How to Use Monday.com: Project Tracking Guide

Monday.com’s visually-driven interface — colourful status columns, customisable boards, drag-and-drop everything — is what makes the platform popular and also what trips up new users. The flexibility lets you build any workflow you want, including bad ones that create more busywork than they save. For a broader walkthrough, our Complete Guide to Software and Apps is a good next read.

The setup decision that determines whether Monday saves time or wastes it: workspace and board structure. Most teams start by creating one giant board with too many columns and too many items. The structure that actually works long-term: multiple smaller boards organised by team or workflow, with the right columns for what each board actually tracks (not every available column type).

Start with workflow #1 below (board structure) — it’s the foundation everything else builds on. The automation, views, and dashboards build on that structure. If you’ve been using Monday for months and feel like you’re spending more time updating it than doing the work it’s supposed to track, the structure is almost always the reason.

Boards, groups, items, and columns — the fundamental structure

Every project in Monday.com follows the same hierarchy: a board contains groups which contain items, and each item stores data in columns.

• Board: the working space for a project or workflow. Can be Private (only invited members), Shareable (can include guests outside the organisation), or Main (visible to all workspace members). Choose board type before creating — changing it later is less straightforward.
• Groups: sections within the board — phases (Design / Development / Testing / Launch), teams (Frontend / Backend / QA), or categories (Backlog / This Sprint / Done). Groups make large boards scannable.
• Items: individual tasks, leads, campaigns, or records being tracked — one row per item.
• Columns: data fields for each item — Status, assignee, due date, progress, budget, files, or any of the many column types available.

The Status column is the visual centrepiece. It’s a coloured label column — each item gets a status from a customisable set (To Do / In Progress / Stuck / Done, or any custom labels with any colours). Those colours appear as vivid blocks in the board view, making project health visible at a glance without reading individual items. Clicking any status cell opens a dropdown; updating is a single click.

Setting up a board — step by step

1. Create the board. “+ New” in the left sidebar → “New board” → name → choose Main, Private, or Shareable → select a template or start blank → Create. Monday.com’s template library covers sprint planning, content calendars, recruitment pipelines, bug trackers, and dozens more — the fastest starting point for common workflows.
2. Configure groups. Rename the default group (click its name). Add groups (“Add Group” at the bottom of the board). Each group represents a meaningful division — think about what grouping makes the board most readable for its primary audience.
3. Add the right columns. The board starts with Status, Person, and Date. Add more by clicking “+” at the right edge of the column headers → browse the column type library. Key column types:

Column type	Best for
Status	Any categorical dimension — phase, priority, department. Add multiple Status columns for different dimensions.
People	Assign one or multiple team members to an item
Timeline	Date range bars showing when work spans across time — perfect for Gantt-style planning
Numbers	Budget, hours, word count, any numeric value
Formula	Calculated values from other columns — days until deadline, budget utilisation percentage
Dependency	Links items that must be completed in sequence — item B can’t start until item A is done
Mirror	Pulls a column value from a connected board into the current board (Pro plan)
Files	Attach documents, images, deliverables directly to an item

4. Add items and sub-items. “+ Add item” at the bottom of any group. Click any item name to open its detail panel — a side sheet with description, file attachments, updates, comments, and activity history. Sub-items are nested rows under a parent item: use them for the specific actions that make up a larger task rather than creating a separate board for granular detail.
5. Set up automations. “Automate” in the board toolbar → browse the automation recipe library or create a custom one. Common automations that remove real coordination overhead:

• “When status changes to Done → notify the item’s assignee” — no manual messaging needed
• “When a date arrives → change status to In Progress” — auto-starts items on schedule
• “When an item is created in this group → assign it to [person]” — automatically routes new items
• “When status changes to Needs Review → create a task assigned to [reviewer] due in 2 days”

6. Share with the team. “Invite” top right → enter emails or select workspace members → choose access level (Edit, Comment, or View) → Send.

Dashboards and reporting

Dashboards are Monday.com’s portfolio-level view — aggregating data from multiple boards into a single overview for managers who need visibility across projects without drilling into each board. Create one: “+ New” → “New dashboard” → choose which boards to connect → add widgets.

Useful dashboard widgets:

• Summary widget: item counts by status — how many items are Done, In Progress, Stuck across the connected boards
• Workload widget: each team member as a row with assigned items as blocks across a timeline — immediately shows who’s over-allocated and which items could be redistributed. Arguably the most valuable feature for managers responsible for capacity.
• Battery widget: overall project progress as a percentage (items marked Done ÷ total items)
• Chart widget: visualises any numeric column data from a connected board — budget burn, items by assignee, items completed per week
• Calendar widget: all upcoming dates from connected boards in one calendar view

The workload widget requires setting capacity limits per team member. In the widget settings, configure how many hours or items each person can handle per week — the widget then highlights when anyone is allocated beyond that limit. This turns an abstract list of assignments into a visible resource management tool without any dedicated resource management software.

