to read board structures and update items when you drag them.

Where You Can Add the App

Multi Board Kanban supports three view surfaces depending on how your team works:

1. Board View: Add as a tab at the top of any monday board. Best when one main board serves as your team's home base and you want to pull in items from supporting boards. Note: The source board is automatically locked to the host board.

2. Dashboard Widget: Add to any monday.com Dashboard. Ideal for cross-team oversight, leadership rollups, or multi-project command centers. Note: Connected boards are configured via monday's native widget settings rather than the in-app drawer. Dashboard widgets are also subject to monday.com's tier-level board limits (e.g. 20 boards on monday Pro, 50 boards on Enterprise).

3. Custom Object / Workspace View: Use the standalone full-page view to assemble boards freely across workspaces using the in-app Source Boards drawer. (Recommended for dedicated team command centers). Note: Unlike Dashboard Widgets, Custom Object Views have no monday tier board limits — you can connect as many boards as your Multi Board Kanban plan allows.

See Where Board Selection is Available in the Selecting Source Boards chapter for details on how board selection differs across these surfaces.

Quick Setup Wizard

When you open Multi Board Kanban for the first time, a setup wizard walks you through:

1. Selecting your source boards
2. Choosing your Anchor Column (the column that forms your Kanban lists)
3. Selecting and reordering list stages
4. Configuring card field visibility
5. Optionally enabling Swimlanes

Selecting Source Boards

Multi Board Kanban lets you connect multiple boards into one synchronized view.

Where Board Selection is Available

How source boards are selected depends on which monday.com surface you are using:

The Source Boards Drawer (Custom Object View)

Click the Board Count chip in the toolbar (e.g. 42 items from 3 boards) or open Customize → Boards to open the Select your source boards drawer.

From here you can:

• Search boards across your monday.com account by name or workspace
• Select or deselect individual boards
• Click Load N board(s) to refresh the Kanban view

Adjacent & Sub-item Board Discovery

Multi Board Kanban automatically discovers and surfaces related boards:

• Sub-item boards: If your boards use monday.com sub-items, the app automatically detects the sub-item boards and rolls up sub-items as cards.
• Connected boards: Columns referencing other boards via Connect Boards columns are automatically matched.

Multi-Level Boards (MLB)

When working with complex project hierarchies (parents, sub-items, and rollup statuses):

• Child cards display a parent indicator badge with the parent item name.
• Parent items showing calculated rollup statuses cannot be moved into non-matching stages directly; an informational modal explains when a parent rollup is locked.

Grouping and Lists

Columns on your Kanban are driven by the Anchor Column you choose.

Choosing an Anchor Column

In the toolbar, click grouped by [Column Name ↓] or open Customize → Anchor Selection to pick the field that forms your Kanban columns.

Multi Board Kanban supports almost every monday.com column type:

• Status: Standard workflow stages (e.g. To Do, In Progress, Done)
• People: Arrange work by assignee or team member
• Date & Timeline: Group tasks into upcoming schedules or milestones
• Dropdown & Tags: Categorize by sprint, priority, or client
• Groups: Represent the board's native group sections as Kanban lists
• Boards: Use each connected board as its own list
• Text, Long Text, Formula, and Mirror columns

List Customization

Open Customize → List Segment Selection to manage each column on the Kanban:

• Reorder: Drag lists left or right to change the workflow sequence.
• Show / Hide: Toggle visibility for stages you don't need to see (e.g. hide Archived or Cancelled).
• Custom colors: Assign distinct color accents to list headers.
• Blank container: Items without a value in the anchor column automatically land in the (Blank) list.
• Earlier container: For date-based groupings, past items gather in an Earlier bucket.

Swimlanes

Swimlanes add a second horizontal dimension across your Kanban columns, creating a powerful matrix view.

Enabling Swimlanes

Open Customize → Lane Segment Selection and toggle Enable Swimlanes.

Choose any secondary column to create horizontal rows:

• By Owner / Assignee: See what each team member has in To Do, In Progress, and Done.
• By Priority: Split High, Medium, and Low items across columns.
• By Client or Project: Isolate customer queues while preserving a single workflow.
• By Source Board: Keep boards separated into swimlanes while seeing unified status columns.

Configuring Lane Segments

Just like Kanban lists, swimlane segments can be customized:

• Reorder: Move important swimlanes to the top.
• Hide / Show: Collapse or hide empty or completed lanes.
• Max Height: Set a maximum pixel height (100px - 2000px) per lane with internal scrolling so large lanes do not stretch your page.
• Vertical Spacing: Adjust padding between swimlanes to fit more information on screen.