Monday.com plans — what each unlocks

Plan	Price (approx)	Key features added	Best for
Free	$0 (2 seats, 3 boards)	Core boards, unlimited items per board	Learning the platform solo or with one partner
Basic	~$12/seat/month	Unlimited boards, unlimited viewers, 5 GB storage, 200+ templates	Small teams tracking straightforward projects
Standard	~$14/seat/month	Timeline/Gantt/Calendar views, guest access, 250 automation actions/month, integrations	Most growing teams — this is the recommended starting plan
Pro	~$24/seat/month	Time tracking, formula columns, chart views, dependency columns, 25,000 automation actions	Teams needing advanced reporting, time tracking, and complex automations

Integrations and the ecosystem

Monday.com’s integration centre (left sidebar → “Integrations”) connects the platform to external tools. Notable integrations:

• Slack: receive Monday.com notifications in Slack channels; create Monday.com items from Slack messages
• GitHub / GitLab: link pull requests and commits to Monday.com items; items update when PRs are merged
• Google Drive / Dropbox: attach cloud storage files to items without downloading and re-uploading
• Zoom: create Monday.com items from Zoom meetings; attach Zoom links to items
• HubSpot / Salesforce: sync CRM contacts and deals to Monday.com boards for sales pipeline management
• Zapier / Make: custom connections to thousands of additional tools not in the native integration library

The automation + integration combination is where Monday.com’s value compounds. An item that moves to “Done” → triggers an automation to notify the client in Slack → which triggers a Zapier workflow to create an invoice in QuickBooks → without any manual steps. The value isn’t in any single feature — it’s in the connections between them.

Monday.com vs Asana vs Trello — practical guidance

• Choose Monday.com if: visual status management matters (the colourful board view is genuinely differentiating for client-facing or team-facing status updates); multiple column types are needed for rich data capture; dashboards aggregating multiple boards are required; the team responds better to a visual tool than to traditional project management interfaces
• Choose Asana if: complex task dependencies and timeline management are the primary need; goal-to-task hierarchy (Goals → Portfolios → Projects → Tasks) matters; the team is task-centric rather than status-centric
• Choose Trello if: simple Kanban is sufficient; the team is small and the free tier covers the need; minimal learning curve is a priority

Monday.com’s sweet spot is teams that benefit from high-visibility status management across multiple active projects simultaneously — creative agencies, marketing teams, client services operations, and professional services firms where stakeholder visibility into project status is as important as the project management itself.

Views — seeing the same data differently

Switch views using the “+” button next to the view tabs at the top of any board. All views show the same underlying data:

• Timeline: items as horizontal bars across a calendar — drag bars to adjust dates and duration; overlapping items show workload conflicts visually
• Kanban: items grouped by a chosen Status column into vertical columns; drag and drop to update status
• Calendar: items on a monthly or weekly calendar by their date column
• Gantt (Pro): Timeline with dependency lines — shows the critical path and which delays cascade into downstream tasks

Time tracking and My Work

Time tracking is one of the most-used Pro plan features. Add a Time Tracking column to any board → team members start and stop a timer on specific items from within the board. Total logged time accumulates automatically. Add a Rate column and a Formula column (Rate × Hours = Billable Cost) and Monday.com produces an invoice-ready summary without any manual timesheet compilation.

My Work is the personal view aggregating all assigned items across every board — sorted by due date, priority, or project. This is where individual team members should start each day: work through assigned items, update statuses, post progress comments. Five minutes a day on My Work keeps both the individual and the team’s shared boards current, which is what makes Monday.com dashboards accurate — they’re only as current as the item data underneath them.

Workdocs — Monday.com’s built-in document layer

Workdocs are collaborative documents created directly within Monday.com — as standalone items in any board, linked as nested detail to specific items, or as full-screen documents from the left sidebar. Workdocs support text, headings, images, embedded board widgets, and @mentions.

The most practical use: create a workdoc for each recurring meeting, embed the relevant board widget showing current project status, add the agenda as text, and @mention team members in the action items. Meeting notes, status updates, and next steps all in one document, connected directly to the board. Our guide on using Asana covers the alternative approach for teams that need stronger goal-to-task hierarchy and dependency management.

Monday automation recipes worth the setup time

Monday’s automation feature uses pre-built “recipes” — if-this-then-that rules that trigger automatically. The ones that produce the most value across most workflows:

• When status changes to ‘Done’ → notify person in [assignee] column — keeps owners informed without manual updates
• When date arrives → notify person to update status — eliminates forgotten check-ins on date-driven work
• When item is created → assign to [person] — new tasks always get an owner, never sit unassigned
• When status changes to ‘Stuck’ → notify project manager — surfaces blockers quickly
• Every Monday at 9am → notify everyone with overdue items — weekly check-in without manager having to write the same message

Monday’s automation is available on Standard plans and above (not free). The free tier lets you see the recipes but can’t actually run them. For most teams, the automation tier pays for itself in time saved within the first month — the trick is starting with 3-4 well-chosen automations rather than 20 mediocre ones.

Dashboards that actually get looked at

Monday’s dashboards aggregate data from multiple boards into single views. They’re powerful but most are over-engineered and quickly become outdated. The dashboards that teams actually consult regularly share specific characteristics:

• Answer one specific question — “what’s our team’s workload this week?” rather than “team status overview.” Specific questions get answered; general overviews get ignored
• Update automatically — pull from live board data, never require manual data entry to stay current
• Use 3-5 widgets, not 15 — dashboards crammed with widgets are unreadable. Constraint forces choosing what actually matters
• Have an owner — someone responsible for ensuring it stays useful; ownerless dashboards die within months