Cards

Cards represent monday.com board items and can be customized to show the exact context your team needs.

Card Properties & Fields

Open Customize → Card Field Selection to choose which column values appear on card faces:

• Title: Always shown as the primary card heading
• Assignee Avatars: Displays team member photos or initials
• Due Dates & Timelines: Highlights upcoming or overdue deadlines
• Status Badges: Secondary status pills (e.g. QA status on a board grouped by Developer)
• Tags, Numbers, and Text fields

Source Board & Parent Indicators

When items are aggregated across multiple boards, cards show a small metadata header indicating:

• The source board name
• The parent item name (when the card is a sub-item)

Item Updates & Comments

Click the Comment / Chat icon on any card to open the monday.com native Item Updates dialog directly inside the view. You can reply to comments, tag team members, and review activity history without leaving the Kanban.

Drag and Drop

Multi Board Kanban provides smooth, physics-aware drag-and-drop powered by @dnd-kit.

Moving Cards Across Stages

• Drag between lists: Dragging a card to a new column instantly updates its anchor column value on the underlying monday.com board (e.g. changing status from In Progress to Done).
• Drag between swimlanes: Dragging across swimlane rows updates the secondary lane field as well.
• Reordering inside a list: Cards maintain order within the column.

Multi-Board Write-Back

When you move a card:

1. Multi Board Kanban identifies the item's original source board.
2. It sends an update mutation to monday.com using your user's permissions.
3. Board automations, notifications, and webhooks configured in monday.com fire normally.

Locked Items & Drop Validation

Some items cannot be moved to certain columns:

• Parent Rollup Statuses: If a parent item's status is computed from its sub-items in monday.com, dragging it directly is blocked. The app displays an informational modal explaining why the drop was prevented.
• Permission Restrictions: If your monday.com user lacks edit permission on a specific board or column, the card snaps back to its original position with an error toast.

Manual Sorting

In the Sort panel, enable Allow manual sorting when your default sort is set to Last updated / Latest first to arrange cards freely by drag-and-drop.

Filtering, Sorting, and Search

Refine your view so each team member sees the exact queue that matters to them.

Filtering Items

Click the Filter button in the toolbar to open the Filter items panel:

• Multi-condition filtering: Add multiple filter rules joined by AND / OR conditions.
• Column-aware operators: Filter status by selected labels, people by assigned user, dates by ranges (Today, This Week, Past Due), and numbers by greater/less than.
• Cross-board filter resolution: Filters apply cleanly across all boards, even if column names differ slightly.
• Saved filters: Save your current filter setup under a custom name, switch between saved views in the dropdown, or set a default.

Sorting Items

Click the Sort button in the toolbar to open the Sort items panel:

• Multi-criteria sort: Add multiple sort layers (e.g. Priority Descending, then Due Date Ascending).
• Ascending / Descending: Toggle direction per column.
• Default sorting: By default, items sort by Last updated (chronological, latest first).

Instant Search

Use the Search input in the toolbar to perform instant text searches across:

• Item titles
• Card description and text columns
• Source board names
• Tag and dropdown labels

Appearance

Fine-tune the typography, dimensions, and spacing of your Kanban board to fit your screen and team preferences.

Layout Dimensions

Open Customize → Appearance Customization to adjust:

Typography & Display Options

• Card font size: Choose from 10px to 24px (default 14px).
• Line spacing: Adjust text density between 1.0 and 3.0.
• Card font color: Switch between high-contrast dark, medium, or custom colors.

Feature Toggles

• Item Count: Toggle the item counter chip shown in each list header.
• Commenting: Show or hide the quick comment button on cards.
• Adding Items: Enable or disable the + Add Item button inside lists.
• Custom container labels: Rename the (Blank) and Earlier stage titles to match your team's terminology.

View Presets and Administration

Account admins can standardize board structures, manage shared view layouts, and export reports.

Administration Drawer

Click the Administration (shield icon) button in the toolbar to access administrative tools:

View Presets

Save, preview, and apply board-agnostic configuration templates across your entire monday.com account:

• Save current view as preset: Captures column selections, swimlane setups, card fields, and appearance settings.
• Account-wide sharing: Allow any team member to load the preset into their own board views with one click.
• Apply or update presets: Keep multiple project boards looking identical.

Board Standardization

When consolidating multiple boards created by different teams, column titles and status labels can drift (e.g. Status vs State, or In Review vs Under Review).

The Board Standardization tool:

• Scans all connected boards for structural mismatches
• Highlights missing columns or unmapped status labels
• Offers one-click fixes to align board schemas

Export to PDF

Click Export → Export to PDF in the toolbar to generate a high-resolution, print-ready landscape PDF of your current Kanban board, respecting all active filters, groupings, and swimlanes.

Sync, Permissions, and Data

Multi Board Kanban uses a secure hybrid architecture combining monday.com and Convex backend services.

Realtime Sync

On supported paid plans, Multi Board Kanban maintains real-time synchronization:

• Webhook listeners: Changes made by other team members directly in monday.com boards push updates to your Kanban view in real-time.
• Manual Sync: Click the Sync button in the toolbar anytime to perform an on-demand cache refresh.
• Sync status warning: If realtime sync is paused or disabled on your account, a status chip appears in the toolbar with details.

Security and Data Storage

• monday.com is the single source of truth: Your board items, column values, and updates remain securely stored inside your monday.com account.
• No permanent item retention: Multi Board Kanban caches structure and item IDs in an isolated Convex database solely to power fast querying, filtering, and cross-board aggregation.
• OAuth authentication: All actions are performed using monday.com signed session tokens; the app only accesses boards your monday.com user has permission to see.

Permissions & Scopes

When installing the app, monday.com prompts you for:

• me:read: Identifies the active user
• boards:read & boards:write: Reads board columns and updates items when dragged
• users:read: Populates assignee photos and names on cards
• account:read: Verifies workspace and account tier entitlements

Plans and Limits

Multi Board Kanban offers flexible tiers tailored for small teams up to enterprise departments.

Plan Comparison

Upgrading or Changing Plans

Billing is handled directly through your monday.com account:

1. Open the Administration drawer in Multi Board Kanban.
2. Click Billing & Plan.
3. Select your desired tier to complete the upgrade via the monday.com marketplace billing portal.

Troubleshooting

Answers to common questions and solutions for unexpected behavior.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does a dragged card snap back to its original column?

When you drop a card into a column and it immediately snaps back to its starting position, the app displays a modal titled "Cannot drop item here" explaining why the drop was prevented. The most common causes are:

1. Missing status label or dropdown tag on the source board: A Kanban column appears in the unified view if any connected board defines that status or dropdown value. However, an item can only move to a column if its own source board has that exact label. Multi Board Kanban matches labels by exact text (kebab-cased). For example, if Board A has In Review and Board B only has Under Review, dragging a Board B card into In Review will fail because Board B lacks that label.
   • Fix: Open Administration → Board Standardization (shield icon). The standardizer automatically scans your connected boards for MISSING_SEGMENT anomalies and lets you add the missing label to the source board with a single Fix click.
2. Missing column on the source board: If the anchor column (e.g. Sprint or Priority) does not exist on that item's source board at all, the card cannot be updated. Use Administration → Board Standardization to create the missing column on the board.
3. Locked rollup status (parent items with sub-items): If a parent item's status is computed from its sub-items in monday.com, it cannot be dragged manually. An informational notice will explain that the parent status is locked by rollup calculations.
4. Board permissions: Your monday.com user must have write/edit access on the card's source board to update item values.

Can I connect boards from different workspaces?

Yes. When using a Dashboard Widget or Custom Object View, you can select boards across any workspace you have access to.

Why can't I change which boards appear in my Board View or Dashboard Widget?

The source boards drawer is only active in Custom Object / Workspace Views.

• Board View: The app is installed directly on a specific monday.com board tab and is permanently bound to that host board.
• Dashboard Widget: monday.com's dashboard platform controls the board selection. The widget receives its connected boards directly from monday.com's widget settings context. To change which boards appear, open the widget settings in monday.com, adjust the board picker, and reload the widget.

If you need a dedicated, interactive view where you can search, select, and manage arbitrary collections of boards across workspaces at any time using the in-app drawer, add Multi Board Kanban as a Custom Object / Workspace View.

Will uninstalling the app delete my board data?

No. Multi Board Kanban only stores view configurations and temporary cache. All your board items, updates, and columns remain untouched in your monday.com account.

Getting Support

Need help, have a question, or want to explore advanced multi-board workflows?

• Live Chat: Click the chat bubble in the bottom-right corner of this website or inside the Multi Board Kanban monday.com app for immediate assistance.
• Book a Call: Schedule a free onboarding or support call with our team to walk through setup, view architecture, or troubleshooting.
• Contact Support: Reach out directly by email at contact@thoughtflow.io.
• Feature Feedback: Submit requests or vote on upcoming features at our Feedback Portal.